If someone had told you in 2000 that the Israel/Palestinian peace process would improve under Bush, you would of surely scoffed. I know I would. But here we are ... let's take a look at what's unfolding.

Suicide bombings aside (the 5 bombings in 48 hours just the other day is still a stark reminder of the problems Israel/Palestine), Bush has managed to remove Yassar Arafat (and I've mentioned THIS tons of time, but he was the big reason why no progress was ever made between Israel/Palestine) from the head of the PLO and has gotten a somewhat more moderate as the Prime Minister. Suicide bombings as a whole are down from when Clinton Administration was too busy kissing ass ... and now we've got a few stories trickling out where Palestinians are pissed off at the Hamas, the extreme Islamic arm of the PLO. And now, we've got Syria closing the offices of extreme Islamic groups ... stealing a quote from the article, "All signs pointed to what neither the Palestinians nor the Syrians will acknowledge: Syria has bowed to U.S. pressure and curbed the radicals it has hosted for years."

We have made so much progress in the Middle East, contrary to what Bush-haters would like to admit. Why have these changes come about?

Obviously Iraq has a lot to do with it. The thing that you have to understand about Iraq (although I was not openly admitting it because it would undermine my argument months ago), is that there is a lot more to the issue than simply Iraq. Besides cutting terrorist groups at the knees by getting rid of places they can train, eliminating weapons of mass destruction (I am still very convinced that these exist and will be found; what happened to those two mobile labs we found?!) ... we also sent a clear message to the world that we no longer are unwilling to act when we feel threatened.

There is a fine line between being a bully and proactively looking out for your national security; we're toeing the line but we haven't crossed it. But what helps even more is that the Bush Administration has always supported the creation of a Palestinian state. The ordinary non-extremist Palestinians during the Clinton Administration did not have many official powers to turn to for the support of a Palestinian state - now with the US backing their call for a state, my guess is that more and more Palestinians are turning away from extremist groups.

Syria is a great example of how Iraq has benefited our foreign policy. A few weeks ago, critics (in their never-ending stupidity) were claiming that we were saber-rattling the Syrians so we could go to war (since we all love war so much!!!) ... while the Bushies were claiming to simply use diplomatic pressure.

And look what we have. Syria has capitulated to a lot of the demands from the US (not openly, of course ... to do that would be to lose face). We dont' have to look further than Syrians giving up wanted Iraqis ... nor the Syrians willingness to come back to the table with Israel to help discuss the road map (the Syrians recently dropped their opposition to the creation of a road map for Israel/Palestine).

I mean, it really doesn't get any better than this. The Middle Eastern politicians are starting to claim they want to work with Israel for peace and a resolution to the Palestinian problem ... and critics still bash Bush?

And by the way ... this ... cartoon is ... so ... fitting to how i felt. Not that I'm a genius. Of course not!