March 21, 2006 - "All we've ever really asked for from the countries we liberated or defend is enough real estate to bury our dead .", said Secretary of State Colon Powell. It was a restatement of principles by which America conducted its foreign policy throughout the twentieth century even in the face of accusations that America was an imperialist nation. When Halliburton started building what looked like permanent military installations in Iraq and the Neo-Con hawks started talking about Iraq as a democratic outpost in the Middle East some commenced to doubt that Powell's sentiment was widely shared in the Bush Administration.

Today those doubts seem to have been well taken. It looks like American troops are in Iraq to stay. At least for so long as George W. Bush has anything to say about it they will remain. When asked if he was prepared to set a time table for the compete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq he said that decision was one for "future President and future Iraqi Governments" to make. He left no doubt that he intends the American occupation of Iraq to extend beyond his own Presidency and the creation of a stable Iraqi democratic regime.

What does that seeming offhanded statement mean for nations of the Middle East ? When a President speaks and especially when an American President speaks in a formal setting such as a speech or a press conference the words are parsed around the globe. In every capitol in the Middle East experts are trying to divine American policy intentions from that which the President says taken in tandem with that which he does. Elsewhere every nation that depends on Middle East oil experts ask what the President's announcement means to their national interest.

Iran looks to the east and sees a beleaguered American garrison. It looks to the west and sees a beleaguered American garrison. What message does Teheran take from the President's words in that context? What incentive to abandon a nuclear capability to balance American hegemony remains to Iran ? What incentive do his words provide to Iran to bend every effort to insure a friendly regime sitting in Baghdad ?

Saber rattling will not deter Irani intrigue for they know in Teheran what we know all too well. America 's battle might is tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan . George Bush simply does not have the resources available to fight another Middle East war. So far the result of Bush bellicosity toward Iran has to be to firm up a mixed diplomatic marriage between Sunni Syria and Shiite Iran.

If the President and those around him continue on a quest for conquest in the Middle East the unforeseen consequences will be great as peace eludes us. When it does come, if indeed it does, there may not be enough real estate between Beirut and Karachi in which for America to bury our dead.