CNN headline shocker

First - Bush calls Jimmy Carter irrelevant. Awesome. Let's see, both were obsessed with the Middle East, both led our countries during oil crises...yeah, I'd say all of Jimmy Carter's experience is pretty irrelevant to the situation at hand. I mean, sure Carter called your administration the "worst in history" - but there have only been, what...43 administrations? That's not really so bad - I'm sure someone will take that dubious distinction away within another 200 years...George Bush the 8th, perhaps?

Second - Lebanon has security forces? Wha? No, really...though I'm going to hold off on judging what's going on down there for now. Too many complex political forces at work to make a good judgment. CNN is already declaring Islamists are somehow at fault.

It does though, remind me a bit of Israel and Hamas - if this Lebanon story has suddenly blown other headlines off the map, let me refresh your memory. Israel targets homes of a Hamas politician over the weekend, killing 5 (or more). Yeah, they went after the family of a politician. And killed 5 of his family members. These aren't political or militant affiliates, but this is the future of war between nation-states and non-state actors. States will try to disrupt all forms of primary loyalty. Israel will not be held to a higher standard, as they are our petri dish for fighting terror.

Speaking of petri dishes, you might want to check out John Robb's take on the kidnapping of American troops:

The returns he was able to generate from this investment are pretty amazing: the hunt, now running into weeks, to find the missing soldiers has tied up 4,000++ soldiers, significant intel assets, and a major portion of US command's attention/focus (which naturally slows down decision making cycles).