GEORGE BUSH - DEMAND IMMEDIATE END TO ISRAELI ATTACKS IN GAZA

Remember the U.S. government reaction to the Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Condoleeza Rice and George Bush did nothing to stop the Israelis when they bombed the Beirut airport, fired missiles at apartment buildings, and dropped cluster bombs in a 30-mile swathe in southern Lebanon.

Now today with Israel invading Gaza, all the Bush government can do is to counsel Israel not to kill civilians. This is outrageous. The U.S. should be loudly protesting the Israeli action and calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal.

When Israel sends war planes into Gaza to fire missiles and drop bombs, the casualties are sure to be civilians, I mean, men, women and children who have done nothing wrong other than to be Palestinian.

Just as I condemn those few Palestinians firing missiles into southern Israeli towns and villages, so do I condemn the Israelis for leveling apartment buildings with their bombs.

After WWII, we all thought collective punishment was done away with, given the universal scorn and condemnation it merited. But it seems to have returned with even more ferocity. Witness the Israeli attack on Palestinian civilians as retribution for the actions of a few deranged Palestinians firing missiles at defenseless Israeli civilians.

Bush and Rice, don't just sit there when Israeli war planes are killing civilians, demand an immediate end to this Israeli aggression directed at innocents.

STOP MINDLESS CONDEMNATION OF RUSSIA IN PROTECTING CITIZENS OF SOUTH OSSETIA

I see that almost all of the U.S. foreign policy establishment including the main street media favors censuring Russia and Vladimir Putin for crossing over into Georgia and sticking around to destroy Georgia's military arsenals.

How come these Bushies don't outright condemn Georgia for starting a war against civilians in South Ossetia the night of August 7th. It was not Russia which attacked first, precipitating the conflict. It was Georgia which shot missiles and that hot head Saakashvili who decided that if the citizens of South Ossetia refused to accept Georgia's sovereignty, he would attack them with guns and tanks.

Imagine if the citizens of Texas wished to belong to Mexico instead of to the United States. At which point, George Bush orders the army and air force to bomb Dalles, Austin and other Texas centers of population. This is what Saakashvili, the darling of the Republican social circuit in D.C., has done with South Ossetia.

If Georgia and Saakashvili are such strong examples of democracy in action, why didn't they propose a referendum for the Ossetian citizens to see what they wanted. Then if they voted to belong to Russia, let them go. But don't bomb them!

Bush, Cheney and Rice are quick to condemn Russia for sending in troops and tanks to defend the Russian-leaning occupants of South Ossetia. Yet they did not condemn Israel when Israel and Olmert attacked Lebanon with cluster bombs and tanks two years ago in the July War of 2006. In fact, they opposed a cease fire for a full 30 days to allow Israel to destroy much of Lebanon's infrastructure.

So stop the wholesale mindless condemnation of Russia in this conflict.

ISRAELI ARMY CLEARED OF WRONGDOING FOR DROPPING CLUSTER BOMBS ON SOUTHERN LEBANON

Here's a decision that cannot be unexpected. Israel's military prosecutors absolve the Israeli Defense Forces of violating any rules of warfare by dropping thousands of cluster bombs on southern Lebanon during the recent Israel-Lebanon II War.

Isabel Kershner reports today in The New York Times:

"Israeli military prosecutors announced Monday that they would not press charges over the army’s use of cluster bombs during the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, actions that had been widely criticized by human rights organizations. . . ."

"Cluster bombs are not prohibited in warfare, but their use is criticized because they contain "bomblets" that explode over a wide area and may strike unintended targets. In addition, bomblets that fail to explode become, in effect, land mines that can be detonated by civilians long after fighting has stopped. More than 30 Lebanese are said to have been killed by munitions left behind after the monthlong war in 2006.

"Soon after the fighting stopped, a top United Nations aid official, Jan Egeland, described Israel’s use of cluster bombs as "shocking" and "completely immoral," not least, he said, because most had been fired in the last 72 hours of the war, when it was clear that the conflict was moving toward a resolution."

Why did Israeli Defense Forces inundate 30 miles of southern Lebanon with these deadly cluster bombs? Israel says it was targeting Hezbollah fighters, but many suspect that IDF was punishing Lebanon's civilian population for aiding and supporting Hezbollah.

To me, the whole military strategy of IDF in firing and dropping cluster bombs smacks of illegal collective punishment and the shameful targeting civilians for their political views. Because so many Lebanese would vote for Hezbollah in parliamentary elections and because so many Lebanese civilians oppose Israel's harsh military responses to the perceived terrorist threat from Hezbollah, the IDF carpets a thirty-mile swath with those immoral clusterettes.

Children be warned, don't pick up that shiny attractive looking cylinder lying there in the dirt if you don't want to give up a hand or a foot, or be blinded for life.

ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS CLUSTER BOMBS WERE NECESSARY

Who is in charge of public relations for the Olmert government of Israel? Whoever it is should be axed forthwith. Witness the PR disaster of the Israeli military trying publicly to defend its indefensible use of cluster bombs in a thirty mile swath during the last 72 hours of the Israel-Lebanon War.

The BBC web site reports:

"Israeli military prosecutors say the army's much-criticised deployment of cluster bombs in last year's Lebanon war was legal under international law.

"The Israeli army announced there would be no indictments against officers who used them, after a year-long enquiry.

""The use of the weaponry was a concrete military necessity," a statement said.

"The UN called Israel's cluster bombing "shocking and immoral," as most were used in the last 72 hours of fighting when a resolution was clearly imminent."

Instead of confessing and admitting causing a humanitarian catastrophe by dropping cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the War, Israeli authorities are trying to defend and legitimize this militaristic disaster.

We can guess about Israel's purpose of carpeting thirty miles of Lebanon adjacent to the border with Israel with deadly cluster bombs, many of which remain hidden in fields and orchards. It was to prevent militants from sneaking up to the border and shooting missiles or rockets into Israel. The question is, was dropping cluster bombs proportional and the minimal use of force necessary to prevent such future attacks?

It is hard to understand Israel's defense of cluster bombs when you hear of dozens of Lebanese children playing in their backyards, picking up the bomblets as if they were toys, and then getting their hands or feet blown off or being blinded for life.