That does pretty much sum it up, and begs the question — why dont they learn? My guess is they could never sell a war based on 4th generation terms — and its a good thing.

Posted by: anna missed | Jul 16 2006 9:49 utc | 3

Strange new weapons?

The current conflict in Gaza and Lebanon has given rise to a flurry of reports involving a strange new toxic weapon used by the Israeli Defense Forces. Israeli authorities officially deny these reports, which they have labeled an “incitement.” Of course, that’s what people said after the first reports came out that American soldiers had used “Whiskey Pete” indiscriminately in Fallujah.
Here’s how Al Jazeera describes it:
Dr. Al Saqqa told Voice of Palestine Radio that the Israeli army is using new types of unconventional weapons against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the recent attacks. He said, “They are targeting the Palestinian body with unconventional weapons and with that comes a phenomena we have not seen before in any Israeli bombardment we have lived through for many years.”
He continued, “The hospital is central and sees almost all cases of injuries and deaths as a result of Israeli bomb attacks against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. These Israeli bombings are entering the body and fragmenting, causing internal combustion leading to up to fourth degree internal burns, exposing the bone, and affecting the tissue and skin.”
The doctor added, “These tissues die, they do not survive, which obliges us to perform arm or leg amputations, and there are fragments which penetrate the body and do not show up on X-rays. When entering the body they spark like a combustion firearm, but not chemically. They seem radioactive.”
Here is another report from the Baqa’a refugee camp. And we have this from a German news source:
MOH [the Palestinian Ministry of Health] called on the international community and human rights group s to send a medical team in order to examine the injured and ascertain the presence of toxic material left by Israeli shells.
If these reports are just an “incitement,” as the Israelis claim, then why are the Palestinians pleading for outsiders to confirm?
This is hardly the first time we have heard reports of Israel making pioneering use of toxic weaponry. In 2004, they stood accused of using nerve agents on protestors

.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 16 2006 10:05 utc | 5

Well this is an interesting story for you. I was at a wedding last week set in a very conservative Protestant church. I went because one of my students, a recent graduate, has asked me for months to attend. They say me at the same table as their pastor. As the reception continued, he discovered I was a church historian and we struck up a conversation. He was a decent, simple man, and I found him quite reasonable. He had attended a seminary I was familiar with in the Midwest, had passable Greek skills, and told me a lot about the heartaches of pastoring a small, poor, rural congregation. When it came to politics, we had sharp disagreements. I, as usual, advanced a platform of political neutrality for the churches, Christian pacifism, and argued that the right wing politics churches were the greatest threat to religious liberty Americans faced today, especially when they were in service to the currently ruling party. After a while he could agree me or at least see my point in at least part except for one major area: the United States must uneqivocally support Israel, he claimed, or God would destroy us all! All I could think, up here at a three hour drive to the nearest city of only 44,000, Mossad again had done its job too well!

Posted by: Diogenes | Jul 16 2006 13:32 utc | 7

Any research as to what percentage of investors who are long oil will actually be happy about this dangerous turn of events?
I’ll give humanity the benefit of huge doubt and say 49%.

Posted by: ferd | Jul 16 2006 14:17 utc | 9

Diogenes, thanks for the history. One must also throw in the very large incentive of political power for people like Ralph Reed, Falwell, etc. and what they gain inside the Beltway through their political alliances resulting from such proposed belief systems.
Here’s an interesting tidbit to add to the general mix regarding current news:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said :”We condemn any terrorist act including hostage-taking but we have the impression that besides the return of its abducted soldiers, Israel is pursuing other, wider goals.”

Posted by: 2nd anonymous poster | Jul 16 2006 14:32 utc | 11

An Australian blogger who is an aeronautical engineer questions did the Palestinians really dig a tunnel under the noses of the Israelis?

