Plenty of work left to do (2/28/05)

Longtime newspaper readers would be justified if they sometimes suspected headlines are recycled.

Not that they are, but events are sometimes so cyclical and never-ending the headlines tend to repeat themselves.

Nowhere is that more true than in the Middle East.

Imagine these headlines: “Cease-fire takes hold,” “Cease-fire shattered,” “Peace within reach,” or “Peace talks dead.”

Over and over for decades, variations on all of those have appeared in print as the world watched the painful, often agonizing effort to resolve what may be irreconcilable differences in the region.

In recent years, the debate among American foreign policy professionals has taken two distinct courses.

One — most recently exemplified by the Clinton administration — is that the route to a peaceful Middle East starts with resolution of issues involving Jerusalem and the Palestinians.

The second — exemplified by the present administration — is that the route to a peaceful Middle East starts with building democracy in the Arab world.

The first is sometimes characterized by the phrase, “The road to Baghdad starts in Jerusalem.” The second is characterized by the phrase, “The road to Jerusalem starts in Baghdad.”

The jury is still out on which course is the smartest.

Certainly there were plenty of years of frustration and intransigence when Jerusalem was the starting point. And as we’re learning daily from events in Iraq, the path of democracy-building in the region is going to be slow and painful.

In other words, those deja vu headlines may be repeating themselves for a long time to come. — J.R.

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