Insanity in the Mideast

I've hesitated to put up anything about the recent crisis in the mideast simply because it's so insane, and the information about same has been so incredibly twisted and one-sided that it makes discussion in any rational way difficult.

Can the U.S. any longer serve as an honest broker between the parties when Bush has studiously ignored being involved in the situation since gaining office, thus resulting in things getting to this point? And with the official U.S. line is so blindly pro-Israel, the administration withdrawing it's embassy from Syria last year, and other factors, has Bush essentially given up our ability to negotiate as an honest middleman?

Can or should the U.S. do something to stop the fighting?

Bush is already getting harsh criticism from the right for even urging restraint by Israel.

Just moments ago, the fat, chain-smoking self-appointed "Morality Czar" and admitted problem gambler, Bill Bennett, (whose continued appearance on major news shows is inexplicable) was visibly angry at calls for a cease-fire, saying, "Give war a chance." It's these people and this way of thinking on the right which is responsible for the world dissolving into war and death. They not only don't do anything to prevent or limit it, but actively encourage it.

It's been shown that many in power on the right are Christian believers that are anxious for the end of the world so they can go to heaven. Their foreign and environmental policies reflect this in that they seem almost anxious for the destruction of the earth and "end of the world".

When religiously inspired delusion is the basis of your thinking, when you truly believe that there's no use planning for the future because the world is coming to an end, you end up with the insane policies we've seen coming from this administration, particularly in the mideast.

They're in love with war, they think it's the answer to every problem. And they're too stupid to realize that for every person killed in war, it takes generations to overcome the damage and feelings of revenge. Hell, it never ends. Some conflicts which started thousands of years ago are still ongoing, such as in the Balkans and elsewhere.

Yet these people feel perfectly comfortable advocating death and destruction in the belief that this will somehow eliminate the groups they see as a threat.

It may or it may not, but it certainly won't do a damn thing about the root problem, other than inflame and exacerbate it.

The right and the Republicans for the most part are drunk on military power.

I don't know what can be said about the situation, the botched evacuation of U.S. citizens, the White House doing absolutely nothing as U.S. citizens in Lebanon are being shelled and killed, and on and on.

And while this attrocity is going on, we see representatives and partisans for both sides, though mainly Israel, talking in school-boy tough guy talk, using the most inflamatory language imaginable to portray the enemy as sub-human monsters, brutally killing innocent women and babies, while COMPLETELY ignoring the fact that they themselves have done exactly the same thing.

It's truly like two kids hauled before the principal after a fight pointing fingers and saying, "He did it!", "No, He hit me first!", and on and on.

And in the meantime, the incompetent Condi Rice does less than nothing, and is only now, under pressure, planning to go to the area. Bush hasn't a clue and is typically shying away from a situation which might incur disapproval or his own political popularity, what little he has left.