Bush: Conflict in Mideast 'painful and tragic' but also 'a moment of opportunity'
RAW STORY
Published: Saturday July 29, 2006
In his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Bush called the conflict in the Mideast "painful and tragic" but also "a moment of opportunity for broader change in the region," RAW STORY has found.
"This moment of conflict in the Middle East is painful and tragic," Bush said. "Yet it is also a moment of opportunity for broader change in the region."
"Transforming countries that have suffered decades of tyranny and violence is difficult, and it will take time to achieve," Bush continued. "But the consequences will be profound -- for our country and the world. When the Middle East grows in liberty and democracy, it will also grow in peace, and that will make America and all free nations more secure."
Calling Lebanon the "latest flashpoint in a broader struggle between freedom and terror that is unfolding across the region," Bush characterized the September 11 attacks as one of the consequences of failing to "achieve peace in the Middle East."
"For decades, American policy sought to achieve peace in the Middle East by promoting stability in the Middle East, yet these policies gave us neither," Bush said. "The lack of freedom in that region created conditions where anger and resentment grew, radicalism thrived, and terrorists found willing recruits."
"We saw the consequences on September the 11th, 2001, when terrorists brought death and destruction to our country, killing nearly 3,000 innocent Americans," Bush continued.
"The experience of September the 11th made it clear that we could no longer tolerate the status quo in the Middle East," Bush said. "We saw that when an entire region simmers in violence, that violence will eventually reach our shores and spread across the entire world." ...
An 'Ineffective Bully' - by Gordon Prather: "July 29, 2006 | by Gordon Prather
Two months ago, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, publicly criticized UN Security Council members Russia, China, and Qatar for 'disappointing the Jewish state,' while heaping praise on John Bolton – the U.S. recess-appointment UN ambassador – 'jokingly' describing him as 'a secret member of Israel's own team.'
It appears American ambassadors rarely – if ever – disappoint the Jewish state. Since 1967, American ambassadors have vetoed or threatened to veto every proposed resolution critical of Israel.
In particular, on July 13, Bolton vetoed a resolution proposed by Qatar that called upon Israel to immediately end its two-week-old military incursion into Gaza.
And Bolton appears to have just blocked Chinese efforts to get the Security Council to issue a 'strong condemnation' of the day-long assault by the Israelis on a UN outpost in Lebanon, which resulted in the deaths of a Chinese, a Finnish, a Canadian, and an Austrian, UN military observers.
The reaction in Congress has been so positive that President Bush is attempting once more to get Bolton confirmed by the Senate as ambassador.
Chairman Richard Lugar, in reopening confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had this – inter alia – to say:
'Our nation is confronted, as it was last year, by serious diplomatic challenges that will have a profound effect on U.S. national security.
'At the heart of our efforts to resolve these issues is a basic question: Can the United States build relationships and alliances around the world that will give us the tools we need to protect our national security?'
After making the utterly ridiculous claim that 'the Bush administration has embraced a multilateral dimension to problem-solving that recognizes that we need allies' Lugar went on to say;
'The process of building international relationships cannot be reserved for times of crisis. It must be a constant preoccupation of any administration, and it must be a core diplomatic mission of our United Nations ambassador.'"
The Moral Rot of Middle East Intervention: "by Jacob G. Hornberger, July 28, 2006
Of one thing we can be certain after decades of the U.S. government’s interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East: it has not brought peace to that part of the world.
Another thing we can be certain of: the federal government’s interventionist foreign policy is at the center of the moral rot that pervades the U.S. Empire.
The Associated Press recently reported, “President Bush has ordered helicopters and ships to Lebanon to provide humanitarian aid, but he still opposes an immediate cease-fire that could give relief from a 13-day-old Israeli bombing campaign.”
We should keep in mind that much of the weaponry for the Israeli government’s bombing campaign has been provided by the U.S. taxpayer, compliments of the U.S. foreign aid. Thus, while opposing an immediate cease-fire in the conflict that is bringing untold suffering to innocent people in Lebanon, Bush simultaneously is rushing to offer U.S. foreign aid to Lebanon to alleviate suffering that is an indirect consequence of U.S. foreign aid to Israel.
That’s what passes for moral principles in the U.S. Empire."
Lebanon civilian deaths morally not same as terror victims -- Bolton - Yahoo! News: "Mon Jul 17, 4:47 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from "malicious terrorist acts".
