More Alarmism, Please!

There must be something deeply unpleasant about being a high-ranking Republican that I'm just not getting. Maybe they wear hair shirts under their three-piece suits. Maybe every Friday they have to gather at Speaker Hastert's house and perform unnatural acts. Whatever it is, it makes them grouchy. For the last six years or so their party has been in control of the White House, Congress, and the Courts, almost continuously. But are they happy? Not at all:

From the Washington Post

U.S. Spy Agencies Criticized On Iran
GOP-Led Panel Faults Intelligence

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 24, 2006; Page A01

A key House committee issued a stinging critique of U.S. intelligence on Iran yesterday, charging that the CIA and other agencies lack "the ability to acquire essential information necessary to make judgments" on Tehran's nuclear program, its intentions or even its ties to terrorism.

The 29-page report, principally written by a Republican staff member on the House intelligence committee who holds a hard-line view on Iran, fully backs the White House position that the Islamic republic is moving forward with a nuclear weapons program and that it poses a significant danger to the United States. But it chides the intelligence community for not providing enough direct evidence to support that assertion.

...

The report relies exclusively on publicly available documents. Its authors did not interview intelligence officials. Still, it warns the intelligence community to avoid the mistakes made regarding weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq war, noting that Iran could easily be engaged in "a denial and deception campaign to exaggerate progress on its nuclear program as Saddam Hussein apparently did concerning his WMD programs."

Honestly. With the nation going deeper and deeper into debt to finance the ruins of neoconservativism, you'd think they'd welcome the chance to avoid a war. Ah well.

Beirut Blues

In recent days I've shifted my employment from the halls of CET to the basement of a consulting firm run by an elderly Jewish fellow who also has a medical-relief charity. Most of his business and philanthropy is centered around the middle East, and with children and grandchildren having served or currently serving in the IDF, the situation there is of keen interest to him.

When he saw the recent Reuters article on Hezbollah's effort to rebuild Lebanon, he got mad:

"The Israelis have been outwitted again... Hezbollah is ten times as strong as they were before this conflict started. We can't be afraid of lessons like this."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060817/wl_nm/mideast_usa_rebuilding_dc_1

Israeli society is more than a little disillusioned about the war which was so widely supported only weeks ago, and governmental heads are set to roll.

Any further invasion of Lebanon would further weaken the country's infrastructure and almost certainly strengthen Hezbullah.

Mr. Kramer's idea is that the U.S. and Israel ought to take the lead on Lebanese reconstruction. my knowledge of Lebanon is quite limited and I have my doubts about whether such a plan could ever get off the ground.

But really, what fair-minded perosn would expect Israel to do such a thing? This isn't the Marshal Plan; Lebanon never surrendered. Hassan Nasrallah was never tried at Nuremberg. The idea that they (Israel) might be expected to pour billions of dollars into a country which not only recently attacked them and still holds several of their soldiers hostage, and has every intention of doing so again, sounds like a bad joke.

Seen in my Barrio

I haven't had much time to be at the computer lately, so just enjoy this, located not three blocks from where I live: