07/13/06 06:00 - ID#21193

Bad juju

No that title is NOT meant as an ethnic or religious slur.

In case you haven't seen the news, the Middle East is on the brink of war, thanks to what many see as an overreaction by Israel to the kidnapping and killing of its soldiers by Hezbollah.

Video of the attack on the airport in Beirut:

I'm intensely interested in this not only because I study war, but because I have a friend who was in Lebanon when the Israelis bombed the Beirut airport. Fortunately she's nobody's fool so she scampered back to Syria, where she is studying Arabic this summer.

Her recent blogs

give an interesting first-person take on the crisis from the point of view of an American political scientist in a country hostile to Israel. If I know Emily, she'll keep the news coming. She uses fifty-cent words but she's perceptive and the posts could be really intriguing.

At the moment, we're just hoping that the crisis/war doesn't escalate to include Syria...

metalpeter writes at 07:13:04 07/14/06 - Comment #9924: I know this is going to sound hatefull but this is what needs to happen. All of our US troops need to come home from iraq now. All americans need to leave all middle eastern countries. For all I care they can all kill each other and bomb the shit out of each other. The middle east has been a war zone since before we where a country if they want to invade each other fine. If they want to have holy wars fine. We have enough problems in our country and shouldn't worry about what is going on over there. In fact we have made things worse. We put Saddam in power then didn't like him so we pulled him out and iraq fell apart. We Put Bin Laden in power and you see how that worked out. We are buddies with isreal. Don't evern get me started on the Iran Contra trading hostages for weapons. Who are we to stick out nose in where it isn't wanted. I'm not saying anything negative about anyone who you know. But lets get all the americans out of that area.

chico writes at 09:51:24 07/14/06 - Comment #9901: I'm not so sure Russia has all that much credibility in tsk-tsking Israel for using disproportionate force, given what the Russians have done in Chechnya... but then, that's a whole different ball of wax...

imk2 writes at 11:58:14 07/13/06 - Comment #9898: i've been following this story for the past few days and now am getting seriously worried. the whole middle east is on the brink of war, and all our president can talk about is roasted pigs? but seriously, he is standing behind israel on this, saying that they have a right to defend themselves. i however, donâ€™t see why they feel the need to defend themselve, since this started over a kidnapping. russia nailed it right on the head when it stated that israel is using "disproportionate force" in it's attacks. um ya, you think!?!?

ajay writes at 09:38:25 07/13/06 - Comment #9894: Thanks for posting the link to your friend Emily's blog. It is always interesting to read first-hand news, instead of the crap filtered through several layers of spinning filters...

Israel opens 2 fronts; Iraq still burns; bombings in India; there's a lot of killing going on.

I think it's time all San Franciscans got together to hold hands and hug each other (the standard response....)

ajay writes at 09:29:46 07/13/06 - Comment #9892: (e:Zobar), with that much spam, a heart-attack would get you long before any "enemy" did... ;-)

chico writes at 07:00:42 07/13/06 - Comment #9889: Zobar, thanks for bringing some serious levity to the situation.

As much as I'd like to see a photo of you huddled under your bed with 60 cans of Spam and some AK-47s, I understand that for security reasons you should probably refrain from posting such photos.

Oh, and you'll probably want some recipes for all that canned meat: :::link:::

and don't forget the Spambalaya: :::link:::

zobar writes at 06:47:35 07/13/06 - Comment #9888: Holy fucking shit.

This whole shit's fucked up. You will find that many people will take sides in this conflict and defend them vehemently. I cannot join them, because what it comes down to is that nobody is right, and the only goals war could achieve are political.

My thoughts are with your friend in Damascus. She is smart and can take care of herself. As for me, I have stockpiled Spam and am blogging from under my bed, where I also have several Kalashikov rifles.

- Z