Past Is Always Present In Middle East

Governments, too, put historical bookmarks in different places. More interestingly still, they sometimes move them. Last month, Stephen Harper's genesis was Hezbollah's seizure of two Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips and its periodic cross-border rocket attacks. Now, as events accelerate forward, the Prime Minister is inching his starting point backward. This week's startling move to appoint a Muslim Liberal as a special Middle East and South Asia adviser follows last week's subtle adjustments in Harper's original approval of the Israeli assault on Lebanon as "measured." Both are, of course, just political soft-shoe. Finding someone more knowledgeable than Wajid Khan is as easy as it is difficult for the Prime Minister to admit he was wrong to rubber-stamp the first salvoes of war. Harper now has an adviser who can be either ignored or used to embarrass Liberals and a position that gains flexibility without losing his crafted image of a leader who isn't afraid to make unpopular decisions. http://tinyurl.com/ookla

Note: http://tinyurl.com/ookla