"This Lebanon war is just a first salvo in the larger geopolitical game between the U.S./Israel/UK coalition and the other powerhouses of Russia/Iran/Syria and China."

Everything in your post is bang on, Mark. Excellent summary.

Now why is it so hard for most liberals to accept, after the neocons announced over a period of 15 years their plans for the Middle East and for American democracy (in the form of PNAC and its individual contributors), and then went and DID these things, that the same neocon fanatics were incapable of orchestrating 9/11, the myth that sustains their war-mongering, empire-building dreams?

They wrote about the usefulness of a "new Pearl Harbor," and a year later they got it.

The only way to stop "WWIII" is to destroy the myth that gives the neocons symbolic authority over American foreign policy: 9/11.

42% of Americans already understand what's going on (http://www.911truth.org/images/

911TruthZogbyPollFinalReport.htm).

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?

docid=-5946593973848835726

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?

docid=1951610169657809939&q=911+revisited

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?

docid=964034652002408586&q=911+revisited

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?

docid=-3498980438587461603&q=911+revisited

I agree with chas. Many geologists say the elephant in the room of all discussions of conservation is demographics. In essence, it doesn't matter if everyone in North America gets a hybrid car, or installs energy efficient taps in their homes. It doesn't matter if affluence breeds efficiency. The spread of such affluence to greater numbers around the world undermines whatever efficiency gains are made within the system. This will be true for oil and water.

As an aside, I would also like to add that many Canadians are nervously anticipating the inevitable claim America will have to make on our abundance of fresh water. The Council of Canadians (www.canadians.org) has been warning of this for years. NAFTA ensures that as long as water is considered a commodity, it must be sold to Americans and Mexicans for the same price it is sold to Canadians. Same goes for oil. Canada basically signed away its population's claim to its abundance of resources when it signed NAFTA.

I don't believe the future of water will be a struggle between nations, however. I believe the globalists will use privatization to ensure the rich get water, wherever they are, and the poor get nothing, wherever they are.

Dissenting voice? Are you joking? Mr. Grieve needs to do more than parrot NYT articles in the future.

Zelikow is the supreme insider. He co-authored a book with Condoleezza Rice, and served as Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, the greatest whitewash/cover-up in American history. When Zelikow and Earl Warren meet in hell, I'm sure they'll slap hands.

Zelikow is leaving the spotlight for the same reason Rumsfeld did: They are co-conspirators in the crimes of 9/11. Now that the Project for a New American Century and its ideas are imploding, the principal figures are running for cover.

Dissenting voice? Yes, I'm sure Bush waited 441 days before grudgingly agreeing to "investigate" 9/11, then appointed Henry Kissinger in a gesture of unparalleled cynicism, before appointing Zelikow as Director, because Bush wanted a dissenting voice to lead the commission.

Bush is a maverick like that. Doesn't like using chronies to mask his crimes.

Heather is right: this season is a mess. But I think if the writers return to their initial instinct for this season -- the threat of martial law -- they can rescue some of this season.

The first episode suggested a parallel between the 24 VP and Dick Cheney, by alluding to the fact that Halliburton has been contracted to build detention facilities throughout America. It is unclear what these facilities are for, but right wing militia types suspect they are for the imposition of martial law during a state-sponsored emergency.

After planting this seed, of course, the show departed from and never returned to this plotline. I think they will return to it, and I think they will do so by having the VP use one of the suitcase nukes now in military custody.

Another problem I have with this season is the excessive recapping of plot. Every five minutes characters are explaining what has just happened. The audience already knows this information, and must suffer its endless retelling. This is just lazy writing.

"It was their choice to join the military; now they seem to think they're civilians who can simply quit a job they don't like anymore."

The problem with this often repeated refrain is that it ignores the rights of soldiers under international law. I know Shrub has been taking an extended leak on international law, but it still applies to this situation.

http://www.notinourname.net/troops/hinzman-20apr05.htm

"Jeffry House is convinced that Jeremy Hinzman has a strong case for refugee status and should eventually be granted it. He cites the Geneva Conventions on War and the Nuremberg Principles, which maintain that it is a soldier’s obligation to disobey illegal orders or to participate in war crimes. The U.S. war on Iraq, being neither defensive nor approved by the U.N., is illegal. Therefore, orders to fight in Iraq are illegal. Soldiers who refuse these illegal orders are obeying international law and U.S. law too, since the U.S. Congress has ratified these international laws and treaties.

House also provided Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board with reams of documentation confirming that the U.S. military has engaged in a widespread pattern of systematic war crimes in Iraq. "If Jeremy Hinzman had gone to Iraq, he would likely have been put in a position of committing or supporting the commission of war crimes.""