It's more complicated than just killing Iraqi's before they kill themselves.


U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., says President Bush needs to turn his attention to brokering a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Chuck HagelHagel's comments came Monday following his tour last week of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Italy.

Hagel said the only way to broker a peaceful resolution in the Middle East region is to send a special envoy to work on the issue day after day.

"You can't put the secretary of state on a plane every two months and go in for a day or two and hold a news conference and meet with the leaders and so, 'OK, I hope you make progress, and I'll be back in two or three months,'" Hagel said. "It won't work that way."

Hagel, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the United States is "so completely consumed with Iraq" that it has lost sight of other important issues in the Middle East.

"I think we took our eye off the ball on leading negotiations in trying to find the new center of gravity for the Israeli-Palestinian issue," Hagel said.

The Nebraska senator said he met with Jordan's King Abdullah II, during which Abdullah stressed that the United States has a crucial role in advancing Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

"King Abdullah said to us when we were with him in Jordan ... that the Number One issue in the Middle East ... is the Israel-Palestinian conflict," Hagel said.

The United States should be taking a lead role in backing the United Nation's call for an independent Palestinian state, Hagel said.

"Until we are able to make some progress there, the pressure that is on all of the Arab leaders ... is not going to be extinguished," Hagel said. "That puts the Jordanian king and others who are allies of United States in a very stressed situation."

More: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...&u_sid=2396170


Senator Hagel is onto something I think!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!