The Bad News Behind The Bad News

Definition of madness: Doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different result.

Catastrophes keep raining on Lebanon and the authorities keep responding by doing the same things and by saying the same things.

At the very least two of those things must change:

1) Officialdom has to be held accountable before and after the fact, a couple of examples:

Saniora/Seniora has been lax on these Fatah-el-Islam scum, and before on Jund-el-Sham and others. Why? The army and government were threatened and attacked several times before the recent Nahr el-Bared attack: there was Saida/Ein-el-Helweh, Syrian border, Naameh etc. Yet nothing from the authorities.

So Naharnet today:

Heavy artillery and machine gun fire boomed around Nahr al-Bared on Tuesday as Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government authorized the army to finish off Fatah al-Islam militants holed up inside the northern Palestinian refugee camp

OK. So Milquetoast dithers for years, is forced to find his nuts for a couple of hours, and shortly thereafter we get, tada:

PLO representative Abbas Zaki said after the meeting that Palestinian factions, in collaboration with Saniora's government, were in the process of "setting out mechanisms to contain" the fighting between the army and Fatah al-Islam.

""Mechanism to contain"? Contain what? The genie in the bottle? My vote goes AGAINST "containment" and FOR: "we shall shell the crap out of you until you are all dead or you surrender unconditionally, and let that be a lesson to all others thinking of futzing around with our security".

Other example. Moron-in-Chief Lahoud tells us at every opportunity that his crown achievement is a strong army capable of protecting the nation. Now we find that the army needs help to deal with 150-200 thugs.

From Naharnet:

Economy Minister Sami Haddad, in an interview with CNN, urged world help to the Lebanese forces "both logistically and with military equipment" in order to win the battle against Fatah al-Islam.

Good job Lahoud, 9 years in power, 3 unconstitutional, strengthening our 70,000-plus army and we still need help with 200 freaks who slipped in under your army's nose.

2) Lebanese officials have to stop subjecting their policies/rhetoric/persona to Palestinian/Arab priorities.

You have to start asserting clearly and loudly that Lebanese matters prime ALL. If you are shy about saying "Lebanese OVER Palestinian matters" in you own country then GO HOME, or go work in the camps, or go get a useless job with the Arab League, or better yet plain go to hell.

Government Spokesman Ghazi Aridi:

Speaking after a government meeting late Monday, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the cabinet stressed the "need to end the terrorist phenomenon that is alien to the values and nature of the Palestinian people."

and

"This phenomenon which attacked the Lebanese army and other security forces is harmful to all of Lebanon, its people, security and stability, and is a permanent threat to the Palestinian people," he added.

"Harmful"? They're attempting to overthrow YOUR government and destroy you as a state you fool.

And Ghazi, please, pretty please, can't you people pee without lecturing us on Palestine? Is that why you waited forever to act? It was only a threat to Lebanon before and now it's a threat to the Palestinians?

Some think I make a big deal out of this but attitudes matter. If you are going to apologize for defending yourself, you've already lost.

Yallah, we're still on square one.