[fabsroman]

Rocky,

I haven't heard of many terrorists getting whacked by the Israelis, but I have heard that 76 civilians have been killed. If we had that kind of kill ratio in Iraq, heads would be roling and the world would really be pissed at us. I wonder is Israel is going to help Lebanon rebuild after they get all these terrorists. Kind of like the US helped Iraq rebuild and get things somewhat back to order, or is Israel going to pound Lebanon back to the stone age and leave them there, creating more ill will between the two countries.

I think the whole situation is getting worse every day. Not only do we have fighting in the Middle East that was unpredicted, but we have rising oil prices. Oil went over $78 a barrel today. The stock market took a beating too, so the rick are worried about this war. Lord knows what will happen over the weekend and how the stock markets will react. China and Japan are experiencing some of the same economic issues that we have here. They have economies that are threatened with severe inflation. Japan's government just raised the interest rate from a 0.00% rate for the first time in a couple of years because it fears inflation. China's economy is on fire and they are fearing inflation. What will a huge increase in the price of oil do to the world economy, besides having people on here cheering "Go Israel" and then crying about the gas price that they have to pay at the pump. One good thing happening in America is that house prices are coming down, but that is only good if you weren't one of the people that bought a house that you could barely afford under an ARM, and now you might get foreclosed on because the interest rates are going up (i.e., your house payments are to expensive) and the price of gas is going up (i.e., you just cannot afford to live).

Personally, I think we are in for some seriously tough times, and some of the economists have predicted that there might be out right disaster and armagedon in the US because of gas prices. Hopefully, when gas prices get high enough people will buy the Honda Insight or Toyota Prius, both of which get 60+ miles to the gallon on the highway and close to or above 60 miles to the gallon in the city.

As far as what is happening in Israel and Lebanon, Billy is pretty much spot on. From what I am reading, it appears that the Israelis are targeting specific infrastructure. For instance, they lew up an oil tank at a refinery, but they didn't touch the actual refinery. They totally demolished the cheaper bridges, but only punched a hole in a big expansion bridge that is one of the costly bridges. At the airport, they have only been targeting the runway. They have also blown up an apartment building. The UN says that Israel is breaking international law by cutting Beirut off from the rest of the world. The UN also said that Sadam was violating international law by creating weapons of mass destruction and the US went in and took out the entire government under that premonition. Funny how we pick and choose what we want to hear and/or agree with.

In trying to nip it in the bud, the Israelis might be pushing a little too much. I am sure a lot of arabs are already pissed off that we are in the Middle East. I think Israel taking it to them on another front might just get those arabs sitting on the sidelines to turn against the US and Israel. Weren't the Crusaders overwhelmed by the uniting of the arab tribes? Time will tell how this all unfolds. Hopefully, it will be over by this weekend. What I do not understand is if the vast majority of the Lebanese do not support the Hezbollah, why didn't the Lebanese goverment try to get rid of the Hezbollah? Plus, if so many of the Lebanese people are anti Hezbollah, why aren't they turning them in to avoid this conflict with Israel. Could the Hezbollah actually hied from 90% of the population or is Israel's intelligence just terrible at gathering information?