Asked to comment on the deaths in an Israeli air strike of eight Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon Sunday, he said: "it is a matter of great concern to us ...that these civilian deaths are occurring. It's a tragedy."
"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts," he added, while defending as "self-defense" Israel's military action, which has had "the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths".
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"It's simply not the same thing to say that it's the same act to deliberately target innocent civilians, to desire their deaths, to fire rockets and use explosive devices or kidnapping versus the sad and highly unfortunate consequences of self-defense," Bolton noted. ...
Think Progress � Bush: American Foreign Policy No Longer Seeks to ‘Manage Calm’: "
At today’s press conference, NBC’s David Gregory noted that, three years ago, the Bush administration predicted that “the invasion of Iraq would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace,” but that hasn’t happened.
In response, President Bush proudly declared that American foreign policy no longer seeks to “manage calm,” and derided policies that let anger and resentment lie “beneath the surface.” Bush said that the violence in the Middle East was evidence of a more effective foreign policy that addresses “root causes.” Watch it:"
ranscript:
QUESTION: Mr. President, both of you, I’d like to ask you about the big picture that you’re discussing. Mr. President, three years ago, you argued that an invasion of Iraq would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace. And yet today there is an Iraqi prime minister who has been sharply critical of Israel.
Arab governments, despite your arguments, who first criticized Hezbollah, have now changed their tune. Now they’re sharply critical of Israel. And despite from both of you warnings to Syria and Iran to back off support from Hezbollah, effectively, Mr. President, your words are being ignored.
So what has happened to America’s clout in this region that you’ve committed yourself to transform?
BUSH: It’s an interesting period because, instead of having foreign policies based upon trying to create a sense of stability, we have a foreign policy that addresses the root causes of violence and instability. ...
Hamas PM slams Rice's 'new Middle East' concept�: By AFX News
07/25/06 -- -- GAZA CITY (AFX) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said the US view of a new Middle East was one that began with 'destroying Lebanon' and with killing the maximum number of Palestinians.
'In the name of the government, we condemn the American positions ... giving the green light to the occupation to continue its aggressions,' Haniya told the Hamas-led cabinet, according to an official statement released to journalists.
'We ask the American administration to stop its blind support for the occupation ... and not allow the continued killing of children, women and old people by American weapons on Palestinian and Lebanese lands.
'It seems that from the American point of view, the new Middle East starts by destroying Lebanon, by killing the maximum number of our Palestinian people and by bringing down the resistance,' he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier in Jerusalem that it was 'time for a new Middle East' as she began talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the Lebanon conflict, before meeting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank.
Israel has killed more than 380 people, mostly civilians, in Lebanon in its two-week-old offensive that it said was to destroy Hezbollah, recover two soldiers captured by the Shiite movement, and halt rocket attacks on northern Israel.
Meanwhile, 42 people have been killed in Israel in the past two weeks by Hezbollah rockets fired across the border." ...
Independent Online Edition > World Politics: "PM urged: Stand up to Bush and call for ceasefire | By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor | Published: 28 July 2006
Tony Blair will face fresh pressure over the Middle East crisis today when he arrives in Washington to meet President George Bush. Senior Downing Street aides said the two leaders intended to show the world they were seeking an urgent end to the hostilities in Lebanon, despite the failure of the much vaunted Rome summit on Wednesday to deliver a unified call for a truce.
Israel's Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, added to the pressure yesterday, when he interpreted that indecision as a green light to continue the bloody assault on Lebanon.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," he told reporters.
The Prime Minister's visit takes place as 42 leading figures in politics, diplomacy, academia and the media put their names to a declaration urging Mr Blair to tell the President that Britain "can no longer support the American position on the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle-East". Their declaration, printed on the front page of today's Independent, calls on the Prime Minister to "make urgent representations to Israel to end its disproportionate and counter-productive response to Hizbollah's aggression". ...
Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens Requiring Immediate Action By President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - ch: "Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD., former Director, U.S. Army Depleted Uranium project | July 24, 2006
The delivery of at least 100 GBU 28 bunker busters bombs containing depleted uranium warheads by the United States to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon will result in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout the middle east. ...
It's Disproportionate. . .: "It's Disproportionate. . . | By Eugene Robinson | Tuesday, July 25, 2006; Page A15
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Bush's endorsement of the violence that Israel is inflicting on Lebanon -- a sustained bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of civilians and can only be seen as collective punishment -- is truly astonishing. Of course Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah's rocket attacks. But how can this utterly disproportionate, seemingly indiscriminate carnage be anything but counterproductive?
