The problem with this New Republic column is
that the basic assumption that The United
States wants to change the way it´s currently
viewed in the Middle East and the whole world.
After all, the United States current government
consists of people who publicly claim that the
way to achieve the United States goals is bullying
and use of force. Iraq war may have make things
hard for some of them, but it´s pretty certain
that the American blindness for the limits of
military force as a way to achieve geopolitical
goals will continue.

Secondly, if the occupation of Iraq would have
gone smoothly, the United States would have
likely invaded Syria, the weaker of the two.
And if George Walker Bush gets a second term in
the White House, it could still do so.

Thirdly, the believe that United States could or
would want to act neutrally in Palestine is a bogus
one. The United States current, previous or future
governments have never been nor will ever be ready
to force Israel to accept a peace deal the Palestinians
could accept, which would mean the pre-1967 borders,
even if the basic demographic facts show that this
is necessary; in reality, much larger state would
be needed to feed rising population, even if the
refugees living abroad could stay in the countries
they are now. Nor does the US governments want this.
What they are doing is bying time for Israel so that
it can steal more land and more natural resources.

So the basic problem is the assumption that the US
government wants the US to be seen as a nice guy,
when all it wants is to be seen as the biggest bully
in the school yard. Democrats may want the United
States to wear silk gloves, but their view of USA´s
position in the worldis pretty much the same.