In what capacity does Secretary of State condoleezza rice act? Clearly, despite what she says about the carnage in Lebanon, she is not so troubled by the civilian casualties, many of them children, that she is demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Certainly, rice represents a president who likes to threaten. And teach lessons. You know the rules I'm talking about-'You're either with us or you're against us' and 'any country that harbors terrorists....' But she is walking a tight wire. As more and more members of our mainstream media show photographs of the devastation of Lebanon, sentiment grows for the civilians whose lives are being destroyed. And also growing is an understanding of the existence of organizations like Hezbollah (Qana has become a rallying cry), groups that are energized by the violence we're seeing right now in the Middle East. It's why Hamas won a large majority in the January elections of the new Palestinian parliament, a result that shocked the bush administration, the neocons who were so busy destroying Iraq that they failed to pay attention to Palestine, Israel's goals, and the regrouping of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But back to our mainstream media. They're mentioning Iraq more. It's as if the undeniable disaster in Lebanon where more than 500 people are being mourned has nudged these robotic anchors out of their inertia-that complacency in which they resided where any focus on our war crimes in Iraq was taboo. The United States lost 44 troops in July. Iraq Body Count today gives the grim statistics that 2,807 coalition deaths have occurred since the invasion and that 2,578 of these dead are our own. Hundreds of Iraqis are dying each week.

And, now, back to my question about the capacity of condoleezza rice. Throughout her tenure, she has been a grand promoter of her boss, once even referring to him as her husband. But she must have something going on the side-another huge endorsement-one in which she is receiving large sums of money. From one of the toothpaste companies. That smile where she displays every tooth in her mouth seems to be a permanent fixture on her face-regardless of how much tragedy she and the bush administration have unleashed on the world. Yes, we can count on the consistency of cobralethal rice to smile widely before, during, and after she devours her victims.