CONUNDRUM For the White House, there may be no alternatives to, clockwise: Mahmoud Abbas, top left, Hamid Karzai, Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
"JUST how much President Bush’s goals abroad are now at the mercy of some of the world’s weakest leaders was clear last week in how the White House reacted to events in Pakistan.....
General Musharraf is just one example of weak leadership. Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, has let pro-Shia loyalties inhibit progress toward the power-sharing compromises with the Sunnis. The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas failed to rein in Hamas and end the endemic corruption in his own party when he first won power two years ago. And President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, whose authority over warlords is still a matter of daily challenge, now faces a resurgent Taliban.
If the nemesis of Mr. Bush’s first term was the Axis of Evil, the bane of his last 17 months in office may be the Nexus of Weakness......."
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