As it  plans to insert Israel into the meat-grinder at Annapolis next week and pull out a "legacy" on the other side, the Bush administration is sounding increasingly desparate in its rhetoric of justification for this perversely villlainous political act.   
    The New York Times explains the Annapolis conference rationale:
    "The all-out push essentially speeds to the end of the now dormant 2003 `road map' for peace by insisting that the big issues once relegated to later discussion, like the status of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees, be addressed immediately, even before the Palestinians begin to dismantle terrorist groups and networks."
    "Dismantling terrorist groups and networks," of course, was the supposed to have been the logical, good-faith "first stage" precursor to further negotiation according to the so-called "road map"--benighted document that it was. Now, however, this first stage has been discarded by the US--and with high, even virtuous purpose,  according a "senior official" quoted by the NYT. The Times writes:
    "As a senior official put it, `We had to break this tyranny of the first stage of the road map before talking of final status' so that the year of negotiations will give the two parties the incentive and the time to prove to each other that they can end up as peaceful neighbors.' Israel wants to be sure that if it withdraws from the West Bank there will be a reliable Palestinian security force to stop aggression and terrorism, and that a Hamas-run Gaza will not be replicated on the West Bank." (Lots of luck.)
     Yes, do let's break that "tyranny" of demanding an end ot Palestinian terrorism--jihad--against Israel. Let freedom reign. Or whatever.