Abstain

Gregory Djerejian at has a good post on "The Emerging CW" of "Another (Low-Grade) Regional War." He writes:

I see [...] that a new CW is emerging--a few dozen rockets and three hostages later--Israel is on the cusp of a long war involving, not only Hamas and Hezbollah, but sponsors Syria and Iran. With the US bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Israelis can pick up the slack in Damascus and Teheran, or such. Got that peeps? My humble advice to the Israeli government would be to take a quick look at the shambles the US is facing in Iraq, and beware strategic over-reaching.

This must be a part of that hearts-and-minds campaign I keep hearing about, in which the metaphoric centers of the essential selves throughout the Ummah are to be suffused with love of and longing for the promised freedoms glinting like sunlight on a mylar Fourth-of-July balloon. For indeed, nothing shall so cement our place in the fond regards of our Islamic brothers than to link hands with Israel as she bombs Beirut and kidnaps the Palestinian "government," and so forth.

The Times has a predictably stupid article about the "regional" conflict, a curious locution for wars (crises in the newspeak) catalyzed by the presence of an American military bungling about like a fat Midwestern businessman trying to navigate an apartment in Tokyo.

Disengage is the word of the day. If the mad monotheists wish to have their blood orgy, they're going to have it. When powerless to make things better but capable of making things worse, the only course is abstention.