In a column titled, "The Guns of August," a reference to a book about the diplomatic follies and indecisive battles that launched Europe into a devastating world war in 1914,
former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke noted Turkey is threatening to invade northern Iraq; the world's largest anti-Israel demonstrations are taking place in downtown Baghdad; Syria may yet be pulled into the Lebanon war; Afghanistan is under growing threat from a resurgent Taliban; and India is threatening about punitive action against Pakistan for its alleged involvement in the recent train bombings in Bombay. Particularly alarming to Holbrooke, as to a steadily growing number of Republican realists and other members of the traditional U.S. foreign policy elite, is the apparent complacency of the Bush administration in the face of these events
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Lebanese authorities buried 32 unclaimed bodies in a mass grave outside Tyre on July 29, 2006.
Killed by the Israeli bombings of southern Lebanon, the victim's bodies had lain unrecovered for up to ten days in the burned-out shells of cars or scattered in the devastated villages near Tyre.
Photo: © Hugh Macleod/IRIN
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THE RUINS OF LEBANON
With Mideast tensions at the highest levels in 24 years, Israeli jets pounded central Beirut, sending thousands of refugees streaming to Syria. But Lebanon's bridges and roads were also under attack, causing more casualties and terror. Nebham Razaq Hamed, a 22-year-old Lebanese student, said the situation in southern Beirut was horrific. "The bombing at night was continuous and has continued today, they are using warplanes and sometimes artillery," he told IPS at the border. "Everybody is in panic because of the haphazard bombing which is killing so many civilians now. The Israelis are terrorising the people intentionally by not discriminating between fighters and civilians."
Israel has also destroyed the infrastructure in Gaza, bombing the power plant that supplies half the region as Israeli forces occupied Palestinian territory for the first time since last autumn. Meanwhile, U.S.-backed Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who, at Israel's behest, has tried to quietly mediate between the two sides, are reportedly warning of growing popular outrage -- and support for Hamas
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THE WAR IN IRAQ
POLITICS AS USUAL
