Gingerly Forward: The White House Is Shifting!

It is a cautious good news that the US will be joining a regional meeting of Iraq's neighbours, including Syria and Iran, along with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, to try sort out the Iraqi Question.

Following the earlier report of an impending rare visit by the DPRK nuclear negotiator to the US, there is clearly some shift in White House policies towards both countries now! Very welcome.

While awaiting more details, we must encourage all concerned to bite the bullet and seize the moment. The UN must not slip up on these openings, and may the Washington hawks find it in their capacity to buy in or stay grudgingly off. We will thank for either stance.

Let's give diplomacy, multilateralism and real peace a chance!

US vs Iran

We've been here before! Obstinacy. Isolationism. Superpower arrogance. Failed intelligence. Etc. The six party talks over North Korean nuclear impasse is ongoing and cautiously promising. The sticking point is about US-DPRK relations. The North Koreans don't want to be dictated to by America. The South Koreans do not agree with America's threat and bully diplomacy of the last six years. China and Russia are balancing things, while Japan is in muted and aware alliance with the US.

Despite all the past bad blood, the US and North Korea are now talking. What a relief! Keep it up, guys, it's the right steps to peace. With Ban Ki-Moon on board, the prospects are good.

Now we hear a lot of buzz around the world of some possible American military attack on Iran. Though this is furiously denied and serially refuted by both the Pentagon and the White House, no one seems to believe them, any where. Why? Credibility problem. And that is a pity for the world's superpower - leader of the free world! Sad.

The greatest pity however will be for President Bush and his neocons to, against all opposition, even in the US, attack Iran - under any pretext whatsoever. The Europeans have warned him, Tony Blair has demurred, and both Russia and China do not support this misguided project. His blaming Iran for the mess in Iraq is simply buck-passing and scape-goating.

As the Syrian President told Dianne Sawyer of ABC News, has America, with all its resources, been able to secure its borders? Why blame Iraq's neighbours for illegal entry of insurgents or jihadists in Baghdad? Surely, regional cooperation on this matter is better than regional conflagration!

Disbanding the Iraqi military and unleashing billions of dollars on the flux populace without any records or programmes - perhaps to buy "hearts and minds"! - was a sure fire guarantee of the sustainable resistance the coalition forces now confront. The recent US National Intelligence Estimate was quite instructive, and is corroborated and heightened by the latest Inspector General's Report, which indicted the Policy Unit in the Pentagon on the manipulation (or was it doctoring?) of pre-war intelligence. There are too many flaws in George Bushes war in Iraq! It is now time for humble pie and soul-searching. The American voters get it. Will their president?

If the US wants to succeed in Iraq, the White House better revisit the Baker-Hamilton report without dilly-dallying. America must talk with Syria and Iraq. Period.

Congress need to hold this White House to full accountability and multilateralism. The Middle East should not be the cradle of the Third World War, or unceasing fountain of blood! No more.

Legacy: Is Bair bound to Bush?

One of my favourite prime ministers is in a bind! Tony Blair must be wondering what led him to George Bush or, better still, why he over-stretched the Clinton-Blair coziness to the war led by President Bush. He must really wonder! The twists and turns this day are no sweet portends.

It's bad news all the way from Washington to London, and around the world, for both tough leaders. Iraq, accept or not, has failed. So has Afghanistan. There are some chances of positive possibilities, but only if the White House be willing to change course AND, especially, talking to Iran and Syria.

As Tony Blair and George Bush ponder their legacy and review their political past & fortune, things don't look good. We may have need to feel for them but we cannot make their legacy for them!

So, where are things heading or pointing for both men? Dreary, it seems. Why? Apart from the obvious issues in the public domain, to wit the wobbling war on terror, there is the small matter of Mr Blair lacking any leverage with Mr Bush - despite his seeming staunch, some say blind loyalty! Not on global warming. Not on debt relief. Not on the International Criminal Court or War Crimes Court. Not on the wider Middle East question. Not on UN Reforms. The list seems endless - according to their critics.

I do feel for them, though. Let's still wish them the bloom of the silver lining.