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"Once again Here we have a Secretary of State, [[Condoleezza Rice]], who gazes at the rubble of [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/le.html Lebanon] , 300,000 refugees being strafed with [[Israel]]'s cluster bombs, and squeaks happily that we are 'witnessing the birth pangs of a new Middle East," Alexander Cockburn [http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07312006.html wrote] July 31, 2006, in ''CounterPunch''. "Here we have a president, [[George W. Bush|G. Bush]], who urges [[Vladimir Putin]] to commence in [[Russia]] the same 'institutional change' that is making [[Iraq]] a beacon of freedom and free expression. Not long after Bush extended this ludicrous invitation the [[UN]] relayed from Iraq's Ministry of Health Iraq's real casualty rate, which was running at least 100 a day, now probably twice that number. "Iraq's morgues reported receipts of 3,149 dead bodies in June [2006]; over 14,000 since the beginning of the year. Senior Iraqis in the government confide that break-up of Iraq into Sunni, Shia and Kurdish enclaves, each protected by its own militias, is paying now inevitable. Iraq as a viable country has been utterly destroyed, with even vaster carnage coming up over the horizon, and here's the price numbskull President touting it as an advertisement for American nation-building at its best, and inviting its prime minister to Washington to proclaim Iraq's approaching renaissance, all in sync with the [[IsraelU.S. congressional elections in 2006|U.S. 2006 election campaigns]]i," Cockburn [http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07312006.html wrote]. ==Lebanon: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict=="Once again Lebanon is paying the price for the Israeli-[[Palestinian]] conflict," Raja Kamal [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0607190150jul19,1,4192983.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed wrote] July 19, 2006, in the ''Chicago Tribune''.
"For the last 40 years, Lebanon has been the battleground for numerous regional power brokers. [[Syria]], Israel, [[Iran]], the Palestinians and their proxies have used Lebanon to score political points and send messages. Meanwhile, Lebanon continues to bleed. The latest sad escalation is yet another blow to fragile Lebanon that has only recently started to recover from a lengthy civil war and the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the popular former prime minister.
*[http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/30/matthews-frankenstein/ "Matthews: War in Iraq United ‘the Disparate Pieces of Shia Radicalism into a Frankenstein Monster’,"] ''Think Progress'', July 30, 2006.
*Peter Baker, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000578.html "Crisis Could Undercut Bush's Long-Term Goals,"] ''Washington Post'', July 31, 2006.
*Alexander Cockburn, [http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07312006.html "The Triumph of Crackpot Realism. Bush, Rice and Israel's Hack Legions,"] ''CounterPunch'', July 31, 2006.
==Related SourceWatch Resources==