Ohhhh be careful now, we don't want to get the end timers all worked up. Much more violence in the Middle East and they will have a hard time hiding their hard-ons lusting over imminent rapture.
Posted by j swift at July 13, 2006 09:14 AMBush may come out of this mess looking impotent.
Holy shit! Any more impotent looking and he would need a Viagra tablet the size of a couch pillow.
Yes, it's war and Terra 24-7. You see, there was not enough fear to get the American populace off their lazy butts to hate Towel Heads enough. The Holland Tunnel made not a blood pressure point increase for anyone. Terrorists hitting a petting zoo? Well, that was stupid beyond belief of even the neo-cons. But this! Those lousy fucking Towel Heads attempting to end the second coming of Jesus -who will no doubt come down from heaven in his Pearl White H-2 with projector beam headlamps and divine spinner 22's, arriving at the local mall near you- is going to get some hackles up!
We need to send some troops to Iran now...the supplies won't be needed because the Iranians will welcome us with dates and sweet coffee! Shouldn't cost over $37. dollars and we can bring democracy to another country!! Beside, Jesus needs us to help him get here! He can't do it on his own!
Posted by phidipides at July 13, 2006 09:23 AMWhat other outcome after deliberately ignoring the festering Palestinian-Israeli question for five years could anyone have expected? Throw in the totally botched diplomatic dealings with North Korea and whirl up a perfect storm.
Without a doubt, Cheney wants to go to Teheran in the worst way. Unfortunately, that's exactly the way the US Army which still remains will go to Teheran. The US Navy will likely find the situation not so much fun either. The world's commercial fleet will enjoy it even less. Chavez may find it quite a bit more profitable to sell his nation's oil to those countries affected by a cut-off of Gulf oil and let the US go fend for itself. That would make the domestic US situation very interesting. How many bodyguards would need to be assigned to every member of the people's house when they go out to speak with the people when gasoline is hovering somewhere north of $5 per gallon?
Posted by PrahaPartizan at July 13, 2006 09:34 AMThe total lack of anything except some lip service from the Bush Admin on the Israeli-Palestinian issue has given the green light to the current mess. He just has not engaged in any substantive work in this area due to the constant fixation on Terror. This is even more sad when you consider that the root of all Terror organizations is the Israel card. Working to solve the Israel/Palestine problem would have been the most important part of a real War on Terror, instead, with the Israel lobby in the US holding big bucks, Bush just was AWOL.
Posted by T2 at July 13, 2006 09:55 AMIt's curious why the various militias decided to provoke Israel right now. They must have known that these soldier-naps and killings would provoke the usual displays of overwhelming military force---what's their strategy? Is it co-ordinated? Or is the Lebanon raid intended merely to divert Israeli attentions from Gaza? Some diversion, eh?
And if Iran is pulling these strings, why are they embarking on such a provocative path with an Imperial administration that's simply dying to try some more regime change? It's hard to believe they don't have some ability to influence Hezbollah Lebanon.
Posted by euzoius at July 13, 2006 10:07 AMAnd who, of course, is the biggest supporter of Hezbollah - step forward Muqtada al-Sadr, whose always compared himself to Hezbollah's leadr - not forgetting the current Iraqi cabinet who are mostly from the Iranian-dominated SCIRI and Dawa parties. What happens when they insist the Iraqi government sends funds and even fighters??? Time to re-invade!
The US Giovernment - bringing a fundamentalist muslim government to a coutnry near you today - you know it makes sense!
Posted by john fletcher at July 13, 2006 10:09 AMWhy Bush, or even Cheney, has a reputation as a strong leader has always baffled me. A dithering, blithering, weaker leader, who has never had any idea of how to lead and is transparently and embarrassingly out of his depth now, would be hard to find.
Pusillanimous, that's what it is. Pusillanimous.
Posted by clio at July 13, 2006 10:24 AMAstute observation Clio..you forgot how plain stupid the chimp and shooter are..neither would understand the word pusillanimous.
Posted by headxray at July 13, 2006 10:38 AMMedia reports say upward of 8,000 Americans are living in Beirut. Now that the Israeli airforce destroyed the runways at Beirut International, the Pentagon can't get the Americans easily out.
