American Secretary of State Colin Powell has repeatedly indicated that the mission of his Middle East envoy, General Anthony Zinni, is on hold rather than defunct. The questions arising from such an attitude are: Till when? Pending what?

Mr. Powell's response to Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition" on February 17 rendered an already confused situation even murkier. The return of General Zinni to the region will take place "when circumstances warrant" his resumption of mission.

If Zinni's mission is to broker a "ceasefire" and to produce "a period of quiet" in order to implement the Tenet work plan and get into the Mitchell proposals, it stands to reason that this is precisely the time to dispatch Zinni back into the region.

Ironically, Secretary Powell clearly stated that because "the situation right now is not good…. It's unstable," that he will keep Zinni in Washington (or its environs) until "the violence goes down… and we can get quiet and a cease-fire…."

At the risk of stating the obvious, when the situation is quiet, stable, and with a cease-fire in place-who needs Zinni?

Secretary Powell is not only putting the cart before the horse. By placing the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinians (and President Arafat in particular) while exempting the Israeli occupation from accountability and any type of pressure or censure for its violence and brutality, he is also beating a dead horse and escalating the violence that the US is purportedly seeking to reduce.