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According to this book, Shia Muslims, the second largest sect of Islam, are gathering strength and cementing cross-border ties with fellow Shia following the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The author believes that the changing trend of unification and collaboration could potentially lead to a new map of the Middle East. Started during the Iranian Islamic Revolution under Ayatollah Khomeini, the neo-Shea movement has mandated to fend off Sunni dominance, warranting socio-political changes across the Islamic world.

My 2 cents, “if the conflict is within Islam, wouldn’t it then open the doors for non-Muslims to walk in and take charge.â€? Americans for one have mastered the Roman strategy of “divide and conquerâ€?, if memory serves me right, CIA was operative in Iraq long before the 1980 war between Iran and Iraq. Getting these two sects to fight now might be all the more easier for America with its occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan and of course the big ally Israel pissing on the rest of Middle East. “Wouldn’t they want conflicts within Islam?”

Then what good is it for Shea and Sunni’s to go after each others throat when the Western theocracies are right on the fence waiting for one such opportunity? Stupidity is a trait that Social Darwinists overlooked while coining the phrase “Survival of the Fittest.� Need I say more?

Despite the blockade, the Lebanese Ministry of Environment has started the clean up of fuel that spilled into the Mediterranean Sea after Israel bombed a power plant. Some environmentalists consider this to be the biggest environmental catastrophe in Lebanon’s history. The month old spill has reached 140 km (87 miles) of Lebanese coastline and the Syrian shore threatening marine species such as Bluefin tuna and the green turtle, which is endangered in the Mediterranean.
The Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Tuesday “In the worst-case scenario, and if all the oil contained in the bombed power plant at Jiyyeh leaked into the Mediterranean Sea, the Lebanese oil spill could well rival the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.”
An Italian environmental agency that monitors the Mediterranean said the “spill posed a heightened risk of cancer, and is a high-risk toxic cocktail made up of substances which cause cancer and damage to the endocrine system. It is not oil that has flowed but fuel for power stations. This contains substances such as benzene, categorized as a Class 1 carcinogen.”
Aside from the aforementioned, the MOE website lists numerous other environmental effects of the war that Lebanon has to deal with. For the time being, the war seems to have ended, but the battle to overcome collateral damage is just getting started. There is no doubt in my mind that the destruction brought up by the conflict will resonate for years, if not decades and will substantiation the notion that “in a war, there are no winners�.

UN Resolution 1701 calls for “a full cessation of hostilities” and Hezbollah agrees to observe truce. Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the offensive will not stop until Monday, in self-defense, Sheikh Nasrallah said: “As long as there is Israeli aggression, it is our right to fight them and defend our land.”

The conflict in the Middle East has been on for more than 26 days, and the tolls are disproportionately higher on the Lebanese side, surprised, don’t be, that is how wars are, nothing fair about it. According to casualty counts by popular media, Lebanon has 10 times more death from this illegal, unjust and inhumane occupation by Israel, with death tally exceeding more than a thousand, and I am talking only about civilians. So with simple arithmetic and my pragmatic view of this world, I compute the life of a Lebanese to be 10 times cheaper than that of an Israeli. What about Hezbollah you may ask? According to our respected media, they don’t count.

Read the other “Cost of Life” series posts. 

Read the latest on from Middle East on BBC.

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. — Dwight David Eisenhower

The conflict in the Middle East has resulted in a massive spill where over 35,000 tonnes of oil have been spilled into the sea off Lebanon and the continuing violence is hindering the clean-up operation. To makes matters worse, the Lebanese coast has been made even worse by oil leaking from an Israeli warship hit by a Hezbollah missile. A 80km stretch of coastline has so far been contaminated by the spill, affecting beaches as well as ports and marinas. The cost of clean up is expected to be in the region of $40-50 million USD.

Source: edie.net

Photo Courtesy: edie.net

Israeli Fire Kills 36 Children in Qana

 

The Saudis want President Bush to intervene and stop the Israeli aggression in Lebanon. Bush has to now figure out if he would tell the bastards in the Middle East to stop fighting or tell the other bastards in the Middle East to stick the gasoline pipes up their youknowwhat!

The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told Bush that he is “either with the oil cartel, or with the Zionist,� Bush now has to choose between oil and ally. My guess, he’ll pick OIL.

More here.

Israel  

time out for behaving badly
a few UN sanctions
3 useless soldiers who’ll probably never fight a war but managed to start one

Hamas

paycheck
paycheck
and more paychecks

Hezbollah

attention
some falafels
if all else fail, guys who care to aim before firing off missiles

Award winning reporter-commentator Daniel Schorr is obviously not beating the liberal drum. Here’s a commentary of his from this afternoon in which, Schorr, (I am guessing is Jewish) theorizes that Iran, (not Israel, Hamas or Hezbollah) helped to initiate the current conflict between Israel and Lebanon. Schorr claims that Iran hijacked the Palestinian cause in order to establish its own influence in the region. 

Mr. Schorr points in his commentary that Israel withdrew from south Lebanon as a peaceful gesture, the truth is far from it. Schorr believes that Israel withdrew from Gaza as a peaceful gesture, again, a fallacy (here’s the first paragraph of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Disengagement Plan “The State of Israel is committed to the peace process and aspires to reach an agreed resolution of the conflict based upon the vision of US President George Bush.�) The disengagement was forced upon Israel by the US, they never volunteered. 

What Schorr fails to address is that resentment for the Zionist resulted from years of oppressive and racist policy adopted by Israel against Arabs. It is evident that our media, just like our administration has decided to side with Israel and turn a blind eye to the mess created by this illegitimate conflict.

Our administrations stands on this issue might be deliberately negligent to justify a similar situation US faces in Iraq, but what is our media’s excuse?

Bush told Blair during a G8 luncheon that a key to defusing the violence in the region was for “Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it’s over.” The conversation was caught by an open microphone nearby.

If Bush believes that Hezbollah was solely responsible for the mess, he is naïve.
If Bush believes that Hezbollah and Israel were jointly responsible for the escalation of violence, and he knew of the open microphone around him during lunch, and he knew that the media whores were out to eves dropping on his conversation with his British bitch, yet made a naïve statement such as this, he is extremely clever!

Oh, and if Bush believes that Hezbollah or Hamas would stop the attacks without Israel stopping its brutal aggression, he is dumb.

For more on this gossip, visit any of the so-called “credible news agencies.