UPDATE: The IDF is
denying this story.
Israel has just given Syria 72 hours to stop
"Hizbullah's activity, bring about release of kidnapped IDF troops."
The London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday that "Washington has information according to which Israel gave Damascus 72 hours to stop Hizbullah's activity along the Lebanon-Israel border and bring about the release the two kidnapped IDF soldiers or it would launch an offensive with disastrous consequences."
(snip)
Al-Hayat quoted the source as saying that "the US cannot rule out the possibility of an Israeli strike in Syria,"
Not sure what else there is to say....except that I've been feeling very unsettled by recent developments, regardless of whose justified and who isn't.
I'm afraid Bush sees himself as a "Savior" of sorts, ushering in the Christian rapture and apocalypse. I know that doesn't play very well around here, but that's my fear at this point, really.
I'm afraid Bush is sitting around with the rest of the rapture crowd thinking that this is really exciting because any day now Jesus is going to swoop down in his UFO (or whatever) and wisk them away. Someone wrote a diary yesterday saying Bush and friends are too into money for that to be true, and that Bush is not really a religious man anyway... I see that point of view and I hope it's true because at least then he would have some desire to see the world stay on track. I'm not convinced he does, really... I'm afraid he's too much like Jim Jones or one of those types--gone on the koolaid.
I also think he has a pathological inability to respond to crisis which transcends his political philosophy. I think he's just pathologically inept in a crisis. I think about how he read the goat story, how he couldn't respond to the tsunami, was playing guitar for the cameras while New Orleans went under, and now obsessing over carving a pig while the world falls into terrifying chaos... the man is SICK SICK SICK. He has no concept of his position. It's as if we have a mentally retarded child running the country.... destroying the world. He's run every business he every put his hands on into the ground, why Americans think that's a good resume for being President of the most powerful country in the world, that can do the most damage to the entire world, is beyond me--way beyond me.
The whole thing just makes me weep. It makes all the rest seem irrelevant. I've heard people say we shouldn't get off track, off focus.... but there's no point in making the bed when the house is about to be destroyed.
Tell me I'm wrong. I'll be happy to be convinced otherwise.