Destroying the Beirut airport, blasting communications towers into oblivion and cleansing southern Lebanon of its civilian population are not measures the world will see as an attack on Hezbollah terrorists. The Israeli campaign is so intense and widespread that it is creating more terrorists than it kills. Proportionate military action might have enhanced Israel's security, but video footage of grandmothers weeping amid the rubble of their homes and bloodied children lying in hospital beds won't make Israel more secure. Hezbollah's stature in the Arab world is growing, and its patrons in Damascus and Tehran must be smugly satisfied.
The role of any American president and secretary of state should have been to move quickly to bring hostilities to an end. Instead, Bush all but egged the Israelis on, and Condoleezza Rice went so far as to reject the idea of a cease-fire. Belatedly, she has flown to the region with no real credibility as an honest broker. Her words of concern about the "humanitarian crisis" in Lebanon ring hollow.
But this administration doesn't want to be an honest broker in the Middle East. Bush and Rice have staked their Middle East policy on a single incontrovertible idea -- that terrorism is bad -- and it has led them to the mistaken notion that Israel can achieve long-term security by creating a kind of scorched-earth buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
It's hard to imagine a more unpromising course of action. Even Rice (who is an expert on Russia, not the Middle East) and Bush (who knows that Russia and China are big) must recall that a full-fledged military occupation of southern Lebanon didn't work, which should lead them to question whether a few weeks of bombing will do the trick. Even the Israelis, who boasted at first that they were out to destroy Hezbollah, now speak only of severely weakening the enemy and are leaving the door open to some sort of international force on the border.
Perhaps that will be the resolution. Perhaps Israel will get its buffer zone and Hezbollah rockets will stop falling on Haifa for the time being. But ultimately Israel will be less secure, and so will the rest of us.
Bush, Rice et al. refuse to see that their crusade against terrorism can never be won by military action alone, because a victory in the war of arms can also be a defeat in the war of ideas. Lebanon was moving -- imperfectly but unmistakably -- toward becoming the kind of society we paint as a model for the Arab world, a secular democracy with a modernizing economy. Now billions of dollars' worth of infrastructure are in ruins and the country's most promising industry, tourism, has effectively been obliterated. ...
US Complicit in Destruction of Lebanon - by Paul Craig Roberts: "July 24, 2006 | by Paul Craig Roberts
There never was any doubt of the Bush regime's complicity in Israel's naked aggression against the Lebanese civilian population. Bush has protected Israel from world condemnation. Bush has blocked those who attempted to bring a stop to Israel's bombing of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, and now Bush rushes more bombs for Israel to drop on Lebanon.
On July 22, the New York Times revealed the full extent of the Bush regime's participation in the heinous war crimes being inflicted on the Lebanese people:
'The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign. … The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said.'
Obviously, Bush and his government do not think Israel has yet murdered enough Lebanese. Bush denounces Syria and Iran for allegedly arming Hezbollah, while he rushes more deadly weapons to Israel."
Israel Violates US Law With Attack on Lebanon - by Thalif Deen: "July 18, 2006 | by Thalif Deen
Israel is in violation of U.S. arms-control laws for deploying U.S.-made fighter planes, combat helicopters, and missiles to kill civilians and destroy Lebanon's infrastructure in the ongoing six-day devastation of that militarily weak country."
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"Section 4 of the [U.S.] Arms Export Control Act requires that military items transferred to foreign governments by the United States be used solely for internal security and legitimate self-defense," says Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.
"Since Israeli attacks against Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and population centers clearly go beyond legitimate self-defense, the United States is legally obliged to suspend arms transfers to Israel," Zunes told IPS. ...
(DV) Amr: Lebanon, Gaza and the Consistently Racist American Standard: "by Ahmed Amr | www.dissidentvoice.org | July 18, 2006
Here we go again. The Arabs weigh America’s response to the onslaught against Lebanon and Gaza and start accusing Washington of double standards. It is an accusation that has no merit. The more obscene reality is that the United States has consistently implemented a single racist standard against the indigenous people of the Middle East.
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When Israel incinerated a family of seven on a beach in Gaza, the United States didn’t even bother to comment on the “incident.” In the southern Lebanese village of Dweir, an entire clan of ten children and their parents are murdered by the IDF. Again, the State Department had nothing to say about the matter. Sixteen Lebanese -- nine of them children -- are incinerated in a convoy escaping the carnage. The victims had evacuated their village after Israelis instructed them to leave over loudspeakers. No comment on the incident was forthcoming from the White House.
