Lebanon

I found myself in the odd position of agreeing with Condaleeza Rice the other day.

Before I go any further, I should explain: I think Condaleeza is one of the most dangerous people in the world. I have been following her work since the Cold War days and I have to say: she scares me.

Generally, people are looking for a voice behind the neo-conservative movement. I mean, who's come up with this crap. Well, here's the thing. The neo-cons are just like the proto-conservatives. They have the same theory as the 50's, they've just moved the pieces around. Condaleeza is leading the way, her whole middle east policy is just a recycled version of the domino theory. Except this time we get to be the people to push the dominoes over, not try and keep them standing. Much easier to be on the side of gravity.

Of course, cultures aren't dominoes and the middle east is only one culture from the perspective of Westerners. And since Ms. Rice and company have been selling capitalism as the equivalent of democracy for 26 years, and the Middle East definitely has capitalism (in a much hungrier form than even we in the West know) - there's a bit of confusion.

Anyway, back to my shocking synergy with Ms. Rice. I had just turned to my wife and said, "It'll sound strange, but I hope that they don't just call a cease fire without anything being accomplished. I mean, if this exercise doesn't move the situation forward at all, then all those people will have died in vain." Not 1 minute later, Ms. Rice was on CNN saying effictively the same thing.

So, what could be done? I have to say, if there were an easy answer, someone would have come up with it. But I would hate to force a peace without a reason for peace. The situation must change. But if they just stop without dealing with any of the fundamental causes, this whole thing will not only have not improved the situation, it will likely have made it worse.