I find the level of discussion among the letters to be interesting. As a Lebanese who dislikes Hezbollah and blames them (and Israel) for this ridiculous conflict which was completely out of proportion, I took the article as nothing more than a piece about the man Nasrallah. Ms. Fielder did a good job of describing who he is and why he is popular among certain people in Lebanon. Even if we find something to be dangerous or distasteful, if we don't understand why it exists, then our minds our closed to creative solutions to counter it's existence. I think that when we demonize a group too easily, we fall into a trap. We must remember that we all have our own brand of "extremists" in our midsts. Lebanon has Hezbollah, Israel has the settlers, the US has the Christian right, etc. And there are many more in each country. How we understand them and regard them dictates our responses to them and their relative power in our societies. If we simply dismiss them or, even worse, forcefully subdue them, it quite often strengthens their movements.

Hezbollah filled a power vacuum after the Israeli withdrawl and especially after Hariri's death. They saw their precarious position with UN 1559 and increasing pressure on their power and they acted accordingly. They are not ready to give up their hard won status in Lebanon--at least not under the current conditions. I still believe them to be a pragmatic bunch (even though I dislike them) and think that they haven't been offered an internal Lebanese solution that is acceptable to them. With civil war fractures still present in Lebanon and fears of a new civil war always around the corner, Lebanon's government will need active shepherding in negotiations amongst its players, which must include Hezbollah, to come to a new arrangement. Because of the current power arrangements in Lebanon, the government is too weak to handle this situation on its own. I think this war was a disaster for 2 reasons: of course the loss of human life on both sides and the awful devastation to Lebanon and Israel; and the strengthening of Hezbollah's position on Lebanon's complex political landscape. I find both tragic...

I'm not really sure what the point of this article is. So we know that Rice set the ISG in motion about a year ago. So what? From the reality in Iraq right now and US policy, I'd say absolutely nothing has changed. I don't know if we'll ever know what Rice's true intentions are regarding anything, but let's look at this rationally. She's been an active part of the Bush presidency from the beginning and remains one of his closest advisors. Through the false leadup to the war, Abu Ghraib, the 9/11 commission hearings, to Guantanamo, she's been there, again, as one of his closest advisors. Logic would conclude that she is complicit with the administration. I don't buy the idea that she's looking out for the country's best interests. She's a survivor and has risen in stature through these tragic 6 years. I don't trust her and she just plain gives me the willies with her cold-hearted ability to glide through these turbulent times relatively unscathed.

Wow, judging from the number of letters, this really struck a chord with a lot of people. I'm a flight attendant and I, like the author, have to endure the TSA circus every time I go to work. It seems as if common sense is discouraged by the TSA (I get a sensible TSA person every now and then). Making people take off their flip flops and put them through the scanner, harassing Spanish tourists with small souvenir snow globes of NY because of the liquid in the globes, chastising people who've bought the wrong size toothpaste...I've seen it all. Even though I'm in uniform, have been fingerprinted and have had background checks by the FBI, I'm still subjected to the same idiocy. My favorite recent story is the TSA guy in Kansas City who wanted to look in my food bag (most of our layovers are less than 10 hours now, requiring us to carry all of our food for a 2-3 day trip) and asked me in all seriousness if there was anything in the bag that might cause him harm. I had to respond, "Only if the can of tuna in there jumps out and hits you in the head". He was not amused...

Wow, the author has beautifully articulated the many confusing and disparate thoughts that I have had on this issue. Bravo! I can only hope that people are reading, listening, and in the end, being thoughtful.