Thoughts while listening to World Update

Listening to World Update this morning I heard two excellent quotes, and had a couple of thoughts.

First, Jim Sheridan, a Labour MP, has resigned his Defence Ministry post in protest over the current British administration's handling of the Lebanese crisis.

By the way, when was the last time an American official resigned over something? My first thought was back in 1996 Peter Edelman left the Clinton adminstration over Welfare "Reform"... (That was a resignation with immediate corrective effects.) But actually, no. It was just last year: Susan Wood, assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the Office of Women's Health, resigned over delays on Plan B. (Boy, that lit a fire under them...). In 2003, three Foreign Service officers - John Brown, John Brady Kiesling, and Mary Wright - resigned because they could not "in good conscience support President Bush's war plans against Iraq." (That prompted a lot of soul searching at State, I'll bet...) Then, back in 2002 Eric Schaeffer, head of the U.S. EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement, resigned to protest White House and Energy Department attempts to weaken federal clean air policy. (Another move which sent shockwaves through the administration).

Yeah, such resignations may not change policy. But at least you can look at yourself in the mirror. (Possibly many of this administration deal with that like Londo did on Babylon Five: "There comes a time when you look into the mirror and realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors." Or, possibly, they can't see their reflections any more...)

Anyway, among the things Mr Sheridan had to say: "We have to remember that we as a nation have a history of fighting terrorism. We fought the IRA but it didn't prompt us to bomb Dublin, or Belfast."

Second, a Palestinian Authority member whose name sounded to me like Sabar Bagadi asked: "How can people who are under occupation be expected to provide security to the occupying forces?"

I haven't said much about Lebanon, but I do think the Israeli response is out of proportion. Even with thousands of Katyusha rockets landing in Israeli, the death toll there - after a month of it - is less than 20 civilians. How many Lebanese civilans are dead? How many millions, hundreds of millions, of dollars' worth of damage has been done to Lebanese infrastructure? How long will it take Lebanon to rebuild - and what are the odds that it will rebuild into something the slightest bit friendly to Israel? How many more Lebanese children have to die before the Israelis rein themselves in? The "worst day ever" in Kiryat Shemona has "several civilians" wounded; meanwhile, thirty children die in Qana... And the Israelis bomb anything that moves, meaning aid workers can't get in and refugees can't get out.

It's time to stop. Just stop. Any moral high ground you ever had is long since gone.

And finally, there was a fairly weak protest by a Pakistani official about how all the British bombers and would-be bombers were really not connected to Pakistan in any way... Sure. The problem the Pakistani government has right now is they can't keep their madrassah-trained terrorists in Kashmir any more.