R.I.P. IRAQ WAR RATIONALE #893

WMD Al Qaeda links Via tapped, it looks like the Bushies are burying the democratic domino theory, at least as an active policy.

The Bush administration, yielding to protests from European and Arab leaders, has set aside its plan to issue a sweeping call for economic, political and cultural reform in the Middle East at a June conference of major industrial nations, American and Arab officials said Thursday.

Because of Arab objections that such a call would give the appearance that change was being dictated from without, the officials said, the summit conference will instead proclaim its endorsement of reforms under way in the Middle East.

Administration officials said they would work with European leaders to encourage Arab nations to proclaim their own reform measures before the meeting, which is to take place at Sea Island, Ga., with President Bush as host.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met with Jordan's foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, and discussed Jordan's attempt to persuade the Arab League to call for more open societies and democratic institutions at a meeting this month in Tunisia.

"Reform is important and needed in the Arab world," Mr. Muasher said in an interview on Thursday. "We agree with that completely. But for it to work we need ownership of the process, not a one-for-all blueprint from Washington."

A draft of the American call for change was circulated to some European countries and then leaked to Al Hayat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, in February — all before the administration had shown it to Arab leaders, angering many of them.

"Our objective is for this document never to see the light," Mr. Muasher said of the draft. He said Secretary Powell had accepted the idea that the Sea Island meeting would not adopt the proposal.

In recent years King Abdullah II of Jordan has led the way in encouraging independent political activities. The United States was so eager to highlight those reforms that it was considering inviting the king and leaders from Morocco, Bahrain and other countries to the meeting.

That idea has receded, say various officials involved in planning the meeting. A European diplomat said there was a fear that those leaders would be viewed sneeringly as "good students" in the Arab world.

A senior State Department official said that in his meeting with Mr. Muasher, Mr. Powell understood that "nothing is going to work if it looks like it is being imposed" and that aid, investment and trade preferences should be used to "enhance" the reforms under way.

Another administration official said the lengthy draft published by Al Hayat was considered dead. It has been denounced by two close allies of Washington, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

"All peoples by their nature reject whoever tries to impose ideas on them," Mr. Mubarak said.

But Mister Bush, who is trying to impose his ideas on the rest of us here at home by supporting a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and make civil union laws unenforceable, gave one of his trademark blank, thousand-mile stares when hearing of Mubarak's comments.

If President Bush had his way, Khatami and Assad would still be in power! Oh wait, they are! I can't wait for John Gibson or Brit Hume to ask Dubya that one.

And as Matt Yglesias points out... isn't this a flip-flop?