The "D'oh!" Heard 'Round The World

"Whoops."

I expect that the above comment is being heard all around Washington, D.C., and most loudly around the White House.

You see, "President" Bush, who has been so hot to spread Democracy (with a capital "D") throughout the world - with special attention to the Gawdless Savages in the Middle East, got a taste of what Democracy really means this past week, when over 75% of the people of Palestine came out for a historic vote, and surprised everyone by electing the radical Islamist militant group Hamas to their government.

One of the things that Hamas has called for is the destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews.

Not surprisingly, Israel's have made it very clear that they have no intention of having any dealings with Hamas.

The problem for the U.S. now is how to deal with Hamas. After all, they are the newly-elected government, chosen by the people. BushCo has to figure out exactly how to handle this surprizing change of events because if they handle it badly, they could be opening themselves up to criticism in a time when they really cannot afford more, what with the Abramoff scandal, the secret NSA wiretapping program, the ongoing Plame investigation, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's trial, the Tom DeLay money laundering scandal, Bob Ney's scandal, ongoing calls for investigations into the handling of post-Katrina New Orleans, Dick Cheney's flithy mouth, and a host of others - all of this in a congressional election year!

Bush has few options open to him. Refusing to acknowledge the new Palestinian government would definitely prove to be a huge mistake as well. After spending the past five years claiming that he was a "uniter, not a divider," and pushing so hard for Democracy in the Middle East, suddenly standing up and saying, "What I meant was, my version of Democracy!" would appear pretty hypocritical in the eyes of the rest of the world. He's already made moves in this direction by suggesting to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah Party that they should not concede.

A military invasion, especially with public opinions about his handling of Iraq getting lower every day, could prove disasterous. Not to mention the fact - proven by two reports, including one from the Pentagon, who should know about this sort of thing - that the American military is already overstretched. Of course, that sort of thing doesn't bother Dubya, a man who turned his back on the U.N. and took troops out of Afghanistan who were looking for Osama bin Laden and sent them into war with a country that never did anything to us, especially when he's got Donald Rumsfeld telling him that everything is just fine.

So what can be done? There is always the possibility - thin though it may be, but not impossible - that Hamas could be convinced to decide to close up shop on its terrorist wing and try going legit. But we won't know unless we try to talk to them.

Hey! there's a wacky idea! Why not open up a dialog with these guys and try to work something out? Everyone's so up in arms about Hamas being voted in that they haven't considered the possibility that this could be a historic opportunity. Supposing someone - I dunno, maybe a diplomat of some sort - made contact with the leaders of Hamas and managed to convince them that, since they're obviously the popular choice to the people in Palestine, they might try a new approach to getting their message out without having to blow anyone up.

And what if, to push this idea further, that diplomat also convinced them to make attempts to talk to Israel? Of course, Israel would be well within its rights to refuse talks, but Palestine would be viewed as the side that initiated the peace process in the eyes of the world community, especially if they had the U.S.'s backing. Other governments in the region would start putting pressure on Israel to accept the invitation to talk. The inevitable would happen, and peace talks would resume.

Admittedly, the possibility of the above scenario would be pretty slim, but the possibility is there. However, until everyone stops shouting about how awful it is that Hamas is now in charge, nothing else can happen.

Yes, Democracy is alive and well and working in Palestine, although not exactly the way Dubya may have wanted it to. The people have spoken, albeit in "one o' them funny furrin languages" that Dubya doesn't speak (like "Mexican"), and he has to figure out how to deal with it in a way that will not piss-off the rest of the world. Good luck to him on that one. I'm sure that Rove or Cheney or Bolton over at the U.N. would be happy to open up talks on his behalf...

Gawd help us all.

All the best,
Derek
(DCF)

(Edited due to an error on my part - Abbas and his Fatah Party were in control of Palestine, not Israel. Thanks to Vern and Bobbie for catching me on that one. See what happens when I try to rush?)