Remember

They are adult volunteers
I was watching a panel of “experts” on a cable show the other day. A panel of experts these day consists of three or four MSM people media sitting around talking to one another, nodding knowingly, while a crawl at the bottom of the screen identifies them as experts. Well these “experts” were having a discussion about the Iraq war. One “expert” asked the other “expert” if she’d send her children to Iraq. After an excruciatingly long answer the woman, a conservative “expert”, said yes. The man, a liberal “expert” blabbed on incredulously about, “How could you?”

What was lost among the “experts” and the “expert” moderator is that it’s not really a parent’s decision. Parents are excluded early on from important things in their children’s lives, high school birth control, abortion, school grades, and health care decisions. But by the time little Johnny reaches the age of 18, he can decide on his own weather he will join the U.S. military. Then it is the Commander and Chief’s decision to wage war. Then it’s the regional commander’s decision what number and type of troops are required to wage that war. Then it’s the Service Chief’s responsibility to provide the number and type of trained and equipped troops to execute the Regional Commander’s plan. Mom and Dad are rarely consulted. Hey, your kids have to grow up sometime.

What started it
The whole reason for the current conflagration between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah was the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers and murder of several others. That fact seems to be slipping from memory as the conflict drags on. Even the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, rarely speaks of this fact. Seems to me Kofi Anna and other diplomats speaking on this subject ought to begin every statement every day with something like, “The first thing that needs to occur in this mess, and it should occur immediately, is the unconditional release of the three Israeli soldiers.”

How we got into this mess
After WWI the great and powerful League of Nations broke up the Ottoman Empire and ceded a portion of that area to Great Britain. Britain drew some lines on a map of the region and Iraq along with some other Middle Eastern countries were born. So what if we draw some new lines in 2006, 7 or 8?

Also, remember this when some Arab “diplomat” begins his rant by saying the Israel is nothing but a figment of the UN’s imagination. Well change UN to League of Nations and the same holds true for most of the Middle East.