I
N THE MIDDLE It seems to rather unfair that Lebanon always seems to be immediately in the area located between whomever is engaged in slinging rockets or missiles or suicide packages of people to bomb smithereens out of anything, every one and everything on which they happen to land. Not that Lebanon is, in any sense, blameless we don't know and shouldn't say so if we did.
There seems to be some hesitancy about just how a "modern war" ought to be conducted. The first step is usually one which has been tried and which in all probability fail again this time as well. Much of such negative talk is countermanded by sharp statements concerning today's leaders.
Then, when the project is over and done with, reports of it's "success" offer comparisons of how well his new shot did as compared and contrasted with those in the past. The actual landfall was perhaps thirty-feet closer to the target, instance with emphasis on what is planned rather than anything which may have been accomplished. The good people of Beruit, and other Lebanese cities and towns, must wonder just what other civic sites are to be sacrificed in this primitive manner.
We realize that Lebanon plays a critical role in the mixed-up troubles which continue endlessly in is "mid-east" part of the world. We have been severely handicapped in dealing with events in the area in that some are not clearly identified as people of specific nations. They are so, often, lumped together with others sharing similar cultural, linguistic, religious and musical tastes as well as a few cantankerous qualities they argue about amongst themselves.
We Americans have some odd feelings about the area. Mention the existence of "The American University of Beruit", in Lebanon and most Americans seem downright friendly. The feeling does not last, and we don't have Yasher Arafat around to blame.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 7-13-06 [c329wds]
