I'm an American, Catholic of Irish ancestry. If you really want to see things clearly, you can't look at anything from the perspective that we live in a democracy that believes in truth and justice. Mom and apple pie are a thing of the past.

To truly understand what our government is doing, you have to look at it from the perspective of the capacity of man's inhumanity to man. Most people in America don't believe that our government has the capacity for wholesale killing, after all we're a democracy, right? Well if you look back through history, you'll realize that Germany under Hitler was also a democracy. Hitler was democratically elected. Then that government twisted facts and created a huge spririt of nationalism. This was the only way to get people behind the evil agenda of eradicating the Jews, gypsies, Catholics, and homosexuals. We had 9/11. What do you thnik the color coded alerts were for, surely not to warn us. They went on yellow, red and orange when the poll numbers dropped, then they went to green. They abandoned that program because it stopped have the desired effect on public opinion.

What possible reason is there for no ceasefire? Have you ever known peace negotiations to take place without one? No. As for disarming Hizbollah, yes they should be disarmed, their armed presence destroys the crdibility of the Lebanese Army. But if Israel and the U.S. truly want the Lebanese Army to be involved in guarding the border at the UN line, why would the Israelis bomb the barracks of the Lebanese Army? They aren't fighting this war. More Lebanese soldiers have died than Hizbollah militants.

Lebanon is not a disputed country. It is a sovereign nation with a democratically elected government and it's own army. Palestine's borders were likewise set out during armistices and numerous UN resolutions that the Israelis choose to ignore with the blessings of the United States. We ALWAYS veto UN resolutions against Israel.

We can't attack Iran, though we want to. Israel has in the past. We likewise would have a hard time attacking Syria, though we want to. By the same token, Syria and Iran would love to get rid of Israel, but they can't, we would certainly step in as would other European nations, if for no other reason than to protect the flow of oil. Hizbollah kidnapping the soldiers was a calculated risk, probably with Syria and/or Iran behind it. Israel knows this, so does everyone else. I think they had Hizbollah do this because they didn't think the Israeli response would be so brutal, and it might take the heat off Palestine. In another week of bombing, there will be no more Lebanon as we now know it, for years to come. I doubt Israel will claim this territory as it has done in the past.

But if you think this is all about "harboring terrorists" you're wrong. I'm sure the US is calculating how much the Arab world is willing to take of this before one of them steps in and escalates it further. When saber rattling begins, we will step in, butu by then it will be too late. The US is foolhardy. No one in the Arab world will touch this (militarily) because they know what will happen. The rest of the world (France, Germany, etc) would have to get involved if another country enterd the fray, to protect Lebanon's democracy as well as to help Israel.

What will happen is terrror being unleasehed in the US unabated. We will get a taste of what the Israelis have been dealing with, what the Brits dealt with when the IRA was bombing them, what Indonesia deals with, etc. If you think George Bush and Dick Cheney give a rat's a** about citizens of this country getting blown up, you are truly delusional.

Since 9/11 these poor excuses for leaders of the free world have been laughing all the way to the bank. Did you ever notice ALL of the security firms they give no bid contracts to ALL come out of Texas? Hallibuton, Kellog, Brown and Root, all Texas. They have cheated our government, given dirty water to our soldiers, engaged in human trafficking, yet nothing happens to them. Do you ever ask yourself WHY?

It is your duty as an American citizen to question your governement. It is the only awy to hold them accountable for what they do IN OUR NAME!!! What was true during Watergate is true today - follow the money - it's the biggest flaw of a capitalistic economy.

Turn off Fox, turn on the BBC (their news is on most public TV stations), read foreign papers, go on forums like this AND LISTEN. Don't get your news from talking heads on the cable news shows. They present opinion columnists as experts. They aren't. They have opinion like you, me, everyone else in the world. Just because they get printed in newspapers, doesn't mean anything they say is a fact, or that they are particularly well informed. Many aren't. They just write well.

Bottom line is nothing is ever as simple as it seems, but one thing is true, if Israel thought for one minute that would cut off aid or weapons, she'd stop. Yes, the US can stop Israel, and the day we can't, you will know Armageddon.