This entry was posted on
Monday, August 7th, 2006 at
12:08 pm and is filed
under It’s War! It’s Legal! It’s Lovely!.

Juan Cole – War on Lebanon Planned for at least a Year: That is why I was so shaken by George W. Bush’s overheard conversation with Tony Blair about the war. He clearly thought that it broke out because Syria used Hizbullah to create a provocation. The President of the United States did not know that this war was a long-planned Israeli war of choice. Why is that scary? Because the Israeli planning had to have been done in conjunction with Donald Rumsfeld at the US Department of Defense. The US Department of Defense is committed to rapidly re-arming Israel and providing it precision laser-guided weaponry, and to giving it time to substantially degrade Hizbullah’s missile capabilities. The two are partners in the war effort. (More here.)

New Statesman – Blood on his hands: Blair knew the attack on Lebanon was coming but he didn’t try to stop it, because he didn’t want to. He has made this country an accomplice, destroying what remained of our influence abroad while putting us all at greater risk of attack.

1. My goodness. Déj&#224 Vu.
2. My goodness. Could that last bit be true?

Well, somebody* knows something. The shiny new fear-o-meter (reviewed here) has launched with a robust rating of ‘severe’.

(*And by that, I mean somebody besides Armando Iannucci and Robert Fisk.)

Perhaps another terrorist attack is just what we need; recent history teaches us that such a thing will call an immediate halt to all sorts of silly questions about foreign and domestic policy and/or Teh Vicar’s retirement. There’s no need to engineer anything… all we have to do is let one slip through the net. And speaking of holes and nets…

Thomas Ricks (Washington Post): “… I think civilian casualties are also part of the battlefield play for both sides here. One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they’re being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.”

And speaking of holes and nets…

Prison Planet – The New Gonzales Standard for Torture: But rather than bring policy-and practice-into line with the international conventions that the United States had observed up to September 11, 2001, the administration is now trying to absolve itself ex post facto. It is pressuring Congress to pass legislation that retroactively shields from possible prosecution anyone who authorized or encouraged the use of coercion during interrogations.

And speaking of… oh, you know the rest. Torture, murder, slaughter… and none of it enables or prompts further terrorism…

BSSC – A Few Minor Corrections: The logic of Blair’s claim is that the attacks of September 11th predated our response and that our response cannot therefore have made the situation worse. Have a think about it. He’s effectively claiming that because September 11th happened, nothing we now do could possibly cause an increase in terrorism . It’s just ludicrous. Every time he says it, the correct response is to point, laugh, and then worry that the leader of our country actually appears to believe his own logic defying nonsense.

And speaking of logic-defying nonsense…

Blood & Treasure – Arc of Arson