Chaos, destruction, unrest, civil war, and death follow George W. Bush like flies waiting to land on a fresh pile of dog shit.
The Middle East has been a friggin' mess for centuries. Having the West stick their noses in has just made things worse. The two triggers are the usual suspects; religion and nationalism. The Muslims in Iraq can't even stop killing each other, and all over trivial differences about religious rules.
The Israeli's and Muslim's have killed each other for hundreds of years, and Christians get into the war thing once in a while (think Beirut). Mankind is doomed to this mess as long as religion and nationalism exist.
Posted by tempus at July 13, 2006 11:55 AMeuzoius,
One could also phrase the question, why did the Israeli government choose to be so severely provoked right now? Hasn't Hezbollah been lobing missles at Israel from Southern Lebanon for years? How many Israeli soldiers have been killed on that border in the past five years? Have any been kidnapped? Did any of these provocations lead to fresh craters in the Beirut airport runway?
Israel chose to be provoked and everyone immediately starts pointing fingers at Iran. Sounds like another piece of the plan for the fall 2006 Iranian bombing campaign.
Posted by at July 13, 2006 12:06 PMWhy Bush, or even Cheney, has a reputation as a strong leader has always baffled me.
And that's what is causing this. Bushco ended diplomacy after 9/11. The world waited to see what would happen, and Bushco showed they are diconnected, irrational, and unable to manage America's military. The world watched the greatest military in the world get emasculated by Bushco. I am willing to bet these people don't see us as a big threat, and this is due drectly to the incompetence of Bushco and their neo-con hordes. Oh sure, they know we can be forced to do stupid things, but I think they are taking the gamble that they can push their interests at this point in time, when they were unsure of being able to do so previously, and quite unsure of what will happen if a we get a strong commander in chief in office in 2008. It was now or never, and Bushco has shown their incredible weakness and inability to put forth a diplomatic solution to anything.
Nero will fiddle as the world burns...and so it goes.
Posted by at July 13, 2006 12:26 PM
"Pusillanimous, that's what it is. Pusillanimous.'
The world if full of finks and snitches and pusillanimous sons-of-bitches."
Posted by bo at July 13, 2006 12:27 PMNero will fiddle as the world burns...and so it goes.
Sorry. C'est moi.
Posted by phidipides at July 13, 2006 12:31 PMSteve
My view on Iraq and US policy on the ground there differs from many, being more cynical. I believe the destruction of infrastructure & government was systematic and deliberate. The Iraq adventure certainly has boosted world oil prices, which has benefited US energy companies. International treaties prevent occupying powers to seize natural resources from the occupied country. Simply, if Iraq falls apart, there is no legal basis to punish the US when we grab the oil fields. They belonged to Iraq; Iraq is no more.
I used to think no one could be so cynical and game they system on such a huge scale. After 5 years of watching continual ratcheted gaming from the WH on all fronts, nothing surprises me. In short, if there are no limits on your actions or goals, one would have to say the WH execution has been first rate.
I take your points, anon, and remain duly suspicious, never fear.
Nevertheless, Hezbollah planned a significant across-border raid on the Israeli patrol that killed 5 soldiers and captured 2 more---those are big numbers, unusual (I believe) and historically certain to provoke a response.
In Gaza, militias orchestrated a daring raid to kidnap the soldier, nor do I recall a soldier kidnapping in the last several years. They went out of their way to get ahold of some soldiers, now. Why?
Simply to see new PM Olmert's response? It seems exactly what one would have suspected.
Posted by euzoius at July 13, 2006 01:16 PMThe Middle East has been a friggin' mess for centuries. Having the West stick their noses in has just made things worse.
The West has been a friggin' mess for centuries; poking their noses into the Middle East has only made it worse.
Posted by dj moonbat at July 13, 2006 01:51 PMEuzoius,
I am the accidental anon above.
After looking at the situation more, I agree that Hezbollah deliberately provoked a strong response from Israel. I guess that the whole thing feeds into the war hawk positive feedback loop that has a death grip on the middle east.
