The Bush Administration's strategy on resolving the Israel-Lebanon crisis reached a new level of idiocy yesterday.

It appears that the Rome meeting, despite not resulting in any concrete agreements, did move the international community -- possibly including the US -- towards a consensus for a political solution.

Reuters reports:

...diplomats said groundwork was laid for a possible way forward.

Key elements of a political solution were identified at a private meeting of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, they said.

These included a U.N. ceasefire resolution, a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbollah, an end to a territorial dispute over a border area known as the Shebaa Farms occupied by Israel, moves to disarm Hizbollah and the deployment of an EU-led international peace force in southern Lebanon.

"Of course we don't have all that everyone wanted, but the Rome meeting was necessary to clear the ground," a European participant said.

Now, that could well be wishful thinking by desperate, delusional European diplomats.

But there were other reports that Bush and Condi have given ground on the Shebaa Farms issue.

Ha'aretz reports:

The U.S., which fiercely opposed the calls for an immediate cease-fire, has been working on its own proposal for solving the conflict in Lebanon.

Its initiative calls for Israel's withdrawal from the Shaba Farms and a deployment of NATO forces to guarantee Hezbollah's disarmament.

The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat quoted Lebanese sources Wednesday as saying that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented this proposal to officials in Beirut earlier this week...

...According to Lebanese sources, Rice added Israel's withdrawal from Shaba Farms to the initiative under pressure from Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

And the Jerusalem Post reports:

The US is 'counseling' Israel to negotiate a possible withdrawal from the Mount Dov (Shaba Farms) area with Lebanon as part of a long-term arrangement for Lebanon...

So, that all sounds pretty good, especially for this Administration. Where does the idiocy come in?

Consider: the Bush Administration actually agreed with the rest of the international community on the outlines of a peaceful solution ... and they still sabotaged the Rome summit!

And over the ridiculous, comestic matter of calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Cosmetic, because outside parties "calling" for a cease-fire isn't actually getting to a cease-fire.

It's the substantive political compromises that get you to a "lasting, enduring" cease-fire (to use Condi's favorite words of late.)

Apparently, there's was plenty of agreement on the substance. Why trash things over cosmetics?

As everyone has figured out (because the Bushies were so transparent about it), this whole week of "diplomacy" was all about stalling so the Israeli military could finish what it deems to be its objectives.

But if you're close to a deal that paves the way for Hezbollah's disarmament, who cares about inflicting more damage on Hezbollah?

In fact, the longer the violence goes on, the more dug in the players can get, making a deal more difficult to reach, or, to stick.

The Bushies had a chance in Rome to accomplish their own objectives of shoring up Lebanon's democracy and defanging Hezbollah, and they're missing it to cling to the fantasy that brute force and more deaths will accomplish what they haven't accomplished for decades.

That's the idiocy.

And it also calls into question how sincere are Condi's moves to resolve Shebaa Farms and other outstanding issues.

Note that the Jerusalem Post story says:

The US is not pressing Israel on the [Shebaa Farms] issue, but is discussing with Jerusalem when the right time would be to put it on the table...

So we're still in foot-dragging mode, rising body count be damned.

Perhaps more importantly in the long-run, the Ha'aretz piece indicates that Condi has created an out to avoid an actual resolution on Shebaa Farms:

While the U.S. initiative calls for transferring control of Shaba Farms to Lebanon, it stipulates that the permanent international border will not be determined if Syria continues to refuse to agree on the boundaries of this area.

That may be a truism, but it also could provide a handy excuse to eventually scuttle a deal.

As noted here before, Syria, like Hezbollah, isn't motivated to resolve the Shebaa Farms border issue because it wants Hezbollah to continue having an excuse to remain armed.

And once Syria is brought into to any Shebaa Farms discussion, it is sure to demand that Israel withdraw from the larger Golan Heights region, a major sticking point between Israel and Syria.

Diplomats not sincerely interested in solving the problem, including Condi, can be expected to allow talks to grind to a halt at that point, instead of creatively pushing ahead.

Bush has argued that the expansion of democracy, not brute military force, is what will truly defeat terrorism.

But based on Condi's actions this week, they still have their chips on brute force.