1
POPSConflict of interest and the inquiry into the Lebanon war As if a former Mossad man does not have conflicts of interest... or is a reliable candidate for a committee that is supposed to shed light on recent events, not cover them up. Israel rigged its pathetic "investigation" into the Jenin debacle in 2002 in a very similar way.
8
POPSChertoff Feeds the Culture of Fear As long as they keep us afraid, whether of a legitimate threat or an invented one (or a copycat of an invented one), we will grant the government the freedom to use "whatever means necessary" to protect our way of life, even if that means encroaching on our civil liberties, inventing extra-judicial military court proceedings, and incorporating racist discourse into official foreign policy.
2
POPSIsrael: Breaking the Peace Israel won't be meeting until Sunday to discuss implementation of the ceasefire plan, because they wouldn't want to break the peace of the Sabbath by meeting on a Saturday. That doesn't, however, stop them from expanding their ground offensive in Lebanon on a Saturday. Apparently, for Israel, making war is unrelated to breaking peace. Shabbat shalom, they tell their soldiers. Carry on.
2
POPSPhotographer Fired: Overkill? Yesterday, Al-Jazeera published the photo (orginal and "doctored"), but now I can't seem to find it. Basically, it looks like Hajj got lazy with the photo and did a one-step photo fix or automatic saturation adjustment. The colors are all just much more present. I'm not saying that makes it okay or that the photo shouldn't have been pulled, but is this a legitimate reason to fire a photographer who has been reliably producing photos for 10 years? Or is this another blogger witchhunt?
2
POPSU.S. and Lebanon Are at Odds Over Cease-Fire Plan Israel doesn't give a rat's ass about an internationally engineered ceasefire agreement, and Hizbollah doesn't give a rat's ass about an internationally engineered ceasefire agreement. So why is it that all we're talking about in the U.S. media (and probably the EU, but I haven't been following it as closely as I should) is the ceasefire agreement? This "agreement" is absolutely useless, when the parties fighting could care less. It just provides us with a way to look like we care, when really we are doing nothing, absolutely nothing to stop the bloodshed. We are doing plenty, however, to further confirm the uselessness of the UN Security Council.
4
POPSHaggling Over a Pawn It's like they're arguing over a game of chess. I'm just waiting for Bush to stand up in a huff and knock the pieces from the board.
4
POPSCrush All You Want, We'll Make More A perfect example. Even if they hunt down the last Lebanese person on the planet and decimate Hizbollah, the violence will grow and spread throughout the region if the cause of the discontent contineues to go unaddressed.
5
POPSGhost-writing Ceasefires How on earth can a piece of paper drafted by the United States and France be even vaguely connected to an anticipated ceasefire between Hizbollah and Israel? If they want to get Hizbollah to stop firing rockets and Israel to stop striking Beirut and villages in southern Lebanon, then perhaps they are going to have to directly involve the parties of the conflict in the negotiations, namely Hizbollah and Israel. Novel concept, I know.
5
POPSThe summit fails. War rages If Ms. Rice stalls long enough, Lebanon will be sufficiently incapacitated that it will be forced to lean heavily on the US as it slowly picks up the pieces. Then the US will conveniently have another puppet regime in the Middle East, usurping the position of the recently displaced Syrians. This isn't about peace in the Middle East. The US is gambling on its foreign policy interests with the lives of Lebanese civilians.
1
POPSThe Ling A very quick and entertaining read - highly recommended.
2
POPSMission Impossible: Lebanon I can't believe anyone still takes the UN concept of a "peacekeeping force" seriously. In the past, all they have managed to do is further complicate already complex situations.
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