From Dreams To Dust

From My Own Little Corner Well, it looks as if there will not be a cease fire in the Middle East any time soon. Condoleeza Rice is leaving the region after being told that Lebanon's Prime Minister will not meet with her until there is a cease fire and the U. S. has said it won't call for a cease fire, but wants a sustainable solution. Question: How can you work toward a sustainable solution when innocent people on both sides are being killed at an alarming rate? Okay, so the civilians in Lebanon have been told to leave the area. Where exactly are they supposed to go? How are they supposed to get there when the roads are being bombed? What are they supposed to use for fuel, food, water? It would seem to me that the RIGHT thing to do would be to call for a cease fire, if only for a short time, and then work toward this sustainable solution. I understand that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and that the Lebanese government can't seem to control them, even though they are represented in the Lebanese parliament. However, bombing civilian buildings and killing children, women, and the elderly is obviously not the answer. Israel says that Hezbollah is targeting civilians in Israel. That is because they are terrorists. If Israel kills the innocent doesn't that make them just as guilty of terrorist acts? After all, two wrongs don't make a right. We all have been told that particular adage. Today Israel hit a refugee shelter killing over 50 people. Hezbollah launched numerous rockets into Israel. Israel hit a U.N. observation post, killing 4 U.N. observers. Israel says that Hezbollah puts it's rocket launchers in civilian areas and that there will be collateral damage to civilians. What happened to these precision guided, "smart" bombs that they are supposed to be using? Maybe they aren't smart enough or maybe the people programming them aren't being careful with their coodinates. Israel is supposed to be a mighty military power and with such power comes great responsibility. These countries need to put down their arms and start talking. Secretary of State Rice's undersecretary R. Nicholas Burns has stated that Lebanon didn't tell Condoleeza Rice not to come to that country today, but that Consoleeza Rice feels that "out of respect for the Lebanese people" this might not be the right time to visit. What? If anything, diplomacy is needed now more than ever. I am tired of this administration using any means necessary to further their goals. Why must every flare up be a "war on terror"? These countries have been fighting over the HOLY LAND for years if not centuries. They continue to fight for the right to exist. Why not learn to co-exist? That would seem to be the answer. The question is how to go about that. It is painfully clear that our government at this time has no idea. They have no foreign policy, unless you call war mongering a policy. There is no plan for this region, except to let them continue to destroy each other while they sit back and rub their hands. They are like a bunch of buzzards sitting in a tree waiting to pick the bones of the fallen. It is time to stop this insanity. We have other problems that need to be addressed also. While we are all being inundated with the images from Lebanon and Israel, Iraq continues to heat up. Donald Rumsfeld has announced that the soldiers due to rotate out after a 1 year tour of duty will not go. Instead they will be staying and going to Baghdad. The situation continues to degrade in that area. More innocent civilians have been killed there in the last week than in Israel. More American troops have lost their lives than Israeli troops in the last week. I think that Iraq is on the verge of a civil war. Congress is calling for the Iraqi Prime Minister to denounce Hezbollah. He won't. Why? Could it be because he, like Hezbollah, is a shiite? Just a thought. I have serious doubts about the ability of the Iraqi government to perform it's job without causing major divisions among it's people. We continue to push for a democracy in that country when I am not sure that is what they want. We hear over and over that they think that the West is decadent. Why would they want a government like ours when they feel that way? I just don't get it and I don't think anyone else does either. President Bush continues to tell us that he is spreading democracy, freeing the people from tyranny, giving them the freedom to choose their own type of government (as long as it is the kind that we approve of), and still the killing goes on. The world looks at us and shakes it's head. We are no longer the global power that we once were. The countries of the world have no respect for us anymore. Even Great Britain, who has been our greatest ally for years, has lost what respect they had. Tony Blair is referred to as "Bush's lap dog". That sends a pretty clear message. We can't get anything done around the world because we have no respect. When I think about the future of my children and yours, I wonder what legacy we are leaving them. Certainly not the legacy I dreamed of in my younger days. I had a dream...you know the rest. Seems it has turned to dust. I am truly beginning to lose hope for the future that I once envisioned. Please, please continue to pray for peace and enlightenment and may your God bless and keep you and yours.