"Ammar Huri, Ahmad Fatfat, Samir Al-Jisr, among others). Bahiyya Hariri yesterday criticized the US "green light" on AlJazeera TV. Many of these politicians called AlJazeera live to express their condemnation of Israel and US. Many of them sounded as if they were pleading for their lives. The demonstrators yesterday, who stormed the UN building in downtown Beirut where my sister works, chanted angry slogans not only against Arab regimes, Israel, and US, but also against Hariri. One chant went like this: "Beirut shall always be free, free; Hariri get the hell out." The demonstrators were planning to head to the US embassy, but Hizbullah and Amal members of parliament present prevented them. They clearly were afraid of things getting out of hand." (1)

Israel is not a country in the conventional sense of that term; it is a military enclave that masquerades as a state. It has no economy to speak of and it could never afford to spend the kind of money that it takes to own such a criminal arsenal of weapons. From hundreds of nukes all the way down through the outlawed weapons of phosphorus and the biological weapons group, along with many of the outlawed gases. It has one of the most powerful Air Forces in the world, complete with all the latest American fighters, helicopters and radar. It has gun ships, and mines for use on both sea and land. It uses cluster bombs on civilians, its tanks and drones and armored bulldozers alone would break most healthy economies ­ and yet Israel continues to amass armaments like a kid snatching candy on Halloween.

This was all made possible by secret gifts from the USA's overburdened taxpayers. Now all of this is being called into play on three fronts: In Iraq, where 'regime-change' was demanded of the Bush administration; In Palestine where Arab blood flows like water ­ and now in Lebanon, where the world is seeing the depth of Israeli contempt for those that they do not consider to be human.

This is not 'a distraction' or 'a spike in violence' as most of the mainstream press would prefer. This is the beginning of a real and very deadly War, and that fact ought to be printed in 48 point type on the front page of every American newspaper in this land. Why is that not happening? Because US policy is in lockstep on this one: We are Israel, and they are US. We created the power vacuum that they have now occupied. Initially we defended their survival and by way of thanks - they now use us to keep them alive, and to protect their interests in every conceivable way.

What is happening in Iraq, in Palestine and in Lebanon is all ours, whether Americans like it or not: because the Senate voted unanimously, and the House vote was 410 to 8 for what is happening in Lebanon! All the weaponry is ours, the financial support is ours even the strategy is something that the US government supports, because it is we who are preventing a unilateral cease-fire. We may be 'over here' while Israeli's are pulling the triggers and targeting the villages, but these blood stains are not confined to the battle fields ~ the world has seen this with their own eyes! Unless the spineless US congress finally hears the global outcry and reverses itself now: this cozy little partnership just may end in a major disaster for both Israel and for the already overly-tarnished USA.

If this sound extreme, then just look at the behavior: This is an excerpt from an interview with Robert Fisk that aired today on Democracy Now:

"What's going on in southern Lebanon is an outrage. It's an atrocity. The idea that more than 600 civilians must die because three Israeli soldiers were killed and two were captured on the border by the Hezbollah on July 12, my 60th birthday -- I've spent 30 years of my life watching this, this filth now, you know ­ it's outrageous. It's against all morality to suggest that 600 innocent civilians must die for this. There is no other country in the world that could get away with this.

You know, when -- I wrote in my paper last week, there were times when the IRA would cross from the Irish Republic into Northern Ireland to kill British soldiers. And they did murder and kill British soldiers. But we, the British, didn't hold the Irish government responsible. We didn't send the Royal Air Force to bomb Dublin power stations and Galway and Cork. We didn't send our tanks across the border to shell the hill villages of Cavan or Monaghan or Louth or Donegal. Blair wouldn't dream of doing that, because he believes he's a moral man, he's a civilized man. He wouldn't treat another nation like that.

