One last "nobody could have anticipated" for the road

As ever, the Bush Administration went right along with the latest Olmertian dream of "bombing for peace" making the more moderate Palestinian Authority stronger.

And when has such a plan actually worked?

Yeah, not this time either:

But with each day, the authority, its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and its leading party, Fatah, seem increasingly beleaguered and marginalized, even in the Palestinian cities of the West Bank, which they control. Protesters accuse Mr. Abbas of not doing enough to stop the carnage in Gaza — indeed, his own police officers have used clubs and tear gas against those same protesters.

The more bombs in Gaza, the more Hamas’s support seems to be growing at the expense of the Palestinian Authority, already considered corrupt and distant from average Palestinians.

“The Palestinian Authority is one of the main losers in this war,” said Ghassan Khatib, an independent Palestinian analyst in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “How can it make gains in a war in which it is one of the casualties?”

But blowing shit up -- when authorized by us or an ally -- is so awesome. How could could it fail?

[picture from here]

cross-posted at Firedoglake