I don’t know what has happened to Cpl. Gilad Shalit. I don’t know if he was captured, or, if he was, I don’t know how he was captured. Frankly, I don’t even know that he actually exists apart from the pictures of him that we have all seen. One hopes that these are all questions that will eventually be answered. I do know, however, that there is something extraordinarily odd about the story the Israeli Defence Force claim is behind his disappearance. In particular it’s the part about the tunnel which I can’t get to grips with. As an engineer I’ve given the notion of digging a tunnel which the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs tells us was some 650 metres long, [1] dug under sand across the Gaza border into Israel some thought. I’m beginning to wonder whether this is actually feasible especially considering that it would have to be built covertly and across the terrain that Israel claims. A 650 metre long covert tunnel being constructed under sand is a considerable undertaking the
logistics of which would be enormous. (…) Now, 0.9m wide x 0.9m high x 650m long tunnel would require 526 cubic metres of excavation to be removed at, say, 1.3 tonnes per cubic metre if dry, that’s 684 tonnes of dirt to dispose of. A good three-axle semi trailer would take about 30 tonnes a load so that’s about 23 semi-trailer loads. (…) All of this means that Israeli observation conditions of the area is very good. Very little over a period of time would escape surveillance their.The bottom line is that it would be impossible to build a tunnel, especially under these conditions of secrecy that one needs to ask; was there really a tunnel? And, if not, then what’s the real story? Why have the Israelis lied – again?

Posted by: conchita | Jul 16 2006 15:41 utc | 13

Let me try the link again
this
or
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/26/mexico.tunnel/index.html

Posted by: citizen k | Jul 16 2006 15:52 utc | 15

Excellent Post. Hubris and delusion is a hell of a combination in leaders. Combined they will kill a a lot of humans. I personally saw the Silent Mutiny in Vietnam. But, the USA still denies that it occurred and the US Army was incapable of winning a war of occupation. Now USA is repeating the futile exercise all over again. The difference in the Middle East is the monotheist religions will go all out to get their slice of the Holy Land. Israel cannot stop the rocket attacks by aerial bombardment. IDF will invade Lebanon. When that doesn’t work, Syria and Iran are next. Except, there are not enough Jewish and Christian soldiers to occupy Syria and Iran. The escalation will continue until the USA economy finally collapses. The only good news would be if MADD works in religious wars, questionable when faith and belief rule not reality.

Posted by: Jim S | Jul 16 2006 16:12 utc | 17

from france, i too am watching that aipac stooge & white house stenographer wolf blitzer whose hard on is just visible under all the telex’s he’s receiving from reichsminister for information karl rove

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 16 2006 16:54 utc | 19

Peri
It is all kind of Kafkaesque isn’t it. We have the script, we know which line will be delivered next, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do to change a single scene.
It is like watching a car crash, horrifying and fascinating all at the same time.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jul 16 2006 16:57 utc | 21

uncle link not working or blocked but some fool sending me pornographic emails from the iran thread

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 16 2006 17:28 utc | 23

http://lebanesebloggers.blogspot.com/
test…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 16 2006 17:37 utc | 25

Wolf Blitzer’s first job was for the Jerusalem Post.
Some background on the soldiers’ kidnappings from the Guardian (UK):
The capture of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, to bargain for prisoner exchange should come as no surprise – least of all to Israel, which must bear its own responsibility for the abductions and is using this conflict to pursue its wider strategic aims.
The prisoners Hizbullah wants released are hostages who were taken on Lebanese soil. In the successful prisoner exchange in 2004, Israel held on to three Lebanese detainees as bargaining chips and to keep the battle front with Hizbullah open.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1821001,00.html
Kind of changes the whole victim story, doesn’t it?

Posted by: Ensley | Jul 16 2006 17:44 utc | 27

Quite interesting supplemental reading here: Israel, the US and the New Orientalism for those whom checked out my recent post on The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy’.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 16 2006 18:04 utc | 29

Two Navy ships bound for Lebanon
This might be a good time to recall the USS Liberty incident, in which Israel attacked the US ship using unmarked boats and planes. Had the ship sunk without survivors (the Israelis machine-gunned life rafts when the crew attempted to abandon ship), the plan was to frame Egypt for the sinking to trick the US into the war on Israel’s side.
So, to you “Limeys”, I wish you good luck and make sure those British flags are clearly in view at all times!
On a similar note, “US STATE DEPARTMENT, ARMED FORCES HAVE BEEN AWOL FOR AMERICANS TRAPPED BY ISRAEL IN LEBANON UP UNTIL THIS POINT (see below)…OTHER NATIONALS have ALREADY EVACUATED WHILE AMERICANS ARE LEFT AS SITTING DUCKS, Italian and South African GOVERNMENT’S evacuated THEIR CITIZENS ON Thursday.

