Less Freeance, No Peeance

Ah, those fantastic PNAC/Neo-Con goals. The George W. Bush method of foreign policy, thinking the Middle East is a "snow globe" he can make better by shaking vigorously. According to Condi Rice a "strategic non-error".

As usual with the Bush/Cheney cabal, the reality is the opposite of the platitude:

Steps toward democracy in the Arab world, a crucial American goal that just months ago was cause for optimism — with elections held in Iraq, Egypt and the Palestinian areas — are slowing, blocked by legal maneuvers and official changes of heart throughout the Middle East...

..."Iraq has allowed people to say, 'Forget the American style of reform,' " said Taher al-Adwan, editor in chief of the Amman-based newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm. "The Americans are not able to present anything to the reformers to encourage them."

In Egypt — one of the United States' closest allies in the Middle East, receiving about $2 billion a year in military and financial aid — President Mubarak promised during his re-election campaign last summer to further amend the Constitution and allow room for other political parties to grow. But so far there has been virtually no movement on either front.

The government continues to restrict the creation of opposition parties, and judges who questioned the integrity of the recent parliamentary elections have become the focus of criminal investigations.

Other than removing Saddam, a thing constantly held before us as some sort of war scalp (Georgie got his pistol!), what has the $300 plus billion (and sure to double and then probably long term double again) and tens of thousands of dead, American and Iraqi, gained us?

Nothing.