Cross-posted from Mike Malloy
What is certain is that there is no rest in the region, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Russia and certainly not in Gaza. There is so much violence, death, and chaos everyday, everywhere, it's difficult to turn on the telescreens. Days like this we wish we, too, were "encapsulated in a bubble" as Bush once said.
Secretary of State John Kerry has been dispatched to the Mideast to see what he can do (insert joke here) to quell the latest violence in Gaza. Good luck with that. he must not be feeling too optimistic about the situation, given that he was caught in an open-mic moment on Fox "News" Sunday describing -- sarcastically -- the Israeli shelling as a "hell of a pinpoint operation."
This is from The Hill:
"'It's a hell of a pin-point operation, it's a hell of a pin-point operation,' Kerry said sarcastically while speaking with an aide named John on speakerphone while hooked up to microphones for an appearance on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'It's escalating significantly,' the aide told Kerry.
"On Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces posted a tweet that indicated it would step up its ground war to destroy tunnels that run from the Gaza Strip to Israel."
The Kerry gaffe aside, do we now rely on Twitter for bombing alerts? Has it come to this? Think of the billions of dollars our massive intelligence apparatus has spent on surveillance when all they need do is check the Twitterverse for future attack sites.
And how much gall does it take for the IDF to actually post its attack plans? It's like the cocky baseball hitter who come up to bat and points to the area of the ballpark where he intends to hit his home run. Unreal.
Almost as surreal as the groups of Israeli citizens who now gather on hilltops, with lawn chairs and sofas (and popcorn?), to watch the bombs drop on the Palestinian civilians. Murder as a spectator sport. Like the Romans at the Colosseum, watching Christians fed to the lions.
In America, we watch these horrors on our TV screens, flipping channels when we like to see what's up with the Kardashians or America's Got Talent -- safe in our bubbles. But the people in Gaza, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Russia/Ukraine, or Honduras, or Nigeria, or dozens of other embattled countries don't have that luxury. It is becoming increasingly difficult to be a passive observer.
Perhaps there is a grain of merit in Dick Cheney's dark prediction about another 9-11 headed our way. What do we do when the bubbles burst?