The Daily Background

The Middle East
It is rumored that Secretary of State Rice has delayed her much-anticipated but barely-scheduled plan to visit the Middle East until Monday. Here are the latest developments, country by country:

Lebanon–
A Lebanese town has been taken over by Israeli military forces, it was reported late yesterday by CNN. According to Israeli commanders, they intend to also occupy more towns in the area, which are said to be Hezbollah strongholds. The Israeli military has been ordering civilians to leave these areas for several days now. Although this is not being billed as a partial invasion (rather an ‘incursion’), it certainly looks like one, with some saying that the military maneuvers inside Lebanon could last weeks.

This is, of course, entirely and wholly illegal under international law.

While it is said that Lebanese troops will ‘protect’ Lebanon from Israeli ‘incursions’ it is not known to what extent this will happen, and even if it did the result would likely be minimal. Some have theories that the estimated 6,000 Shiite Muslims in the Lebanese army may illegally assist Hezbollah in the fighting, which would increase Hezbollah forces dramatically (the group which is classified by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization is said to have about 1,000 active combatants).

Israel–
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Israel has been developing plans to take military action against Lebanon for more than a year now, fueling conspiracies theories that suggest Israel used the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers nearly two weeks ago as an excuse to mount a disproportionate military campaign that it had been waiting to enact.

Thousands of people around the world are demonstrating against Israel’s illegal military actions in Lebanon.

Staunch pro-Israeli professor (and accused plagiarist/fraud) Alan Dershowitz has expressed his belief that not all civilians deaths are equally tragic, suggesting that while all Israeli deaths are tragic, not all Lebanese ones are.

Iraq–
The Washington Post today is running a front page story equating American mistakes made in Iraq to those made in Vietnam.

The Associated Press is reporting that four soldiers who stand accused of murder in Iraq are planning to argue that they had orders to “kill all military age males.” In the Iraq child-rape-murder-burn case, defense lawyers are planning to argue that the stress of combat was to blame for what they apparently now admit happened, and that the soldiers were numbed to the point of not knowing what was right and wrong.

Afghanistan–
NATO’s top man in Afghanistan (Lieutenant Gen David Richards, a Briton) is now warning that the country is ‘close to anarchy,’ echoing several recent reports that unrest is growing, including that the largest military action there since 2002 when the Taliban was forced out of power, happened just last month.

Bits and Pieces
Stem Cells– Democrats react to the President’s veto of the recent stem cell bill that passed both the Senate and the House by large margins.

Lieberman– Joe Lieberman, facing a tough anti-war primary challenger for the first time in his career, is reportedly receiving buckets of money from pro-Israel PACs and lobbying groups, due to his staunch support of illegal Israeli military action in Gaza Strip and more recently Lebanon. Speaking of that ‘tough anti-war primary challenger,’ Ned Lamont is leading Joe Lieberman in three polls now. The race towards the August 8th Democratic primary is very close indeed.

Coulter– Annie the “Ice Queen” Coulter is now advocating ‘wiping out’ southern Lebanon in its entirety, civilians and all. E&P writes that she’s saying that the Israeli military action has in fact not been extreme enough.

And Finally…
A man in Oklahoma City has been indicted for making threats against Bill Clinton. The accused, a Mr James Williford is also very vocal in his belief that the former two-term President was “a communist mole for the Red Chinese.” Um, whatever that means.

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