S.M.A.R.T.

Anyone who has ever attended an off-sight planning retreat basically knows what that acronym means:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely

You may not be able to recite those words by heart, but you know what they mean. Basically, when setting goals, you must be able to understand them, measure them and attain them.  That’s why most off-sight retreats fail, wasting billions of dollars a year and immeasurable hours.

And, that’s what just happened in Annapolis this week with President George W Bush’s last push for lasting Middle East peace.

The big takeaway: We’ll commit to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of 2008?  Huh? 

You mean we tied up traffic and overburdened Annapolis police and residents for this? If this were the result of any retreat I was associated with, heads would roll. This is not a strategic plan; this is a wish list for Santa Claus.

This is what we waited seven years for? I know, this was doomed from the start. Heck, 49 countries attended, including from Senegal, but Iraq declined!? What chance do we have for Middle East peace if we can’t get the country we just liberated and are funding and are protecting to join in on a peace conference?

And, the leaders of the U.S, Israel, and P.A. Authority combined couldn’t win one election combined. So what power do they have?

People criticize President Bill Clinton for literally looking at each street in Jerusalem in the 1990s to try and create a peace plan. At least he was engaged and had a team in place to put together a smart S.M.A.R.T. agreement. It worked with Jordan; had the dramatic tragedy of the Rabin assassination not occurred, who knows?

Instead, today we have a dumb plan that wasted everyone’s time and has zero chance for success.