When will the people in the Middle East feel that they have "gotten even" for the attacks etc. by the other side? Each time one side retaliates, the other side has a fresh grievance for which they must--by the desert code--retaliate in turn. This "eye for an eye" thing ends up with two groups of blind, toothless people--who are still angry at each other.

In Marge Piercy's futurist book He, She, and It the Middle East is shown on maps as a black zone--the fighting there went nuclear and now nothing can live there. Will this be the outcome?

I've had the TV on this afternoon for "people noise" and the reports of counter and counter-counter attacks are filling the news programs. How will this end?


And Riverbend talks today about the situation in Iraq, which is equally, if not more depressing, since the U.S. created much of the current situation.