U.S. plans ‘air bridge’ out of Lebanon, officials say

Pentagon and U.S. State Department officials are working on contingency plans to get about 25,000 people out of Lebanon to escape Israel’s military campaign, launched after two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah guerrillas.

What a juicy, compelling target for a ‘Hezbollah take-down’!
And if the US knows they have to evacuate American citizens, they also know that Israel is not going to stop with attacks on just Lebanon.
Crazy? well, I’m in good company then.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 16 2006 19:35 utc | 31

Turn Off, Tune Off and Drop Out
U$, yes, it’s compelling when you watch MSNBC or Fox
how rapidly they are spinning towards a 12th Crusade
that Dick Cheney planned from the very start. So its
incumbent upon everyone at MoA to turn off, tune off
and let the Google-meter on the Middle East die down,
which may so panic the MSM, maybe they’ll drop the
continuous coverage and non-stop think-speak brain-
washing now infecting non-tuned-in American voters.
Fewer words? Every word you’all write about Lebanon on
MoA incites the MSM to stay on-live 24×7, doing psy-ops
on the very voters we’re trying to reach by November.
We can’t do anything about this expansion of the WWWar
front. Nothing. You can either enlist and go fight in
it, or turn off the TV and WWWar, and stay off Google.
Go home, nothing to see here. Capiche? This is what
BushCo planned and prayed for, a public beheading,
beheading Lebanon, Syria and Iran, and beheading
the American people, just in time for November.
Worry about this:
US Labor Department is set to vote by Labor Day (sic)
to re-define all workers in senior positions, that is,
anyone who has someone working under them on the org
chart, or on the shop floor, as a ‘supervisor’, unable
to draw overtime wages, and unable to union organize.
Once they pull that coup, you can forget about America.
No unions, means no populism, means US$ Uber Alles, and
then this incursion in Lebanon will seem like a picnic
on the poop deck of the Titanic.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 16 2006 20:25 utc | 33

because of stae of my diabetes at the moment i am not very far from a bed – but it is also the first time in many years that i have been watching so much cable information
in english, french, italian & in german – it is apparent in the most indecent way that an arab life is not worth very much – not even the ‘euoropeanised’ arabs of lebanon
‘expert’ upon ‘expert’ upon ‘expert’ defending the indefensible & every other commentator whether they be a syrian ambassador, a lebanese intellectual or an arab journalists aare either ignored or demonised
& something that i have not read – but why would the israeli state be using the anti missile defence which is completely ineffective against a katusya rocket but which is useful against any theoretical missile from syria or iran
it seems through straight foolishness that they will bring at least syria into this war & they are inviting it it would appear
& g8 demand restraint & all that can be witnessed is a barbaric escalation
now at this moment they are screaming over the katushya rockets which are not to be compared with anything that comes from either a plane or a tank – they are in essence, theatrical – & the deaths they caused this morning at the gare in haifa would be as much a surprise to its senders as it was to its recipients
in any sense at all it is disproportionate
we are walking stupidly into war

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 16 2006 21:19 utc | 35

dan
the calculus of these commentators nearly drives me to hysteria – the murder of the innocent lebanese is contextualised always by the bombs that hezbollah are sending into israel – as if the lebanese people collectively are to blame – it is a calculus they always use against the other as edward said always made clear
& what is missing always from their ‘contexts’ is the horror that has been daily life for the palestinian people in the occupied territories – they are treated as so much shit – reminds me clearly of the nazi response of reinhard heydrich in czechoslavakia – where the town & people of lidice were wiped off the face of the earth
what is happening in tyre in lebanon is not so different at all from that – the nazis hid behond law & order too to justify their criminal acts
& what is left out again is the fact that hamas & hezbollah are as much a creation of israel as they are of iran – they were instrumentalised to defeat the secular, socialist & republican tendencies in the arab world
& it seems these old partners in crime israel & iran are both using the people of lebanon, sacrificially – their leaders are stupid enough to open the gates of hell

