conflict

This is a very sad "milestone" to reach:

Now the death toll is 9/11 times two.

U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now match those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America's history, the trigger for what came next. Add casualties from chasing terrorists elsewhere in the world, and the total has passed the Sept. 11 figure.

The latest milestone for a country at war comes without commemoration. It also may well come without the precision of knowing who is the 2,973rd man or woman of arms to die in conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, or just when it happens. The terrorist attacks killed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Not for the first time, war that was started to answer death has resulted in at least as much death for the country that was first attacked, quite apart from the higher numbers of enemy and civilians killed.

Of course the greatest contribution to this tally comes from that war of choice -Iraq. We are just 2 short of 2,700 lives lost in that failed experiment of Bush's. Just remember - if you vote for Republican's this fall, you vote to have more of our brave young men and women killed. Their lives deserve justice and we need to honor them by having Bush answer to his lies that lead this country to war.

That is Israeli children signing a missile before it is fired off to Lebanon. It is the first picture seen on a new site fromisrael2lebanon.com. Following that is a series of grotesque pictures showing children and civilians in Lebanon that have been killed from the recent bombings.

The site at first appears to be taking a pro-Israel stand, but once you read through it you quickly realize that it is an attempt to get the bombing to stop. Seeing these children sign these missiles is very disturbing. It shows an attempt to keep tensions high for another generation and prolong the decades of conflict that have already engulfed the region.

Israel is showing their ignorance with this action. Think of Lebanese citizens seeing this. Those citizens may not have supported Hezbollah in the past, but they most likely will now. It is the same as the increasing tensions in Iraq, where our own Generals have even admitted that every time we kill an insurgent, three more are created.

This is the madness behind Hezbollah. Israel has fell right into their trap of overreacting to a situation and this will greatly increase the support Hezbollah gets from people in the region. As that support grows, the bloodshed and time of this conflict will also grow.

The rest of the world must come together and take action against both sides to stop this conflict. With every bomb dropped, both sides grow stronger. This will only lead to more death and destruction. The inactions of the world is the worst enemy right now.

With all the tensions in the Middle East, leave it to our President to have a little blunder that at least gives us some humor:

President Bush, not realizing his remarks were being picked up by a microphone, bluntly expressed his frustration with the actions of Hezbollah, a militant Islamic group believed backed by Iran and Syria that is engaged in escalating warfare with Israel.

"See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive) and it's over," Bush told Blair in a discussion before the Group of Eight leaders began their lunch.

Bush also suggested that Annan call Syrian President Bashar Assad to "make something happen."

Hopefully someone has the actual audio of this to play, though the only expletive I can think of that would fit in there is "shit".

Now the serious part of this lies in Bush wanting to pass the buck to Annan on getting action stopped. Our administration has been relatively docile on the recent conflict. Former administrations would have already had an envoy in the region trying to calm things down.

here are rumors that Bush may send his father and Bill Clinton over there to help mediate things. Amazing how he must turn to that duo every time. I believe Clinton would be just as effective, if not more without Bush Sr. We are dealing with the part of the Arab world that is not to thrilled about Bushs as it is.

Every hour that goes by, this conflict gets more intense and the risk of Syria and Iran getting involved is even greater. Once that does happen, then the entire Middle East is in a war and the ramifications of that will be a shock around the world. We really need to get this situation under control fast. The more we sit and wait, the worse it will get.

Just In Via
ABC News
Australia:

US accuses Iran of supplying Iraqi
insurgent bombs

 US intelligence believes that a cache of manufactured bombs seized in
Iraq about two weeks ago was smuggled into the country from Iran by the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

"We believe they came from Iran's Revolutionary Guards," the official told
AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The find is significant not only because of the Iranian connection but also
because it indicates manufactured bombs are now being introduced in a conflict
that has seen the use of mainly improvised explosive devices.

"I think we believe there is more of them out there, that this is just the
first cache we've actually obtained," the official said.

He said intelligence analysts had "fairly high confidence" that the bombs
came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

So will we see this used as yet another excuse to go to war with Iran? At
this point nothing will shock me. You can bet the administration is already
looking at it and also considering the ties Iran has with China and Russia.