Let's go back two years. The Middle East was a wreck. Bush launch the preemptive invasion of Iraq. Result: The MIddle East stayed a wreck but many Arabs were united against the essentially unilateral actions by the U.S.. Oh yes, gas prices shot up.

As Bush's reasons for the invasions proved faulty if not criminal, as billions of our dollars disappeared without a shred of accountability, as the U.S. body count started to rise after Bush's statement of "Mission complete!", Iran started their nuke-rattling. Heck, Iran demonstrated those very qualities that were Bush's reasons for invasing Iraq. Iraq desired WMDs; Iran admitted to pursuing them. It sure seemed that Iran was calling Bush's bluff.

Recently, however, the Middle East has changed because of an event for which Bush can not claim credit. Nor was this event the result of the Iraq invasion. The death of Yassar Arafat is arguably the driving force behind Lebanon, behind the progress of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and perhaps even Bush deciding to join the Europeans and kowtow to Iran. Arafat's death threw a wrench into the terrorist organizations. The Palestinians could pursue peace for real now and they are. And Israel is responding in kind. And Lebanon is shaking off Syria.

And all this had nothing to do with Bush or his policies!

But watch as the Neocons try to mutate the impact of Arafat's death into a brownie point for Bush. Even worse, any positive changes in the Middle East will be attributed to Bush but any negative changes will be, of course, someone else's fault.

As I've said repeatedly before, what makes the Bush Administration so dangerous is threefold: