I guess now we are seeing the "or what" with regards to what happens if Hamas doesn't "recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace."

I do hope that this finally puts a stake in the myth that "democratic nations do not attack each other."

I have heard a lot of pundits discussing the why, and the hidden reasons for what is going on in Palestine and Israel of late. Is it a clever bit of ledgerdemain on the part of Iran to buy time in their quest for nuclear weapons? Was it an inevitable result of the balkanization of Lebanon with the overt withdrawal of Syrian forces from the area? Did the Palestinian leaders finally get fed up with being treated like a terrorist group rather than a democratically elected leadership? Did they feel that they needed a bold move to show that they are effective in some way seeing as they can't meet payroll?

I tend to believe that vast conspiracies that benefit governments are rarely true. The Israeli reaction to the attacks and capture of their soldiers was predictable. I'm not sure how such actions can be seen as anything less than an act of war when facing a government who's charter calls for your nation's destruction should be construed. Hamas though isn't willing to roll over in the face of a bigger dog, and so it is biting and clawing even as the bigger dog is shaking it by the scruff. At this point Israel is in a precarious position, since I don't think it is willing to give ANYTHING to Palestine at this stage, since doing such would be seen as a vindication of the use of force. Hezbollah has to be "broken" from the Israeli perspective, because if it isn't, they will simply pull this sort of stunt again.

Now, this isn't to say that Iran isn't going to egg Hezbollah on, and do whatever they can to keep things going. As long as Hezbollah can make strikes, they are showing some sort of strength. Iran does have a problem though, since at some point the Israeli's will move on them directly, and some people have posited that the American Government is egging Israel on to do their dirty work and strike at Iran's nuclear development facilities. I've also heard that the Syrian Government will be put down by Israel soon at the behest of American interests.

It's hard to figure just what is really going on, and I can't imagine that there is any puppet master or cabal out there pulling the strings and making things happen (well, if you believe in God, we can point there, which goes to a whole other sort of frightening line of reasoning given how so many Americans buy into the end of days). I'm thinking now though that the cold war will be seen as the happy times winding down the 20th century. There are quite a few parallels that can be drawn to World War II given the current course of human events. What disturbs me is that the more I see what is going on, the more it looks like we are seeing World War I finally running its course in the Middle East, and if things follow the historical model there, we'll be seeing a pretty bloody war, followed by another bloody war in 20-30 years in the same region.

Bottom line here is that there are plenty of people willing to kill, and willing to die. Europe and American will be drawn in a LOT faster than what happened in WWI, because of Oil. But anyway you slice it, wars go on until one side is tired of killing or tired of dying. The spectre of nuclear war has made it really frightening to the West. The middle East has fought a lot since WWII though, and they really haven't had their knock down drag out.

There is a disturbing reality that goes along with this. It is possible that the same sort of show of force would cut the fighting down a lot the same way it did in WWII in the Pacific Theatre. To some degree, I think that this has been something that a lot of countries simply don't understand about modern warfare, especially the way the U.S. wages it. The U.S. goes out of its way to minimize civilian casualties. If the U.S. ever changed that policy, even for one day, and declared the day of civilian casualties, I'm sure that it would take months, if not years to really count up all the bodies. As ugly as it sounds, it may be the choice that actually minimizes casualties and human suffering.

For most Americans though, well, they should get ready to pay pay pay for their gasoline. I'm wondering just how high gas futures can go.