The Middle East Goings on in Lebanon/Gaza

President Putin thinks that while Israel's concerns are legitimate,

"recourse to force must be balanced and it must be stopped as soon as possible".

I wonder what it must be balanced with? Do you suppose if say Finland declared war on Russia kidnapping soldiers, lobbing missiles into their territory that Putin would balance his response to the level of warfare that Finland can handle?

President Chirac wonders if Israel is trying to destroy Lebanon.

"One can ask oneself whether there isn't a sort of desire to destroy Lebanon," French President Jacques Chirac said of Israeli attacks that have killed 66 people, almost all civilians. "I find, honestly, like most Europeans, that the reactions are completely disproportionate.

Well - he would find that to be true. I am guessing that if the Basques decided to start lobbing missiles into France or kidnapping French soldiers, Chirac would give them whatever they ask. Maybe they should think about that. French countryside is as nice comparated to Spanish countryside.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

described Israeli action as a measured response.

Thank you Mr. Harper!

UN Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said

those who had seized Israeli soldiers and fired rockets into Israel from both Gaza and southern Lebanon bore their share of the blame. "They don't seem to care the slightest bit that it is the children and the women and the civilians who bear the brunt of all of this,"

Pretty good, pretty good....oops, wait. There's more.

Israel says Hizbollah has launched 130 missiles in the last 48 hours, killing two Israeli civilians and wounding over 100. Residents in northern Israel have taken to bomb shelters.

Egeland called Israeli targeting of civilian infrastructure a violation of international law and of common sense. "You are supposed to do something with the armed troops, you are not supposed to hurt the children and people who had nothing to do with all of this."

-So basically Hizbollah, who is part of the Lebanese govt, who the rest of the Lebanese govt is afraid of, declares war. (ok - maybe not offiically, but they cross the Israeli border, bomb things, and kidnap soldiers. Sounds like declaring war to me.)
-Israel says "give them back, rein in Hizbollah, or we'll take you back 20 years."
-Hizbollah sends in more rounds.
-Israel drops leaflets telling people to get out of the way. They bomb roads, they bomb airport runways and they bomb Hizbollah leader's house.
-Hizbollah bombs Haifa.
-Israel drops more leaflets in S. Beirut and then bombs it. It sounds to me like Israel IS doing "something to the armed troops." a)They bomb roads to keep them from moving. b)They bomb airport runways, not to ruin the expensive to fix airport but to ruin the runways so that arms can not be imported. c)They bomb Nasrallah's house, etc, etc. I think it's terribly sad for Lebanon, but Israel is doing what it has to do here.

Here's the Pope.

“One thing is defense, which is legitimate, and another is a counteroffensive of widespread attack,” Zapatero told Punto Radio. “It won’t bring anything other than an escalation of violence.” The Vatican, the seat of the Roman Catholic church, echoed that remark – and the fear of a widening conflict. “In fact, the right to defense on the part of a country does not exempt it from respecting norms of international law above all for that which concerns the safety of the civilian population,” said a statement by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s No 2 official.

So because civilians die, that means they were targeted? I don't get it. International law has concerns for civilian populations. So that means that because the people in Israel who have bomb shelters and know how to hide from incoming don't die and yet the people in Lebanon who have been warned to stay away from Hizbollah because Hizbollah is going down have died, that one is "targeted" and other is not? I wish reporters would follow up with decent questions.

And I realize this is Iran's doing. This, in Lebanon and in Gaza, was probably planned right in Iran and/or Syria. But I think that Israel is doing the right thing to not escalate this yet. Treat Lebanon like the grown up country it wants to be and treat the Palestinian people with the respect they want. If you allow terrorists to become part of your govt, expect some repercussions when terrorists act like terrorists.

This has been a long post, however, let me remark on one other thing. I started listening to Air America the other day because it's always good to know what the other side is thinking and Kos and company are way too over the top for me. Air American seems to have reasonable conversations anyway. No yelling.

However, in this last week while the Middle East has been erupting, their talks shows have concerned, Torture, Gitmo, Plame, the Lieberman election and Bush hanging out in an elementary school during the attack on 911. I have been astounded. I get that they think these coming elections are the most important thing in history but surely during week one of Middle Eastern War they could have devoted a little tiny bit of time.
Mark Steyn was on Hugh Hewitt yesterday and had this to say about this same phenomenon happening in their blogs.

HH: I've got to ask you to switch to the domestic political left. I'm looking at the Huffington Post right now. Let me read you the latest. Novak caught lying about Murray Waas. The Jones boy. Dramatic stress. The headbut felt around the world. Violence in India. What kind of man is George Bush. Concern over gun crime. The most important investigation - voting machines. Whistleblower suit filed against voting machine company. They're...the most...the central point of history right now is in the Middle East, and on Kos and on the Huffington Post, there's nothing.

MS: No, because they've got nothing to say about this. So your colleague, Dennis Prager, put it right. He said in 20 years time, they'll ask us what we were doing in the year 2006. Some of us were worried about radical Islam, and some of us were worried about Al Gore's global warming, and the voting machines, and Dick Cheney. And one of us will be right, and the other will be wrong. And the reality of this situation is it's nothing to do with Bush and Cheney. It's happening in India. It's happening in Israel. It's happening in Bali. It's happening in Russia. It's a planetary-wide problem, and it's nothing to do with Bush and Cheney stealing chads, or any of this other rubbish they go on about.

HH: So Mark Steyn, do you think the American political electorate is watching this, and understanding again what we talk about a lot. There's a serious party in the United States. It might not be always right. It isn't always right. It makes mistakes. But there's also a fundamentally feckless and silly party, and it's the Democratic Party, and it's the political left.

MS: Yeah, well, you know, a Canadian blogger, Kathy Shaidle, who I like tremendously, her website. She said you know, Alan Colmes has said he's agnostic on the matter of whether 9/11 was an inside job. Now let's take him at his word. If these people, high up in the Democratic Party, seriously thought the president of the United States had committed, deliberately killed thousands of Americans...you know, Kathy said if that happened in her country, in Canada, she wouldn't want to live in that country anymore. She'd get her passport, she'd get her stuff together, and she'd get out of there. And the fact that you can sort of say Bush killed thousands of Americans, and then sit out on your cafe in San Francisco, sipping your venti latte, as if that's just something normal...I mean, this is pathetic. There's a disease in the Democratic Party that they've got to cure, because it's not good for the political system.

HH: No, it's not. We need two parties, but two serious parties. Mark Steyn, always a pleasure. Steynonline.com, America.

I'm with them folks. Give me a serious Democratic party. They are going to be surprised in November I suspect.