(Photo: AP)

War madness….

I've been unable to update PWCD since Tuesday due to other pressing commitments. In that time, the situation in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon has seriously deteriorated.

According to today's Guardian::

Israeli jets continued to bomb Lebanon on Friday, hitting the airport and 18 other targets as Jerusalem threatened to escalate its attack on the besieged country even further. Three people were killed. Hizbullah fired 13 more rockets at northern Israel, but caused little damage.

[snip]

Israeli aircraft hit offices, fuel depots, roads, bridges and junctions, killing three people and injuring 50, according to news agencies. About 50 people, including four Brazilians, have been killed since Israel started attacking Lebanon.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said aircraft had targeted 18 sites, including the airport, the offices of Hizbullah in Beirut, and bridges and sections of road on the Beirut-Damascus highway. The conflict has affected both the Lebanese and Israeli economies. Tourists in both countries have fled and stocks and currency values have plummeted.

Yet Israeli officials vowed to escalate the conflict and assassinate Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah leader.

[snip]

The crisis in the north has completely overshadowed the situation in Gaza, where Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit remains a captive of Hamas and the already desperate living conditions of Gazans continue to deteriorate.

Piles of rubbish are mounting in the streets as there is no fuel for garbage trucks. The shortage of electricity, caused by airstrikes on a power station, means there is not enough power to pump sewage or water. Untreated sewage is running directly into the sea and crowds gather round water tanks to fill jerry cans and plastic bottles.

Virtually no wages have been paid to employees of the Palestinian Authority and the rest of the economy is at a standstill. Israel allows enough fuel and food to enter but Gazans cannot leave or enter the strip. Thousands have been stuck on the Egyptian border waiting to return home. The Red Cross reported that four people had died because of the lack of shelter and services.

Israel pulled its forces out of central Gaza overnight, although they remain in the south near Rafah. The air force continued to bomb parts of Gaza, hitting buildings, roads and bridges, and the army shelled northern Gaza, where a man was killed when a tank fired at his car.

Since the offensive began, Israeli forces have killed 86 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier in a friendly fire incident. Many of the dead were gunmen, but about a fifth were civilians. The latest victim was a 10-year-old boy who died in a hospital on Friday, four days after being wounded in Beit Lahiya in the north.

Meanwhile, on Thursday the US vetoed an Arab-backed UN resolution condemning Israel.

Way to go, USA!

The one country in the world who could put a stop to this carnage is currently under the control of a fanatical, bellicose right-wing cabal whose nominal figurehead is a spoiled, imbecilic, ego-driven and religiously-militant blockhead.

And no, I’m not talking about Iran, though the description likewise fits the Iranian political situation.

I am at a loss to understand exactly how any thinking person anywhere—in the US, Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, or elsewhere—can believe that this destruction and bloodshed will resolve anything. Has it ever?!

But then, resolution and peace aren't really the goals here, are they? No, the situation in Lebanon and Gaza is a blatant, depraved power grab for land and resources on the part of a US-backed ally, endorsed and financed by an American establishment who is itself, in this very moment, engaged its own murderous power grab in Iraq. In both cases, the atrociously one-sided destruction and disproportionate casualties work against a negotiated end to strife anytime soon.

When are we going to learn to lock up psychopaths like Bush and Olmert, rather than voting them into office?

Guardian story here.