Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says the escalating situation between Israel and Lebanon is worrisome. “Again, it’s just evidence that President Bush’s foreign policy has collapsed,” Harkin says. “He’s focused so much solely and so much energy and so much of his administration solely on Iraq that things have fallen apart all over. Look at North Korea. Look at Iran.”
Israel has blasted Beirut’s airport and a Lebanese army base near the Syria border — part of the on-going response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by militants in Lebanon. “We have always, going back through several administrations — Republicans and Democrats, have always played a constructive role in the MidEast, constructive in terms of working with both sides and we haven’t done that,”
Harkin says. “It’s sort of like we’re absent from the whole MidEast equation now.” Harkin calls that “another gross failure” in Bush foreign policy. Tensions in the region have pushed oil prices to record levels.