Condi: NO CEASE FIRE

Israel stopped the bombing for Condi. I'm touched.

Last night, Anderson Cooper frankly admitted that Hezbollah had ambulances
waiting for the right moment for the cameras, with Nic
Robertson admitting Hezbollah had control
over his piece, too.

Welcome to war in the digital, pr age. State sponsored, freedom fighters, or terrorist, image
is all and it's crafted and timed, too.

But there's no doubt about it. They had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath. So what we did see today in a similar excursion, and Hezbollah is now running a number of these every day, taking journalists into this area. They realize that this is a good way for them to get their message out, taking journalists on a regular basis. This particular press officer came across his press office today, what was left of it in the rubble. He pointed out business cards that he said were from his office that was a Hezbollah press office in that area. So there's no doubt that the bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities. But from what we can see, there appear to be a lot of civilian damage, a lot of civilian properties. But again, as you say, we didn't have enough time to go in, root through those houses, see if perhaps there was somebody there who was, you know, taxi driver there… (CNN)

Condi came, she did her photo ops, and she never once removed her sunglasses
from atop of her head.

That's Bush diplomacy for you. Been there. Done nothing. What's next?

If you want to hear what's happened to our diplomatic status under Bush, just
listen to Senator
Tom Harkin. As for our “honest broker status,” what Condi did
by making a surprise trip to Beirut was give the appearance of diplomacy,
without offering up the goods.

Nobody was terribly impressed with what Rice had to offer. Her appearance in
Beirut was all show, which fooled no one. Nice try, take my Katyusha, please.

Is it any wonder that the wingnuts are upset that John Kerry said if he were
president we wouldn't be in this mess? Besides being true, it's embarrassing
for the president's WWIII bring it on crowd.

Meanwhile, John
Bolton continues to diss the only man Hezbollah trusts. And Bolton is going
to help us out of this mess? Only if WWIII is your goal. If it is, then Bolton's
your man.

Lebanon's Nabi Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese
parliament, thought Rice's proposal a joke. Berri used to compete with Hezbollah,
as well as be very close to Syria, but is now their main guy in the government. If you don't get Berri to listen to you, Hezbollah is out
of reach.

Lebanon's parliament speaker, Hizbullah's de facto negotiator, rejected proposals brought by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday, insisting a cease-fire must precede any talks about resolving Hizbullah's presence in the south, an official close to the speaker said. Rice's talks with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora also appeared to have been tense. Saniora told Rice that Israel's bombardment was taking his country “backwards 50 years” and also called for a “swift cease-fire,” the prime minister's office said. Lebanese parliament speaker rejects Rice proposals

As was said on the News Hour last night on PBS, “Hezbollah is much more
than a terrorist organization.” They deliver a lot to the Lebanese people:
religiously, empowerment, as well as socially and politically. There are thugs
in their midst, but the Lebanese people respect their leader, Nasralla.

Bush and Bolton want to diminish Hezbollah's role, which only makes navigating
the situation worse. Bush/Bolton don't care, because they don't want solutions.
They want war. Newt made it clear: WWWIII or bust, baby. That's the Republican
line. It feeds their bottom line.

In the midst of it you have 700,000 Lebanese homeless. You have $150 million
needed to again rebuild Lebanon.

Forgive me, but I'm sick of paying other country's debts because of the conservatives'
unending dreams of war. Enough.

Hey, but Condi shows up to pretend she's offering something to the Lebanese,
while backing more bombing by the Israelis; who have a right to go after Hezbollah,
but not at the expense of the entire civilian population of Lebanon.

Nobody was fooled by Condi's photo op in Beirut.

But even in the midst of it, there are stories that stick out. An American
family trying to get out of Lebanon got some help, but not from Bush, Bolton
or Condi. It came from two Democratic senators from New Jersey.

D. HAIDAR: Can I just say one thing, please. Throughout all of this, we had Senator Menendez, Senator Lautenberg, Senator (INAUDIBLE), they all worked with us so, so hard to help us get our children evacuated from the area they were. They worked with us since 6:00 a.m. … CNN transcript

If Bush, Bolton and Condi wanted to they could end the fighting right now.
But they don't, so they aren't, while civilians continue to die. That's not
leadership. But it's what Republicans do best: war.

Where is the humanity? The Christianity.

If you want to know how we got where we are today, read on. It's fascinating.

… Armies are criticized because the excess of power that they accumulate enables them to dictate steps of political significance during a time of crisis. In these situations, military contingency plans become the principal alternative available to the politicians, which is why they tend to accept the army's viewpoint. But this time we have before us a particularly extreme case. Not only was the military plan the only one, but the political leadership voluntarily relinquished its duty to discuss it thoroughly. This places political thinking, to which military thinking is supposed to be subordinate, in a particularly inferior situation. This inferiority stems, paradoxically, from the “civilian” label of the present leadership. The term “civilian” does not relate in this case only to the biography of the leaders, but to their political agenda as well – i.e., the convergence plan. A civilian leadership often tends to increase the army's freedom of operation, particularly when it operates in a cultural-political environment in which half of the voters favor the use of force to solve political problems. Under these circumstances, the civilian leadership needs the army as a political instrument for the purpose of implementing the civil agenda. After all, the “disengagement” plan was implemented thanks to the support of the army, and the same will be true of the convergence plan in the future. … A voluntary 'putsch'

We haven't
learned a thing since Vietnam.