The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as the Independent Bloggers Alliance and the Peace Tree.

Trying to make sense of tribal politics in the Middle East can't be done with simple bumper sticker slogans. The history, entangling relationships, religious dimension, shifting alliances, geography and multiple cultures are a Byzantine maze of complexity. Specifically, the Muslim world is often regarded by people in the west, especially Americans, as a large bowl of alphabet soup. As a result, policy makers who look for quick and easy fixes by force in the region overreach and miscalculate.

One tragic example of miscalculation and overreach is Lebanon. Once regarded as the "jewel" of the Middle East, Lebanon endured a brutal civil from 1975 to 1990. Surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Syria and Israel, this small country the size of Connecticut has flummoxed leaders in Jerusalem and Washington for two decades.

It's been a while since I've heard any updates on this story, but the State of Israel should not give an inch in any negotiations with the Hezbollah terrorists. It should not release any Arab criminals in exchange for its own three captured soldiers, despite domestic pressure from within Israel to do so.

Hezbollah and Hammas.  Most Americans know them only as two more terrorist organizations, generally appearing in our news when they are either on the sending end of rockets aimed at Israeli towns, or on the receiving end of Israeli artillery.  

There's also been some gasping in shock that both of these radical organizations have recently been big winners in democratic elections.  The tendency from this side of the Atlantic is to look on the Hammas victory in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah's sizeable minority presence in the Lebanese government as revolting surprises (i.e. "we give these people democracy, and look what they do with it!").  

But there's more to the victories of both groups than throwing bombs, and there may be lessons applicable far outside the Middle East.

On NBC TV last week Brian Williams was interviewing George Bush. At one point, he asked Bush what he had been reading lately.

Bush replied, "Three historical books on George Washington and they are still debating Washington's legacy."

I've never heard anyone say George Washington wasn't a great president.  I've never heard anyone say George Bush was a great president.  To even compare himself to George Washington in any way is the height of political blasphemy.

After the blasphemy Bush continued reflecting on his current reading list.  "I'm also reading a book on Teddy Roosevelt," he explained, "a couple Shakespeares and Camus."

In the film "To Kill a Mockingbird," Atticus Finch says, "You never really understand a person until ... you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

When the Palestinian people were driven from what had been their home for centuries, approximately a quarter of a million of them resettled in Southern Lebanon.  Ex-President Jimmy Carter's book "The Blood of Abraham" said a mouthful with its title.  The Israelis and Arabs are blood brothers.  The Israeli-Arab conflict might be labeled "a family feud" as they are indeed blood brothers, lest they forget.

To absorb the displaced Palestinians was not an easy task, and what made it all the more difficult is that in Jerusalem both Arabs and Jews had religious sites they considered equally sacred.

This famous family feud began to extend far beyond the borders of the Middle East.  At one strategic point along this path to ousting Palestinians was the challenge to avoid an all-out war to create Israel, as a fulfillment to some Jews of what they claim is a biblical prophecy.

Breaking news: USA Today, August 18, 2006, under the headline "Officials: U.S. blocked missiles to Hezbollah, Syria bound Iranian plane had to turn back, they say"

The John Diamond story contained the following:

"The United States blocked an Iranian cargo plane's flight to Syria last month after intelligence analysts concluded it was carrying sophisticated missiles and launchers to resupply Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, two U.S. intelligence officials say.

"Eight days after Hezbollah's war with Israel began, U.S. diplomats persuade Turkey and Iraq to deny the plane permission to cross their territory to Damascus."

There's something about Bush declaring a smackdown of Hezbollah that reminds me of the Pharoah Ramses II and his truthiness version of the battle of Qadesh. In 1273, Ramses declared victory over the Hittites despite massive Egyptian casualties and the loss of Syria. Lo and behold, as Bush does his hamster dance of hegemony, here comes Hezbollah's announcement of historic, strategic victory.

Sometimes people commit suicide.  Sometimes they do it passively.   Sometimes they do it deliberately.   Sometimes it is over in an instant.   Sometimes it takes years.  Sometimes it is done out of anger, or desperation, or madness, or ignorance.   Sometimes it is a final defiant act in the face of untenable choices.   But one thing never changes.   It always hurts the people left behind.

