A Show of Force

No one should be under any illusions that Bush gives a damn about civilians in either Gaza or Lebanon, or that the U.S. is ever going to play referee in the current crisis. From Suskind's new book:

Relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States were in tatters. The Saudis has been stewing for more than a year, in fact, ever since it became clear at the start of 2001 that this administration was to alter the long-standing U.S. role of honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to something less than that. The President, in fact, had said in the first NSC principals meeting of his administration that Clinton had overreached at the end of his second term, bending too much toward Yasser Arafat - who then broke off productive Camp David negotiations at the final moment - and that "We're going to tilt back toward Israel." Powell, a chair away in the Situation Room that day, said such a move would reverse thirty years of U.S. policy and that it could unleash the new prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the Israeli army in ways that could be dire for the Palestinians. Bush's response: "Sometimes a show of force by one side can really clarify things."

Ron Suskind
The One Percent Doctrine

I think the Palestinians and the Lebanese have had about all the clarity they can stand.