What are they to make of US?

There are several possible explanations for the apparent inconsistency in the broken U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The first and most obvious is a weak president who is buffeted between the his aggressive vice-president and his secretary of state's competing diplomatic approach. It could conceivably be an actual strategy to weaken our enemies by keeping them off stride, but the administration is not that clever. Possibly, it is explained by ineptitude and being forced to change course due to the failure of the policy of disengagement. It is most highly likely that Vice-President Cheney as "Bad Cop" and Secretary Rice as "Good Cop," are in a power struggle that is still going on.
The Pentagon is planning for attacks on Iran, according to investigative journalist for The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh. Hersh's complete article, "The Redirection," is well worth the read, and far too complicated to summarize here. The BBC News published a story about this on Monday, however, that confirms the key role of Vice President Cheney. To quote from it,

The US Pentagon has set up a special planning group to co-ordinate possible attacks on Iran, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has reported. . .The operations were co-ordinated by Vice-President Dick Cheney and relied heavily on support from Saudi Arabia, the sources said.

Bait and switch - After years of vowing not to talk to our enemies, it seems we are now willing to do just that. U.S. diplomacy made big headlines in the wake of a proposed March security conference to be held in Iraq. And Iran is very likely to be there. BBC News reported yesterday that,

Iran says it will take part in a planned security conference in Iraq, to be attended by the US, if it is "in Iraq's best interests".
. . . Iraq's PM Nouri al-Maliki has announced the meeting will be on 10 March. . . . Mr Maliki's office said he had sent out invitations to the five permanent UN Security Council members, the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Egypt and Iraq's neighbouring countries, including Syria and Iran.

A woman can change her mind - From the BBC News comes this - "US switch on Iran adds 'missing link." It is Paul Reynolds' analysis, from which I quote a portion:

. . . having initially and forcefully rejected the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group that the US should engage with Syria and Iran, the Bush administration is now doing just that.
. . . why is the US doing this and what impact will it have on the issue of Iran's nuclear activities? . . . Part of the answer to the first came from Dr Rice in her Senate statement. Basically she said that the administration had changed its mind.
She acknowledged both the Iraq Study Group by name and pressure from the Congress. "I've had very fruitful discussions," she said.
But another reason was outlined by White House officials who explained the recent American strategy of building up its pressure points on Iran. These, in Washington's view, were needed because at the end of last year, the US was in a very weak position.

Keeping everyone off stride - whether or not to engage with declared enemies North Korea and Iran was not even under open discussion in the Bush administration until recently. Recent developments point to a nuclear deal with North Korea and a possible sit down with Iran in March. At the very same time, the Vice President is off on his own junket telling who knows what, to who knows whom. It is no wonder that we here at home and those abroad have difficulty reading these mixed and inconsistent messages.
Technorati tags: foreign policy bush cheney condoleezza rice iran news news and politics seymour hersh
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about following the rules.