Rice to Present U.S. Peace Plan
Friday, July 21st, 2006Rice plans a trip to the Mideast as soon as early next week, and will carry the U.S. strategy for ending the 10-day-old warfare and establishing stability in southern Lebanon, a senior Bush administration said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Rice has not yet made her plans public.
I’m so glad that we’re in a position to lecture other countries on how to keep the Middle East “stable.” The Bush Administration has such a great track record on Middle East stability.
But I guess they have to at least say something about this whole catastrophe…
I’ve also been reading a wonderful article over on The Age, called “A Farewell to Beirut” which damn near makes me want to cry. The article’s author, Robert Fisk, gives an interesting synopsis of the tragedies of ancient Berytus.
In The year AD 551, the magnificent, wealthy city of Berytus — headquarters of the Romans’ East Mediterranean fleet — was struck by a massive earthquake. In its aftermath, the sea withdrew several miles and the survivors — ancestors of the present-day Lebanese — walked out on the sands to loot the long-sunken merchant ships revealed to them.
That was when a giant tsunami returned to swamp the city and kill them all. So savagely was the old Beirut damaged that the Emperor Justinian sent gold from Constantinople to every family left alive.
