Yesterday afternoon Deb and I noticed a rather large number of Lears, Gulfstreams, and Citations already parked on the ramp at Laconia Airport. Early last evening, when I was out on The Boat with a few of the WP nephews, we saw at least eight bizjets landing at the airport in a 45 minute period.
I caught the Nextel Cup race from the best seat in the house: in front of the Official Weekend Pundit Audio/Video Multimedia Center at The Manse. No travel. No crowds. No line for the restroom. Air conditioned comfort.
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My characterization of Hezbollah as Iran's Rockem-Sockem Robots was prescient. Cox & Forkum thought the same thing.
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It appears that Iran is stepping up the ante, helping Hezbollah with anti-ship missiles. One Israeli warship was damaged and a Camodian freighter sunk by Iranian-built C-802 missiles. It was reported that some of Iran's Revolutionary Guard troops help set up and fire the missiles. If this is so, then Iran may have started down a dangerous path, one that could end with their destruction by Israeli nukes if Israel sees itself on the verge of destruction.
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Some have seen Israel's response to both Hamas and Hezbollah attacks as disproportionate. Neo-neocon quotes Betsy Newmark, who asks “I wish that the next time some leader comes out and starts talking about Israel's "disproportionate response" that the journalists would ask them what their definition of a proportionate response would be if some terrorists were sending rockets into their own cities. Perhaps their own citizens might be interested in knowning how these intrepid leaders would respond if they were being attacked.”
Neo-neocon's also delves into the danger of “proportionality” in war.
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In another vein, Skip at GraniteGrok ponders whether the US MSM is American, or at least, pro-American. It appears that the answer is no. Skip provides a number of examples showing the media's poor choices that spur on America's enemies. Their actions are not those of pro-American media.
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Wretchard points out that there is some confusion between how wars were prosecuted in the past and today. While we have the means for precision strikes that the Allies in WWII could only dream about, it may take more than that to win a war against an intractable enemy that does not recognize the difference between civilians and combatants. What makes it worse is that the US Supreme Court has decided to tie our hands when it comes to dealing with such enemies, giving such enemies protection under the Geneva Convention while overlooking the fact that even the Convention does not recognize them as lawful combatants.
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This edition of Thoughts On A Sunday took on a darker tone than I had originally intended. While I usually try to mix up the various subject that I ponder for this weekly post, thoughts about the fighting going on in Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza were at the forefront all day. BeezleBub asked me a number of questions about the war, wondering why it was happening. Many of the answers I gave him came from the various posts I linked to and commented about above.
It's never easy explaining fanaticism of any kind to a twelve-year old, particularly the kind that leads to the indiscriminate slaughter of innocents.
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