The Return of Politics to Arbitrary and Biased

Is George W. Bush the worst president ever? Many people are inclined to say yes: Just search "Worst President Ever" in Google...yeah, yeah, I know, that's just people taking advantage of the Google algorithm, but still, there are the "yeas" and the "nays" for this. I'm not sure yet. William Henry Harrison only lasted a month before he died, he obviously didn't make a lot of bad moves in that time, but it's hard to argue that you can get worse than that.

Anyway, before I get off track on a history lesson, the real reason for this post is the complete mess that the current administration is making in the Middle East. One democracy (our friends) are bombing the hell out of another democracy (sort of our friends, but less important). Unnamed sources announced today that the US government was going to give Israel "some time to defang Hezbollah," translated to English (and using metaphor), the US is going to let the husband (Israel) beat the crap out of the wife (Lebanon) because we don't agree with what one of her [adult] children from a previous marriage (Hezbollah) did/is doing. Don't send the cops just yet, that woman needs to learn her lesson about controlling her adult son.

Just a little while ago, the Bushites were gaga about the rebirth of democracy in Lebanon. Someone in the administration forgot to read who was actually going to be represented in this democracy. Hezbollah, as much as they may be a "terrorist" organization (defined by the fact that they get military support from countries that are not our friends), is actually right there in the parliament. They also have more military power than the Lebanese government (this story has some background the problems with the power-sharing in Lebanon). How are we going to get the moderate Middle East on our side, when we let the Israelis bomb the free DEMOCRACY (THAT WE SUPPORTED ONE YEAR AGO) of Lebanon? What's this going to do? It's obviously going to lead more and more Lebanese to support Hezbollah. Hell, if the US doesn't give a shit about us, why should we remain neutral as they allow the Israelis to kill us and our children and destroy our hard work and infrastructure.

I think Germany better watch out, a bunch of those 9/11 bombers lived there for a while. The US is probably drafting plans to bomb Hamburg as we speak. England? Same deal, wasn't Richard Reid living there? He somehow slipped through their fingers and got on a plane to the US. He apparently studied at the Brixton Mosque, anyone in the neighborhood is better off getting out - not sure that nukes are necessary, but hey, George, why not? Why run the risk of other dirty little Arabs studying there?

Of course, I'm not saying that we should turn a blind eye to Hezbollah, or that we should force the Israelis to accept that their two soldiers are gone, but I thought we had a Secretary of State for a reason - to deal with these problems. Condi isn't going to do a lick of good going to NYC to visit with Kofi Annan, he's not the one killing Lebanese citizens. I'm not here bearing solutions; well yeah, I think the first solution is to stop Israel from bombing Beirut, but after that, it's up to the negotiators and the different countries to work out a deal. I just can't believe that our government is allowing it to continue.

On a personal note, Julie visited Beirut about three weeks before the Israelis blew up the airport. That strikes close to home.