More in the Middle East

A lot of people have been asking about my family in Lebanon... thanks for asking. Everyone that I know of so far is OK, thank God. But that's just so far. My Canadian cousin's 15-year-old daughter was visiting her aunt (my other cousin) in Beirut when this broke out. Her aunt could not go with her past a certain point to evacuate, so she was on her own w/ the Canadian Military (?) for a day or two. She arrived in Cyprus and collapesed from dehydration... luckily her dad had gotten there in time to get her to the hospital.

I keep reading the opinion column in the Post these days and find some good articles.
This one makes a good point about the hogwash of "proportionality"; however, proportionality in war and proportionality against a civilian infrastructure are 2 different things... and this article points out why what Israel and the Bush administration are doing is really stupid. It's the same military mentality that has us in the quagmire that is Iraq. The King of Jordan was right in 2002 when he told Bush that he would create a 1000 Osama Bin Ladens by invading Iraq. The real threat in the middle east is the rise of militant Shia Islam, namely Iran. Sadam Hussein's Sunni/Bathist ruling party was actually a hinderance to this threat. Now, a "democratic" Iraq will become a largely Shia Iraq with huge influence from Iran... and the moderate Arab countries' polulations are becoming galvanized against Israel and against the US and are starting (albeit, stupidly) to support Hizballah and other Shiite terrorist organizations. And we're back to losing the political war and creating a 1000 "Nasrallah's" in Lebanon and elsewhere. Sigh. Bush is an idiot and 2008 can't come quicker...