Scary & Scarier

Mikaela says:
Enough local levity.

If you're not scared about the still-escalating conflict in the Middle East, you must be watching Fox News.

The following are excerpts from the real news, courtesy Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing blog in the Washington Post (an indispensable resource for a quick overview of media coverage for the most alarming stories):

Photo: Lebonese dead from Israeli attack on Qana

It's increasingly accepted wisdom in Washington that what's going on in the Middle East right now is a "proxy war" between the U.S. and Iran. But even through that lens, the U.S. appears to be losing.

And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, heading back to the U.S. after another round of what some journalists are credulously calling "shuttle diplomacy," appears to be "negotiating" primarily with Israel -- her own proxy.

You don't get much more Washington Establishment than Richard N. Haass, who was Bush's first-term State Department policy planning director and now leads the Council on Foreign Relations. And he apparently finds Bush's position laughable. Literally.

Peter Baker [providing really amazing analysis of the end-game possibilities] writes in the Washington Post that Haass "laughed at the president's public optimism. 'An opportunity?' Haass said with an incredulous tone. 'Lord, spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?' "

Doyle McManus writes in the Los Angeles Times, quoting a U.S. official who says that in Lebanon, the United States and Iran "are conducting a proxy war. . . . It is in our interest to see Hezbollah defeated."

Writes McManus: "Just as the White House hoped its 2003 invasion of Iraq would transform the entire Middle East, Bush and his aides openly voice hopes that an Israeli victory in Lebanon can change the political balance in a much wider area, striking a major blow against Iran and the terrorist groups it has sponsored."

Of course it's an odd proxy war where you have to "negotiate" with your own proxy.

Photo: Lebonese child killed in Israeli attack

Helene Cooper writes in the New York Times: "Taken aback by the carnage from the Israeli bombing of Qana, Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrung the first significant concession from Israel late on Sunday in its nearly three-week-old war against the Hezbollah militia: an immediate 48-hour suspension of aerial strikes."

[from Democracy Now]

Israel Breaks 48-Hour Halt to Air Strikes
On Sunday night, the U.S. State Department announced Israel would stop bombing Southern Lebanon for 48 hours, but Israel resumed air strikes within a few hours.]

Asked what his message was to the governments of Iran and Syria, Bush sounded unprepared. "My message is, give up your nuclear weapon and your nuclear weapon ambitions. That's my message to Syria -- I mean, to Iran. And my message to Syria is, become an active participant in the neighborhood for peace."

Last I heard, neither Iran nor Syria had a nuclear weapon.

Lisa Byer writes in Time that Hezbollah, reasonably speaking, has nothing to do with the U.S. efforts against terrorism.

"Bush two weeks ago likened Hizballah militants to the terrorists who last summer bombed London subways. That implies that Hizballah has the same mind-set and agenda as the global jihadis of al-Qaeda and its imitator groups, but they are not the same. Hizballah's military mission is principally to defend Lebanon from Israeli intrusion and secondarily to destroy the Jewish state. . . .

"An additional downside to tossing all terrorists under one heading is that if you treat them the same, address them as one, you may encourage them to see themselves that way.

Photo: Israeli dead from Hizballah rocket attack

"Five years into [the war on terror], a lot of Americans are understandably perplexed about just what it is. 'Peace will come only by defeating the terrorist ideology of hatred and fear,' the President said recently about the Lebanon crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there is no one ideology among terrorists. And terrorism isn't even an ideology. It's a tactic. The President would be better off leveling with the American people. The U.S. has interests in the Middle East, such as protecting Israel. Some of them are subtle and require explaining, like resisting Iran's efforts to expand its influence. And many of them have nothing to do with global terrorism."

[from Democracy Now]

Report: U.S. Wants Israel to Attack Syria
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Israeli military officials have told the paper that they have received indications from the United States that the Bush administration wants Israel to attack Syria. On Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordered the country’s military to raise its readiness. Israel has been repeatedly bombing sites in Lebanon along the Syrian border.

What are we doing? Where is the groundswell of outrage that shuts down this fatal approach to "freedom" in the Middle East? Dark days, my friends. Dark, dark days.