How Many Birth Pangs in Qana, Lebanon

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke thus on Friday July 21, 2006, in her news conference:

But I have no interest in diplomacy for the sake of returning Lebanon and Israel to the status quo ante. I think it would be a mistake.

What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing -- the birth pangs of a new Middle East.

In Qana, Lebanon, the birth pangs looked like this on April 18, 1996, and like this, this, this and this on July 29, 2006.

One Fiancial Times report on the Qana massacre of July 29, 2006 goes as follows:

Yesterday's killings underscored what UN officials have been saying in recent days - that the conflict was claiming an unnaturally large numbers of child victims on the Lebanese side. Overall, up to 542 Lebanese have been killed during Israel's offensive, according to Lebanese officials, the vast majority of them civilians. On the Israeli side 51 people have been killed, the majority soldiers.

See Robert Fisk's article on the April 18, 1996 massacre.

See Robert Fisk's article on the current war.

See Robert Fisk's article on the July 29, 2006 mssacre.

See Alexandar Cockburn's July 31, 2006 article.

Here, is Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. puts it bluntly, as quoted by Financial Times:

When you sleep with a missiles, sometimes you don’t wake up in the morning.

Surely, the children of Qana were each hugging "missiles" to sleep.

If you live in the U.S. and want to know why all this seems strange and fresh to you, you might want to watch this Google video of a documentary--a documentary which you are highly unlikely to see on your local T.V.