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 17 2006 0:24 utc | 37

George Galloway and Ray McGovern about the countdown to the invasion of Iran and the possibility of the Military Industial Complex carrying out an attack to blame it on Iran and shift the public opinion
audio- 3 min 23 sec (second half, Galloway is in the first min)
Iran Attack and Staged Terror
I always take Alex Jones, Wayne Madsen types w/salt, however, there is no salt left in the cubboard. And they are on to something, what is another question. Please use your ‘maybe logic’, but do listen.
“…we need a vigilant citizenry that is alive to all the tricks that these monkeys are up to…”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 17 2006 0:40 utc | 39

it would seem that anderson cooper is much like a katushya rocket, “notoriouslly innacurate”, “you just point it but you don’t know where it will go”

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 17 2006 3:04 utc | 41

Thankfully, the Guardian isn’t an AIPAC controlled institution, so it answers question posed by $cam’s post above this:
The west must recognise that Israel’s agenda is in conflict with its own
far from wanting a partner with which to negotiate, the Israeli government is acting with the specific intention of forestalling that possibility. There is nothing particularly new in this. The extremists on both sides have always formed a kind of tacit alliance, with the supporters of “greater Israel” and “no Israel” understanding their joint interest in preventing any moves towards a compromise peace. That is the main reason why Israel encouraged the growth of Hamas as it emerged in the 1980s. Unwilling to negotiate with the secular nationalists of Fatah, even as they were moving towards support for a two-state solution, the Israeli authorities thought it would be a clever idea to promote their Islamist rivals.
In the case of the current crisis, it is no accident that it occurred at precisely the moment when the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was gaining the upper hand in the latest round of that struggle. By using the threat of a referendum to force Hamas to accept the existence of Israel as the basis for a final settlement, Abbas had created the most promising opening for peace in six years. MUST READ ART, written by former Labor Adviser to Foreign Office.

Posted by: jj | Jul 17 2006 4:00 utc | 43

You forgot one anna missed, –unless it was meant to be implied–, any flesh and blood citizen* or corp. *Note that corps are not flesh and blood however have the same, if not more inaliable rights then said flesh and blood citizen. So in summery, the threat to the potential of U.S. based profit margin is, anyone or anything that stands in the way of the mighty US Dollar, including it’s citizens. No? By george, I think me gots it!
“Would you like turnips with your cabbage soup, citizen/comrade”? w/apologises to tante amie

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 17 2006 4:55 utc | 45

…forgot to sign name on post #46. -RH

Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 17 2006 5:45 utc | 47

what? out of brussel sprouts?
Ahh yes Uncle, a classic case of Reductio ad Absurdum.

Posted by: anna missed | Jul 17 2006 5:59 utc | 49

After reading Rick’s link to Justin R., it’s hard not to think we’re in seriously deep shit…
Meanwhile, according to Haaretz ticket, French PM is heading for Beirut, landing god knows where…cya, or…? EU is showing no independence from xUS. Have their oil supplies been threatened?
As far as the future, I suspect that reactionary Arab states (beg. w/S.A., of course) support this escalation ‘cuz a) they depend on Jewish-Palest. conflict to misdirect the rage of their people b) they’re worried about inc. Shia power due to serious Iraqi screwup by xUS.

Posted by: jj | Jul 17 2006 7:36 utc | 51

jj, I’ve read it. Iran says that they finally are being offered incentives that have potential to be the basis for a future agreement, but there is no agreement now and I expect long, long talks ahead.
I’m watching though. Oil was predicted to go up to over $80 a barrel today because of Israel. Perhaps the Iranian news — well, really, they have agreed to absolutely nothing at this point — will stabilize oil a bit. But the experts are predicting $100 barrels by the new year. Probably a lot more if we get drawn into Israel’s mess.

Posted by: Ensley | Jul 17 2006 13:03 utc | 53