George Bush's Middle East Midas Touch Detailed

Top Bush administration officials were, remarkably, shocked when the Palestinian elections they insisted on resulted in a huge victory for much-hated Hamas instead of the slightly less terrorist-y Fatah party. A new story in Vanity Fair details how President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams subsequently tried to do away with this unwanted democracy by secretly encouraging a Palestinian civil war and arming a notoriously brutal Fatah strongman who has been accused of, among other things, having Hamas detainees sodomized with soda bottles. Naturally, the covert plan totally backfired, as "U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza." Whoops-a-daisy.