But when the Israelis treat Lebanon like that, it's okay, and Blair doesn't want a ceasefire. You can't have a real ceasefire. In other words, we've got to have the Lebanese on their knees to sign the dotted line, before we give them a ceasefire. And that dotted line means the disarmament of Hezbollah, which will be impossible for the Lebanese to do without restarting the civil war, because to disarm Hezbollah, you must use the army, and most of the Hezbollah are, of course, Shiite Muslims, and most of the army are Shiite Muslims. So you're going to have brothers assaulting brothers to take their weapons away. It will not happen. However much you may wish it and however much I may wish it, it won't happen. And, again, this double morality: Blair wouldn't dream of attacking the Irish Republic because the IRA crossed the border from Ireland, but it's quite in order for Israel to attack the Lebanese Republic because the Hezbollah crossed the border from Lebanon." (2)

I think Mr. Fisk is right ­ there is no morality in the leadership of either the USA or Israel ­ not at this time and certainly not in this war! What kind of nation drops leaflets on a population telling them that they must get out or they'll be killed, and then destroys all exits before they can leave? Their villages are then bombed the ambulances are targeted, the aid workers and the UN monitors are targeted and many are wounded or killed. But the attacks do not stop ­ until their homes and villages are leveled and their lives are reduced to rubble ­ while the bodies of the dead are left inside the wreckage for the dogs to devour.

Does that sound like a nation with a moral compass? When the world demanded an immediate Cease-Fire ­ the US blocked it because Israel claimed to need 'two more weeks' to murder more people, so that they can claim that they have been victorious over the women and children of Lebanon. Hezbollah ­ their target ­ will only become stronger as this onslaught against civilians continues. Today the Israeli Cabinet voted to unanimously denounce any Cease-Fire ­ and announced that they will be widening the ground invasion, beginning immediately. This is something that the Nazi's would have tried in WWII, it is not something that those who supposedly were victims of those Nazi's should be doing now to the Lebanese people, who they say are their friends. If this is how Israel treats her friends, imagine what she'd like to do to her enemies! And of course that's the point ­ to create pure terror among those who are powerless to stop what is happening to them.

This is a perfect situation for diplomatic intervention ­ but our Department of State has only Bushmen, the YES-people of the twenty-first century. We never talk to those we are about to attack because the USA now only uses weapons to achieve what we cannot begin to negotiate for. To the rest of the world we are deranged and drunk with a false sense of our own power. At the same time we are too soft, too wrapped up in our silly toys, too stupid to listen to reason, or to even see that we are entering a cul-de-sac of our own making. We have supported, protected and defended this most-rabid of pit-bulls, among nations, and when the neighborhood and the wider world begins to understand what's happening ­ they will insure that neither the US nor Israel will ever have the chance to do this again!

What we're planning to do instead of even trying to reign in our outlaw-savage protégé is to once again try and change the subject. Watch very closely, because the Neo-Conn's have already cast their webs of spin and now we want Israel to attack Syria, to eventually trigger another war with Iran as well.

We can't afford the war in Iraq, the one we've been at for three years now ­ that openly US war that we are continuing to lose. In addition to Iraq, we're also paying for the latest invasions in Palestine and now Lebanon: Bush's solution 'Let's add two more wars to the three we've already got!' How could congress ever justify the expense of a military that could even contemplate five wars at the same time? Congress is critical because they are the ones that will be using our money to finance all this death and destruction ­ not-to-mention the deaths of all those innocent lives that will continue to go up in flames, along with all that money that Bush wants to throw into this insanity ­ just to give Israel its "New Middle East"!(3)

There are rumors on the wind, and whispers in the halls of power ­ and woe to those who fail to pay attention!

kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net

1) There was a coup d'etat in Lebanon yesterday http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&

Board=news_news&Number=294824085#Post294824085

2) Robert Fisk on Democracy Now, July 31, part one

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/31/1435219

3) The Power of Arrogance

http://www.countercurrents.org/leb-rama180706.htm