While the IDF was unleashing indiscriminate fire on innocent Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, Bush publicly and unabashedly gave Ehud Olmert a carte blanche to continue the nasty business of systematically destroying vital infrastructure, power plants and Beirut’s international airport. The crippling economic siege has been imposed on both Lebanon and Gaza. In the case of Gaza, the American government has arm-twisted the European Union and Arab states to join the in an international coalition to starve the Palestinians into accepting Israeli dictates. ...
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In regards to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, American policy is as clear as day. Israel can kill and abduct Palestinians and Lebanese at will. Olmert’s government has a license from the great white father in Washington to collectively punish millions of Arabs from the refugee hovels of Gaza to cosmopolitan Beirut. While nine thousand Palestinians -- including women, children and elected officials -- rot in Israeli jails, whole families can be wiped out to release a single soldier involved in enforcing the genocidal IDF siege on Gaza.
For those who bother to pay attention to the Bush administration’s role in fomenting violence in the Middle East, there is an obvious method to the madness. Tel Aviv and Washington have already negotiated and settled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Starving and humiliating the Palestinians is merely a necessary condition for implementing the infamous “Rice-Weisglass” accord -- an agreement that was finalized in October, 2004. This final unilateral solution to the Palestinian “problem” is now the official -- if undeclared -- policy of the United States. ...
CNN.com - Dobbs:�Not so smart when it comes to the Middle East - Jul 19, 2006: "By Lou Dobbs | CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- We Americans like to think we're a pretty smart people, even when evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. And nowhere is that evidence more overwhelming than in the Middle East. History in the Middle East is everything, and we Americans seem to learn nothing from it.
President Harry Truman took about 20 minutes to recognize the state of Israel when it declared independence in 1948. Since then, more than 58 years of war, terrorism and blood-letting have led to the events of the past week.
Even now, as Katyusha rockets rain down on northern Israel and Israeli fighter jets blast Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, we simultaneously decry radical Islamist terrorism and Israel's lack of restraint in defending itself.
And the U.S. government, which wants no part of a cease-fire until Israel is given every opportunity to rescue its kidnapped soldiers and destroy as many Hezbollah and Hezbollah armaments as possible, urges caution in the interest of preserving a nascent and fragile democratic government in Lebanon. Could we be more conflicted?
While the United States provides about $2.5 billion in military and economic aid to Israel each year, U.S. aid to Lebanon amounts to no more than $40 million. This despite the fact that the per capita GDP of Israel is among the highest in the world at $24,600, nearly four times as high as Lebanon's GDP per capita of $6,200.
Lebanon's lack of wealth is matched by the Palestinians -- three out of every four Palestinians live below the poverty line. Yet the vast majority of our giving in the region flows to Israel. This kind of geopolitical inconsistency and shortsightedness has contributed to the Arab-Israeli conflict that the Western world seems content to allow to perpetuate endlessly.
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In the Middle East, where is our sense of proportion? Where is our sense of perspective? Where is our sense of decency? And, finally, just how smart are we?
U.S. Arming of Israel:: "How U.S. Weapons Manufacturers Profit From Middle East Conflict
Much has been made of the Syrian and Iranian origin of weaponry used by Hezbollah but there has been little discussion of where Israel's weapons come from. A new report by the World Policy Institute examines how the United States provides billions of dollars of military aid to Israel each year and how their current arsenal is composed of U.S made equipment.
Broadcast date: 06/21/06 Democracy Now! Runtime 15 Minutes"
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FRIDA BERRIGAN: Sure. Almost all of the weapons used by Israel are from the United States. There might be a couple French fighter planes that they’re using, but its F-16s made in Fort Worth, Texas; its Apache helicopters; its Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles; it’s all from the United States. So you have this real disconnect between an overemphasis on the supply by Iran and Syria of Hezbollah's weapons and no discussion of the fact that all of the Israeli arsenal is from the United States, and that that is in contravention to U.S. law. to the Arms Export Control Act, which says that U.S.-origin weapons are only to be used for self-defense and for internal security.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And your report indicates that Israel has always been the largest recipient of military aid from the United States, but that that’s actually increased since 2001?
FRIDA BERRIGAN: We’re looking at incredible increases in U.S. military aid and weapons sales to Israel. Military aid stands at about $3 billion a year. That’s about $500 for every Israeli citizen that the United States provides on an annual basis. And then, weapons sales, most recently, since the Bush administration came into power, we’re looking at $6.3 billion worth of weaponry sold to Israel. ...
