Ehud Olmert Issues

Ahmadinejad has to be smiling today. It is not every day that both the “Big Satan” and “Little Satan” leaders are simultaneously in hot water. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, got a report today stating that last summer’s war with Lebanon was a ''severe failure in the lack of judgment, responsibility and caution”. Olmert’s only comment was that “the failures will be remedied”.

This report came after a war that took 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israeli lives to retrieve two Israeli hostages. The war was largely paned by the media as being not worth the risk and a waste of human life. I clearly remember watching Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s The Situation Room, asking the same question ad nauseam “will Israel lose the propaganda battle to Hezbollah”. Now that is just a reporter who is doing his job, but Wolf Blitzer has a strong Jewish background and supporter of Israel—it is not every day you see him bashing Israel.

Anyway currently both Bush and Olmert have very low approval ratings, both men’s defense secretaries have come under fire, there have been or will be protests against their respective governments, the governments have been accused of corruption, and both seem very unwilling to change their actions (i.e. they stay the course).

This demonstrates the changing nature of war and public policy. It has always been advisable to have massive public and international support for any war a nation enters into, but in this age of 24/7 news networks it is more important than ever. Unless victory is quick in an unpopular war the leader(s) of that war are going to pay in one way or another. Bush and his allies are being hammered right now for corruption, but no Democrat would dare attack him if he had won, you just do not mess with the conquering hero; but he is losing the war and that opened the door for the Dems to bare their teeth.

I really hope that what has happened to Bush and what is happening to Olmert will be a gigantic glowing stop sign to any democracy entering into a controversial war. To me it is really bad when the “good guys” are acting worse than the “bad guys”.