Originally published on the CGS blog on June 12, 2007.
We’re now hearing a terrific panel on the Middle East, feturing Helene Cooper, Daniel Levy, Ellen Laipson and Daniel Kurtzer. We’re an hour in, and we’ve heard some really interesting perspectives on the the Israel-Palestine conflict and the nuclear threat in Iran. But what we have not heard is one word on Iraq. Nor on Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, or any other country in the region….
I have often said that Iraq sucks the oxygen out of the room and thus prevents discussion of other issues, so I’m happy to see a discussion that doesn’t focus on it. But not discussing it at all? It either is the biggest case of avoidance I’ve ever seen or a revealing commentary on just how unnecessary and irrelevant the invasion was to the major foreign policy challenges we face in the region.