U.S. Rushes Bombs to Israel: "By DAVID S. CLOUD and HELENE COOPER
07/22/06 'New York Times' -- -- WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.
The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.
The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike." ...
US to give Israel another week for attacks: paper - Yahoo! News: "Sat Jul 22, 10:34 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli officials believe they have approval from the United States to keep up attacks on Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon for at least another week, an Israeli newspaper said on Sunday.
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"Senior officials believe Israel has an American nod to continue operations against Hizbollah at least until next Sunday," the Haaretz newspaper said on its Web site.
U.S. officials in Israel were not immediately available for comment on the report. ..
This Will Come Back to Haunt Us - by Ron Paul: "July 21, 2006 | Against House Resolution 921 | by Rep. Ron Paul
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Mr. Speaker, I follow a policy in foreign affairs called non-interventionism. I do not believe we are making the United States more secure when we involve ourselves in conflicts overseas. The Constitution really doesn't authorize us to be the policemen of the world, much less to favor one side over another in foreign conflicts. It is very clear, reading this resolution objectively, that all the terrorists are on one side and all the victims and the innocents are on the other side. I find this unfair, particularly considering the significantly higher number of civilian casualties among Lebanese civilians. I would rather advocate neutrality rather than pick sides, which is what this resolution does.
Some would say that there is no room to talk about neutrality, as if neutrality were a crime. I would suggest there should be room for an open mind to consider another type of policy that may save American lives.
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"Perhaps we didn't appreciate fully enough the depth of the hatred and the complexity of the problems that made the Middle East such a jungle. Perhaps the idea of a suicide car bomber committing mass murder to gain instant entry to Paradise was so foreign to our own values and consciousness that it did not create in us the concern for the Marines' safety that it should have. In the weeks immediately after the bombing, I believed the last thing that we should do was turn tail and leave. Yet the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a lot better off. If that policy had changed towards more of a neutral position and neutrality, those 241 Marines would be alive today."
It is very easy to criticize the government of Lebanon for not doing more about Hezbollah. I object to terrorism committed by Hezbollah because I am a strong opponent of all violence on all sides. But I also object to the unreasonable accusations that the government of Lebanon has not done enough, when we realize that Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years and was not able to neutralize Hezbollah. ...
U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis - New York Times: "By DAVID S. CLOUD and HELENE COOPER
Published: July 22, 2006
WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.
The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.
The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike. ...
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah: "Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Patrick Wintour | Wednesday July 19, 2006 | The Guardian "
Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources
The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.
The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.
"It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control. ...
Reporter asks White House, 'Why don't you want the fighting to stop?'
RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday July 18, 2006
A reporter at the White House press briefing today accused the administration of "giving Israel some breathing room" in order to "take out" more terrorist targets, RAW STORY has learned.
White House press secretary Tony Snow rejected the theory.
Bush Rejects Lebanon's Call for Cease-Fire: "By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer | Friday, July 14, 2006
President Bush rejected Lebanon's calls for a cease-fire in escalating Mideast violence on Friday, saying only that Israel should try to limit civilian casualties as it steps up attacks on its neighbor.
"The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
Lebanon's prime minister asked Bush, during a phone call Friday, to pressure Israel for a cease-fire. But Bush told Prime Minister Fuad Saniora that Israelis have a right to protect themselves.
"We think it's important that, in doing that, they try to limit as much as possible the so-called collateral damage, not only on civilians but also on human lives," Snow said.
Israeli war planes have been bombing sites around Lebanon, including the main airport, bridges and power stations, to punish Hezbollah for the capture of two Israeli soldiers. At least 61 people in Lebanon have been killed.
On the other side, Hezbollah militants have fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel. At least 10 Israelis have been killed. ...
Microphone Captures Bush's Unscripted Comments at G-8: "By Peter Baker | Washington Post Staff Writer |Monday, July 17, 2006; 7:38 AM
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During a lunch with other leaders at the Group of Eight summit on Monday, Bush was caught on a live microphone talking in tough, occasionally profane terms with British Prime Minister Tony Blair about the latest conflict in the Middle East. Bush criticized the position taken by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, and said he would soon send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region.
"What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over," Bush says with his mouth full as he buttered a piece of bread.
"Who, Syria?" asked Blair, standing next to the seated Bush.
"Right," Bush said. Within an hour or so, the remarks were broadcast around the world on CNN. ...
