I remember the casinos north of town on the seaside. Your hotel in Beirut would furnish limo service to the casinos. It was an idyllic time, but somehow things seem to have gotten out of control.

What a waste. Israel and the world have handled this matter atrociously.

Comment by Total Information Awareness — August 2, 2006 @ 8:43

Calling something else won’t help, although I welcome the idea of the international community having some oversight.

Hizbollah had been launching rocket attacks into border settlements, resulting it must be noted in very few casualties. There is not much difference in the casualty rates inflicted for example, on the British by the IRA. This is not to excuse it you understand, but to put it in context.

Despite several decades of terrorism, the British never bombed Dublin City or our airports, blockaded Dublin port, or took any action that killed hundreds of Southern Irish civilians indiscriminatley, and make no mistake, these options were on the table.

Certainly they made some blunders, and did some dreadful things, but in the main and luckily for all involved, cooler heads prevailed.

Israel would have been much wiser to work carefully with the Lebanese government to eliminate the problem that way, as the British did with Ireland. What does Britian have next door now? A prosperous and confident friendly economy with whom they share a common internal customs border, as well as regular and enthusiastic co-operation on many issues within the EU.

Israel could do far worse than to follow that model, they have been trying collective punishment for 50 years, and you certainly couldn’t claim that it’s working. Time to look to conflicts were there has been widespread resolution, and try a different approach.

Comment by wildfire — August 1, 2006 @ 10:17 pm

Nah, it goes far before, when the Romans expelled the jews from Jerusalem.

Let’s Bomb the Vatican!

/Sarcasm Off

The signs of defection are troublesome for U.S. and Iraqi officials, and another possible sign that the American strategy is threatened. The Shiite leaders have pushed for formation of the government more aggressively than any other Iraqi group, and their frustrations come just as American and Iraqi officials had encouraged Sunni Muslims to participate in the nascent political process.

Anyway, Mo Do weighs in about Mel Gibson.

Is about the same as your neighbour throwing a firecracker in your garden and you leveling his house, car and killing his wif and kids because of it

Has anyone here seen the destruction caused by Isreal , towns and villages have been leveled for miles

Israel quickly broke the ceasefire announced by the US as a face-saving gesture for Rice’s miserable failure at diplomacy. On the heels of that Israel announced a major call-up of reserve forces.

Israel is not only going to create a sizable buffer zone between Lebanon and Israel but also between Lebanon and Syria, trapping 300,000 Lebanoneze inside Syria. At least that is Israel’s master plan. Who knows what this may provoke but it certainly will not be a ceasefire. And good luck in getting either a UN or NATO force to bail Israel out.

Today Israel struck 90 miles north of the border making my prediction look pretty spot on, sad though it is. Sistani has warned Bush to rein in Israel and Syria may not sit by idly while Israel occupies a large chunk of Lebanon.

If Israel wants the UN to bail them out in Lebanon the UN should impose the peace agreement that Clinton drew up at Camp David just before he left office. At first Arafat rejected that agreement, then after fighting broke out following Sharon’s “visit” to the Temple Mount, Arafat had a change of heart and accepted it. Israel at first accepted it then when Arafat had his change of heart so did Israel as they backed out and would no longer have any part of it. This may be the only hope.

Will you say that again? :)
(That was flirty, but in a very grateful kind of way)

The Israeli military has said it bombed the building in which several people had taken shelter, more than half of them children, because the Army had faced rocket fire from Qana. The Israeli military has said that Hezbollah was therefore responsible for the deaths.
No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana

I just wonder how longer until the “excuse” to bring the USAF..at-full-strength.

One can only hope that the nuke cat will be kept in the bag. But perhaps this is much to ask from those people.

Comment by Pleb — August 2, 2006 @ 12:01 am

One thing is clear. Nobody cares about people.