The Worry over Israel vs Hezbollah

I sat in my living room this weekend and I couldn’t help but flip the TV back and forth from CNN and FOX News to whatever else may have been on. The news didn’t change much – Anderson Cooper was still wearing his flack jacket and squinting into the sun over his cameraman’s shoulder. The racially ambiguous female newscaster on Fox was still insisting that things in the Middle East were steadily getting worse and the guys on “Mythbuster’s” were still trying to build a rocket car.

But I kept coming back to the news. Israel and Lebanon… excuse me, Hezbollah, were still bombing the hell out of each other. I kept noticing this tight feeling in my stomach, but I wasn’t sure of what it was. I mean – maybe it was just the normal human reaction to watching war being broadcast live in high def. Naw, it had to be more than that, I thought. But what was it. Was I worried about the innocent civilians in harms way? Sure! Without a doubt! But that too didn’t seem to be the answer.

Was I worried about the true motive of Hezbollah for launching that surprise attack into Israel last week that allowed them to capture the two Israeli troops? Was that it? Maybe, but I didn’t feel satisfied.

Then I wondered if I was empathizing with those two soldiers held by Hezbollah. I’m sure that if they’re still alive, they have probably been starved and beaten half to death. Yeah, I was feeling for those guys.

But after long speculation, I discovered what was bothering me, and it turned out to be that President Bush is the uh... President.

What I mean by that is - we're the United States. We are the world's only REAL Superpower. When you are a true economic, political, humanitarian and military Superpower you can do a lot of good things and you can make a lot of people listen to you, and best of all if you have a savvy, intelligent and creative leader, you can do it all without firing a shot or dropping a single bomb. Unfortunately, we have George Bush.

I recall during the last election, there were all these polls stating that average Americans thought George Bush would be better man to have a beer with than John Kerry. They said he was... a... (what was the phrase...) he was an 'everyman' George Bush was a better Presidental choice because he was an every[day]man. All I could say to that was, "Give me a break!" The last man I want running my country AND the free world is some schmuck that I could run into at the ESPN Zone! That to me is utter foolishness. I'd actually rather have a President that was more intellectual THAN ME! Not that I'm a slouch, but I think to be a GOOD President you have to have a world view, you have to be a student of history, you have to be able to see not just the big picture today, but the big picture a year from now, five years from now, ten years and so on. So, I don't really don't want my president to buy me my second Sam Adams!

The tight feeling in my stomach comes from the fact that I don't believe that George Bush, nor any of his senior staff ( VP Dick Cheney, SOS Dr. Condolezza Rice, SOD Donald Rumsfeld, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, Counselor Dan Bartlett, Press Secretary Tony Snow and/or Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin) are talented, creative or savvy enough to resolve this Middle East conflict without putting US troops, US bullets and US bombs in play. I guess with all being said, I've had enough war. I'm tired of our troops dying in Iraq over Bush's lies, I'm tired of our troops dying in Afganistan because Bush wants to pretend that he's chasing a 6 foot 3 inch Mudjahadeen son-of-a-bitch through the mountains. And frankly, I don't want to see an incredible diplomatic opportunity squandered. Honestly I don't know who the REAL bad guys are over in the Middle East right now. I mean, I know how the players line up and I understand that Hezbollah is a small faction within Lebanon, and Israel is bombing the shit out of Lebanon to force them to disarm Hezbollah, and Syria is running Hezbollah and Iran is backing Syria and Hamas is now relegated to number two on the terrorist dance card, yadda yadda yadda. But I just see things getting worse before they get better, mainly because the most powerful country in the world is lead by a man that is better suited to be running a car dealership and there is hardly anyone else that stands a chance at using its non-military might, to settle these countries down.

TTBM