Total Confusion in the Middle East

It's completely out of control.

Israel's 48-hour ceasefire promise has predictably died. The ill-fated ceasefire was declared after a bombing killed almost 60 women and children in Qana over the weekend - while Condi Rice was in Israel.

And today, another big ol' oopsie as an Israeli rocket "accidentally" kills a Lebanese soldier.

Our 51st state (Iraq)'s Vice-President is saying massacres are being carried out in Lebanon.

Randi Rhodes pointed out that this is all being attributed to the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah - but just two days before that happened, missles were fired into a family beach outing in Gaza, leaving just a little girl alive to cry over the remains of her family.

And our president is ONCE AGAIN doing his "My Pet Goat" routine by standing there like a stump and spouting dumb shit like wanting a "sustainable" ceasefire. Real strong leadership.

This is a boat trip to the abyss, and we have a White House which is totally rudderless.

Ugly is ugly, no matter who's doing the ugliness. I'm pro-Israel in that I support its right to exist. But just as my own country is making horrible decisions which put us and the world in danger, it's awfully hard for me to justify the magnitude of what's going on in North Israel/South Lebanon.

Worst of all, the United States, once a great outpost of diplomacy, is now cowering in the corner without a clue about what to do.

Meanwhile, Iraq burns...and Osama bin Laden lives to celebrate another day of seeing the U.S. embarrass itself on the world stage.

It's sickening.

Comments

[BKLN]

Dumbya in his classic "What Me Worry?" position.

And Tom Tomorrow steps right in with the perfect kicker...
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2006/07/31/tomo/index1.html

[bruuno (san marino]

"It's completely out of control."

No it's not. This is EXACTLY to their script.

"Worst of all, the United States, once a great outpost of diplomacy, is now cowering in the corner without a clue about what to do."

Cowering? That implies abject fear. No, they are following their plan.

"Meanwhile, Iraq burns...and Osama bin Laden lives to celebrate another day of seeing the U.S. embarrass itself on the world stage."

Again, these people have no shame, no conscience, no morals; they are incapable of embarrassment, they are not embarrassing the U.S.
but they certainly are putting the U.S. and much of the world in danger.

[rhoda]

It's the same old planned "do nothing plan" as it was prior to 9/11. I'm afraid to even say I think the US plan is for all out war in the Middle East. Isn't that what they've always wanted? Only it's so apparent that we and Israel can only lose.

[Dennis]

good post Hoff. Bruuno, you could be right. This mess is a potentially divisive one for this country and wouldn't it be something if it were a planned one. And surprise, the election is just a little over three months away and we have our next "gay marriage" issue in time for the christian right to rally around just in time. Couple it with the still unrepaired, defective voting systems controlled by the repugs....naa. Is this wag the dog? Naa

[preznit giv me turkee]

caption:
"I once told a lie this big"

[Richard]

I am tired of the Blame Israel First crowd. I am not a neocon, republican or by any means a moderate, never mind a conservative.

Why is it that neither the MSM nor liberal radio talk show hosts make any mention that there is an investigation ongoing into whether that family was tragically killed by Israeli rocket fire, or whether they were killed by an exploding shell that was amongst many found on that beach?

After that incident, Israel's leadership immediately apologized for the tragedy. Then, once an investigation had started, Israel had reported that it had no military activity near that beach at any relevant time. Most of you are aware that over the decades landmines have been planted throughout the region by all parties to the warfare, as well as shells that had not exploded and had landed but not been found.

The same can be said for the tragedy in Qana. Israel has apoligzed for the needless deaths of civilians in that residential facility, and once they started to investigate the tragedy, they confirmed that they had struck near (read, not directly upon) that residential facility almost 7 hours before it collapsed. Then, they have satellite photography evidencing that rockets were launched from behind that building. Could 1 of Hezbollah's rockets have struck the building? Could 1 of Hezbollah's rockets prematurely exploded near the building causing the structural damage? I bet you won't even hear the MSM or any talk show hosts (right or left based) talk about this.

No, we will just hear from the UN and european governments rant and rage against Israel, with the anti-Israel chorus joining in from within the US and the "Arab Street" (read arab governmental sponsored protests).

Just my 2 shekels.

Richard

[Richard]

Btw, I would love to see GWB impeached for his high crimes and misdemeanors, and federal prosecutors aggressively seeking convictions against his criminal cabal (Cheney, Wolfowitz, Addison, Gonzalez, Rice, L. Paul Bremer, Enron, Oil Company Boards of Directors, etc., etc., etc.)

Richard

[Hoffmania!]

Richard...

Excellent points. But here's the troubling part: Historically, Israel has rightfully prided itself on having the most elite and most precise military in the world.

It seems they're now apologizing every damn day for hitting the wrong target or killing the wrong people.

It's as if - in the throes of their transitional post-Sharon government - they're being guided by total incompetence. Are ya catching my drift here?

Methinks they're trusting the Bush White House a little too much behind the scenes while the WH puts on a non-committal front publicly. Not even Israel is capable of making Israel look this bad.

Memight be wearing a tin tophat, too - but with this bunch, it's now a required fashion accessory.

[BKLN]

Further historical perspective, thanks to FAIR:

Let's go on a brief excursion into pre-history. I’m talking about June 20, 2006, when Israeli aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in an attempted extrajudicial assassination attempt on a road between Jabalya and Gaza City. The missile missed the car. Instead it killed three Palestinian children and wounded 15.

Back we go again to June 13, 2006. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a van in another attempted extrajudicial assassination. The successive barrages killed nine innocent Palestinians.

Now we're really in the dark ages, reaching far, far back to June 9, 2006, when Israel shelled a beach in Beit Lahiya killing eight civilians and injuring 32.

That's just a brief trip down Memory Lane, and we trip over the bodies of twenty dead and forty-seven wounded, all of them Palestinians, most of them women and children.

The portrayal of Israel as the innocent victim in the Gaza conflict is hard to square with the death toll in the months leading up to the current crisis; between September 2005 and June 2006, 144 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli forces, according to a list compiled by the Israeli human rights group B'tselem; 29 of those killed were children. During the same period, no Israelis were killed as a result of violence from Gaza.

[Jerome]

Hoff, I've always supported Israel's right to exist also, but am so angry over their disproportionate response to the kidnapping incident that I find myself wishing the country would fall--in truth, only the thought of the innocent people of Israel keeps that attitude from taking over completely. Unfortunately, I think the Israeli people will be held responsible, right along with the people of this country, for what Israel With the aid of the United States) is doing in Lebanon and Gaza. There aren't going to be any winners in this at all.

[Stitch]

"Why is it that neither the MSM nor liberal radio talk show hosts make any mention that there is an investigation ongoing into whether that family was tragically killed by Israeli rocket fire, or whether they were killed by an exploding shell that was amongst many found on that beach?"

Or whether they blew themselves up just to embarrass Israel!

People do stuff like that sometimes. Don't forget John Kerry blew himself up with a grenade launcher just for the sake of the political career he would have 35 years later.

[Allan One]

The stance in that picture is the one he takes whenever he pulls out that pathetic, whining, pleading tone of voice he uses when he's setting up straw men:

"There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people whose skins...are a different color than white can self-govern."

It's the image I most associate him with. A pathetic, whiny little weakling.

[donna]

Yeah and Sharon and Begin were never terrorists, either.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/King_David.html