Gone is the maturity and bredth of wisdom AND experience of a General Powell who seemed able to anchor even Dick Cheney when Cheney was SECDEF and Powell the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Gone is the maturity of General Powell now as Secretary of State and with him Richard Armitage and others.
So today our State Department is so inept that they think they can stall seeking peace after Israel's aggressive acts; acts that seem obvious to reshape the Middle East under the air cover of the Untied States.
There was no balance between the factions, so the credibility to bring peace has been lost and with it the support of the peace process.
These actions show an agenda other than peace. And the principle issues of BOTH the Palestinians and the Israelis is lost. The principles of the Lebonese People, and the governments of Syria and Iran are entangled in issues of emotion rather than issues of fact.
Political leadership is the art of bringing people together to seek common ground and thus co-existence.
But that art begins with mutual respect and listening.
It is then followed by forging mutual common ground into mutual respect and then evolving that to bridge the gaps. It requires knowing people, all people and then listening without preconceived notion.
We don't have that.
President Bush has never known the ability to think or listen on behalf of anyone other than his own motivations. He is self indulged and self serving. His motivations almost always come even before the people he supposedly serves.
So the trait most missing in the foreign policy of this administration is actually not even the maturity to listen or the knowledge and ability to competently reach objectives; it's the inner ability to think of others first and put them first in your objective.
That's pretty basic. But that's the central missing attribute of this administration not only in foreign policy but in most policy out of Washington. Self Service is being redefined within the G.W. Bush Administration. The words don't match the music; the tune is becoming mundane and the people are awakening to the calamity of the discord.
It never seemed like a symphony, but now the discord and fighting rhythms are grating on us all; Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike.
While we may all disagree on basic -political issues, we all expect far more competence than we've seen. We all agree on that.
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