7/28/06 - Rice Again?


I hear Ms. Rice is heading back to the Middle East. This time I think that she’s actually there to talk about a cease-fire rather than that look-like-we’re-doing-something-but-not stunt earlier. Also W and Blair are talking about a multi-national force to step in and occupy the border between Lebanon and Israel. Which is a change from the last few days of I-don’t-care and we want a real peace not a fake peace (which is as nonsensical piece of gibberish as ever come out of this president’s mouth – which is saying a lot)

So why the change?

The change is comes about because Hezbollah is putting up one hell of a fight - despite IDFs’ air power and equipment advantage. Hezbollah is dug in deep all over southern Lebanon and it’s a house by house, foot by foot slog to displace them. This was not in the plan – the plan was the IDF was to quickly (day or week at most) rout Hezbollah and dive it out of southern Lebanon. That’s not happening. Combine that with a ham fisted bombing campaign by the IDG and suddenly Hezbollah’s turning into the Arab version of the men who took over the Dublin Post office in 1916 – where the British had a battleship lob shells into the city and had summary executions after that revolt was crushed to the point where the Irish public – not too pleased with the attack to begin with turned on the British and to quote Yeats a terrible beauty was born.

That is so clearly not in the interest of the United States (and Israel) that all of a sudden everybody’s talking about a cease fire, even if it means a fake peace. However fake it is, no rockets and bombs will fall which can’t be a bad thing. At least for the poor innocent bastards on both sides who are of course getting it right in the neck.

The yahoos who want this to be world war III or IV of course will be upset but I think the more upset neo-cons are with a policy the more likely it is to be the right one.

7/18/06 – IT’S PRE-PAY AFTER FIVE



One more depressing reminder – as If we don’t have enough reminders already of our fall from super power to chickenshit rogue state is the news that the state department has reminded Americans in Lebanon that they are going to have to pay for their evacuation. Not right away of course, but they will have to fill out a promissory note, however they can fill out a loan application when they get to Cyprus or home or whatever.

Jesus Christ. I don’t know what the hell is more depressing, the obvious cheese paring going on here or the right wing and libertarian wackos (who are far far gone into cloud coo-coo land) who think that it is right and proper that they pay and that they knew the risks and yada yada yada. If you can’t rely on your military to come to your aid when fucking bombs are blowing a place up when the hell do you rely on them for? And shit would they were this cost conscious when they gave Halliburton all those no-bid contracts. No of course they weren’t. And the common man gets it right in the neck again.

The whole Middle East deal keeps bringing up a plague on both your houses. I keep reading about the rocket attacks – which kill innocents but can’t see how blowing Beirut up and killing innocents is going help defend Israel. The existence of Israel as a state is not in any danger here. Egypt and Jordan have treaties and are quite content to leave it like that. Syria is badly weakened since the Soviet Union collapsed, there is not really Lebanese army and Iran is too damn far away. Hordes of Arabs are not going to swarm over the borders and sack Tel Aviv. Israel has a right to seek to stop the attacks on its civilians but, what they are doing now wont fucking works. It hasn’t worked in 30 years it ain’t gonna work now. Every bomb that kills civilians makes a stronger.

A plague on both their houses.

7/19/06 UPON FUTURE REVIEW


I read that the State Department has decided not to charge each American rescued. One can assume it’s because of the uproar generated by the news. You have to wonder what nimrod came up with the idea in the first place?

Meantime W is going to veto the stem cell research bill. I know that not every republican is a mouth breathing bible thumping willfully ignorant jackass but dear lord it does seem that way sometimes. W one assumes will go on (and on) about his respect for life, all the while Iraq sinks into a blood futile mess, Afghanistan drifts into chaos and in the middle east men completely convinced of the rightness of their cause blow children up.