The people who populate Bushco, Likud, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Quaeda and many other groups feed off of violence and instability like a buzzard feeds off of a moldly old carcass. They desperately need each other as enemies. Codependency at its worst.
Bush and the Likudnics will shoot for the maximum propaganda milage out of this and that means blaming Iran. They will then leverage this attack into a broader conflict that they seem confident that they will win. Time will tell I guess.
Posted by Growth Factor at July 13, 2006 02:12 PMThanks, Growth Factor, that is very cogent analysis and I find it very persuasive.
Particularly the part about Bushco and Olmert looking for maximum mileage. The flames will be fanned, not doused.
Posted by euzoius at July 13, 2006 03:10 PM"Israel doesn’t like and can’t see a way to deal with the elected representatives of both of these governments, again due to decades of bloodshed and the support of these groups by Syria and Iran."
So I then suppose the fact that these people were elected should make them immune to Israeli military action when this same elected government undertakes actions injurious to the citizens of Israel (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic...as well as others).
The Arab nations are a porcelin bowl of hatred and corruption -- time to flush the toilet.
Posted by Bagley at July 13, 2006 04:09 PMOne gelling strand of conventional wisdom is that Iran approved (or at least did not stop) these militia operations as a way of showing Nero Jr the kind of reach they now have throughout the Middle East and the kind of difficulties they can create literally overnight for the overstretched, wheezing Empire.
This was the take of the two analysts on the PBS NewsHour, anyway. We'll see what others come up with in the next few days.
And tell us again exactly what the "flushing" of those darn "Arab nations" would look like, bagley, I'm still not clear what a "clean bowl" would look like to you and the Reactionary Right. Muchos gratias.
Posted by euzoius at July 13, 2006 05:31 PMRead an analysis on how Dick Cheney sees the current U.S. foreign policy as the culmination of three decades of strategic efforts to position America as the sole occupant at the top of the power pyramid...here:
Posted by Daniel DiRito at July 13, 2006 05:44 PMDisgusting.
Posted by Tampa Student at July 13, 2006 06:29 PMURGENT!
Even as the administration exploited this Official Story (or "Official Conspiracy Theory") as the pretext to launch new wars long in the making, independent researchers began to accumulate a vast body of evidence suggesting a different narrative for 9/11: that of the Inside Job.
The 9/11 events and the anomalies in the official story raised Unanswered Questions about:
- the unprecedented failure of the US air defense system on the morning of the attacks;
- the AWOL military chain of command during the actual attacks, including the inexplicable behavior of the presidential entourage;
- the seeming impossibility of official claims with regard to Flight 77;
- the evidence that Flight 93 was shot down;
- contradictions and dubious evidence in the official claims about the alleged hijackers and masterminds, and doubts about their real identities;
- signs that the alleged hijackers enjoyed high-level protection against discovery by honest investigators;
- evidence that the alleged hijackers were financed by states allied with US intelligence;
- suspicious and massive international financial trades suggesting foreknowledge of the attacks;
- widespread signs of official foreknowledge and, in fact, advance preparation for the 9/11 attack scenario;
- the long-running links between Islamist fundamentalist terror cells and US covert operations, dating back to CIA support for the anti-Soviet mujahedeen and Osama Bin Ladin himself;
- the demolition-like collapse of the Twin Towers and of a third skyscraper, WTC 7;
- and questions concerning who could have logically expected to derive benefit in the aftermath of a massive attack on the United States.
The suspicions received further confirmation a few weeks after September 11th, with the arrival of anthrax letters targeted only at opposition politicians and media figures, and timed to coincide with the introduction of the USA PATRIOT Act.
Google: 9/11 inside job
Yea right, and it was really the CIA that kidnapped the Israeli soldiers to start this whole mess for a Bushco diversion and inroad to the upcoming invasion of Iran........wait, they didn't, did they???
Posted by TIKI AL at July 14, 2006 02:47 AMThe Arab nations are a porcelin bowl of hatred and corruption -- time to flush the toilet.
Does that flushing include the people we were supposed to be liberating too?
Does Abbas get flushed? He might get stuck in the pipes since he was the ONLY one trying to keep the road map alive.
Posted by Daryl at July 14, 2006 06:46 PM