"FOR AS LONG AS THE GRASS SHALL GROW.........">

to be purchased with the original "Manhattan Trinkets".

The formation of Israel was a bad mistake. The US siding with, and more particularly funding and arming Israel has been a bizarre deviation in our foreign policy. Add a bona fide tool like George W. Bush to the mix and you've compounded an already-ugly nightmare. Make matters even worse by naming a latter-day Strangelove to act as Secretary of State.

Judge Israel solely by its actions, not by any brainwashing you experience attending temple, or any "Judeo-Christian" horseshit you received in church. Israel is a MONSTER ROGUE NATION ARMED WITH WMDs.

If that was a good enough rational to have invaded Iraq, then it's more than enough to roll US tanks into Tel Aviv and disarm Israel. How about it? Let's go, Dubya!!!

btw it cost me $60 to fill up my vehicle yesterday -- thanks, Dubya! Thanks, Israel!

Isn't Bush's the first administration NOT to have ongoing relationships and peace talks going between all the Mideast countries?

He has been devoting his energies and interest to that cluster-fuck in Iraq and the rest of the Mideast has blown up because of it.

I think he should send Jimmy Carter over ASAP and see if HE can get something going.

It's a shame there has not been on-going talks all along.

s/b "have not", not "has not" in my first letter!

Nuke the fuck out of those kike bastards. Kill them all for peace and cheaper gas.

and the THREE MONKEYS

HEAR NONE

SEE NONE

SPEAK NONE

BUSH

CHENEY

BOLTON

Does the US have fully staffed embassies with an ambassador in Lebanon and Syria?

When a stubborn, spoiled child is raised with no morals and no consequences, you get an adult who expects his every whim to be obeyed. With no discussion.

Let's all blame Barbara - clearly, she failed to teach her children how to be decent human beings.

Which is made all the more ironic by recognizing the fact that her family, the Pierces, as publishers of McCall's and Redbook, have been telling American women how to raise their children for generations.

They care about war, war spoils, and the jewish neo-con agenda stupid!

As long as the people in power have the attitude that we are the ultimate arbiters of right and wrong, things will continue to spin out of control.

The Iranians and Syrians are not miscreants. Calling them miscreants classifies them as petty criminals largely because they aren't doing what we want them to. Hello! They aren't us. They have a different view of the world situation than we do. It's not wrong just because it's different. Diplomacy is the process of understanding both sides of a situation and trying to craft a situation that will recognize both sides of the disagreement. This involves talking to all sides. And granting legitimacy to all sides.

Coming out with lines like the Syrian President lied to the US is as comical as it is arrogant. It isn't as if the US hasn't lied through our store teeth before when we felt it was in our interest. The most breathtaking example I can think of in recent memory is Colin Powell's expostulation before the UN about Iraq. Although there are many other examples.

Just as cooperation isn't a whole bunch of people doing what I say, diplomacy isn't the process of coercing other nations into doing what we want them to.

I'm as disgusted as anyone by our lack of action and our continued support for Israel's disproportionate reaction to the current situation. I strongly feel we should demand that both parties adopt an immediate cease fire and a more temperate approach. At the same time, I'm perplexed by the overarching insistence here that we legitimize groups that regularly advocate that young men and women without a fully formed sense of self or well-developed capacity for judgment strap dynamite to their bodies and blow up civilians. This is not civilized behavior. This is an abomination. I cannot understand how rewarding groups that support or practice such obscene acts should be treated like civilized sovereign nations. Groups like Hamas and Hezbollah may perform occasional charitable actiivities and they certainly do have some legitimate grievances, but should we get in bed with people who advocate terrorism, just because some of their complaints are reasonable? Where does this stop? Why not just sit down with Osama Bin Laden on the site of Ground Zero and find out why he really has his panties in such a bunch and see what he wants? Because maybe he will try to calm down some hotheads? What about others with some sort of grievance who see that by murdering 3000 Americans by proxy, he got some attention? Your article disturbs me because it ignores this problem. Much as I dislike the policies of the Bush Administration, I feel you are on the wrong track re negotiating with terrorists.

From the article:

Before she arrived in Beirut, Rice had downplayed the diplomatic estrangement between the U.S. and Damascus. "The problem isn't that people haven't talked to the Syrians," Rice told the Associated Press. "I think this is simply just a kind of false hobby horse that somehow it's because we don't talk to the Syrians.

"It's not as if we don't have diplomatic relations," she insisted. "We do."

Two questions:

1) What the hell is a "false hobby horse"?

2) Has everyone forgotten that Rice was the National Security Advisor at the time of 9/11, the greatest national security breach in U.S. history?

I'm having a difficult time trying to determine what is more inane: Bush and Rice or the complete lack of engagement in governing that is the hallmark of this administration.

It's almost as if Rice has decided to respond to the conflagration in the Middle East in same manner as she did during Hurricane Katrina. Ignore it for awhile, go shopping for shoes, take in a show, and then pretend to do something by getting on a plane and talking to everyone except the people you should be talking to.

If there is such a thing as a "false hobby horse," Rice may as well admit it: "I've fallen off, and I can't get up."