When I think about the Hezbollah rockets and the Israel's recent decision to expand the fighting, they both strike me as suicidal, but in very different ways.  This brings to mind a third example very different from both of those two. 

Dateline, August 5, Baghdad:

200,000 flood the streets, shouting their backing for Hezbollah in downtown Baghdad.  Now Israel and the United States are being denounced in Iraq, while the U.S. has forced taxpayers to fund the Republican Administration's colossal, deadly civil war debacle.

It would seem as if every choice George Bush makes, every political decision, is the wrong one.  If he resigned today he no doubt would still go down in history as the worst White House resident in the history of the U.S.A.

I refer to George as the "White House Resident" as there is every reason to believe that Bush never legitimately won either presidential race.  The first time around the Supreme Court gifted the presidency to him.  

A crime of immense proportions that will now see more blowback. That is, unless people of conscience stand up to this terrorism on all sides, and soon.

Doctors Without Borders In Southern Lebanon

July 25, 2006

Christopher Stokes, MSF Director of Operations:

Relief materials needed in south Lebanon, but supplying is almost impossible

Listen to full report [mp3 - Running time 3:06]

Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Director of Operations, Christopher Stokes, describes over the phone from Beirut what he has seen traveling to the south of Lebanon and back.

The AP reports:

"Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an 'anti-Semite' for failing to denounce Hezbollah for its attacks against Israel. ... 'The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite,' the Democratic leader told a gathering of business leaders in Florida. 'We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion dollars bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah.'"

As the Washington Post reports, Maliki "declined to disavow his critical comments on Israel's incursion into Lebanon or denounce Hezbollah's killing and kidnapping of Israeli troops that precipitated the fighting, handing Democrats a wedge that they eagerly used." In addition, President Bush's "promise to fortify troop presence in Baghdad virtually foreclosed major troop withdrawals before November's midterm election."

Tonight at 7 PST and 10 EST, Link TV will be doing another special edition of Mosaic.  Mosaic is a really cool show that brings together news segments from all over the Middle East.

The diary below was originally posted earlier today on my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

In July 1947, George F. Kennan published an article in the quarterly edition of Foreign Affairs entitled "Sources of Soviet Conduct." Kennan originally drafted the article as a paper for Defense Secretary James Forrestal. When he submitted it to Foreign Affairs, Kennan used the moniker "Mr. X." The piece was known as "containment" and is credited with guiding American foreign policy under presidents of both parties during the cold war.

The following paragraph appeared on the International Page of the New York Times in its July 18, 2006 issue in its coverage of the G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia:

"After a day in which aides stressed they had achieved international unity here on the Middle East violence, Mr. Bush complained about Mr. (Kofi) Annan's approach to the crisis and for holding a view of many leaders here that Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah should cease fire and hash out their differences.   The Americans have said that Israel will probably stand down only if Hamas and Hezbollah return the soldiers they have captured and cease the shelling of small Israeli towns.

"'I don't like the sequence of it,' Mr. Bush said.  `His attitude is basically cease fire and everything else happens.'"

Bush apparently does not mind the bloodshed just as long as the blood isn't his own.  Just think back a few years in what now seems like an eternity to what life was like in the United States before Bush.

The strangest thing happened while I was on BART (the San Francisco commuter train) on Friday. The girl standing next to me, who had been complaining loudly about the over-crowded train, spit at the people standing on the platform right before the door closed. Her friends immediately started doing a victory dance, singing "Boo-boo-be-doo - we spit on you!"

The fact that all these kids immediately knew how to celebrate the spitting on random commuters made me wonder if this is part of an evolving subculture. It's probably not that far a leap from spitting to the pyrotechnic subculture. Random violence seems to be bubbling up from the ground. Yet because it's happening in a familiar setting, we're striving for labels other than "terrorism". Our children aren't terrorists. They're just confused by hormones. Only "other people" are terrorists.