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The map is slightly altered from the original at the BBC page: Middle East crisis: Key maps. I had a hard time telling the difference between the Israeli and Hezbollah strikes in their color scheme.

The Israeli attack pattern is interesting. They seem to be concentrating their attacks on the areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah isn’t. You would think that they would bomb the areas where the rockets are being launched at Israeli civilians. When I was selecting targets, it was sort of a given that you bombed where the enemy was, not where the enemy wasn’t.

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For what it’s worth: The Associated Press [via MSNBC] is reporting that anonymous Israeli officials are claiming that Iranian troops helped Hezbollah attack the INS Hanit, Israel’s newest Sa’ar 5-class missile boat [March 1994].

AP reports that the ship was struck with the “Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102” anti-ship missile, but there is no such missile. Other sources claim it was a C-802 [Chinese Ying Ji-82, NATO reporting name: CSS-N-8 Saccade].

Initial reports were that it was a drone [think large radio-controlled model airplane] packed with explosives.

Apparently the Israeli Navy never bothered to turn on any of its defensive systems which should have protected the ship from a missile, because they obviously didn’t believe Lebanon was a real threat.

Let me emphasize that the story being pushed is that the nation of Israel is under dire threat to its existence which justifies the bombing of civilians in Beirut, but the Israeli Navy didn’t bother to turn on its defensive systems.

Because the Shrubbery wants to bury the news and Echidne of the Snakes asked people to post it:

On Friday the Department of Education released a report showing that private schools are no more successful than public schools when it comes to teaching children.

The New York Times report mentions that the there was no effort to publicize the information by the Department of Education.

During the firing range training at the police academy you have a portion called Shoot, Don’t Shoot. The purpose is to train officers to recognize when it is appropriate to fire their weapon. This is strictly a PASS/FAIL course, and you cannot finish the academy until you pass. If you make the wrong decision and are judged to have died, your error will be explained to you. If you shoot an innocent person you automatically fail and have to repeat the course.

Everyone has the right of self-defense, but there are limits. If someone is pointing a gun at you, you would normally have the right to fire. If that person is standing in the middle of a grade school class, you do not fire, because the probably of an innocent person being injured or killed is too high.

No one is saying that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself, but it is required to factor in the probably of killing the innocent.

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La Fête Nationale
Bastille Day

Thank you for the help with the Revolution.

Happy Birthday Sashochka.

CNN reports: U.S. vetoes U.N. resolution on Mideast

The United States on Thursday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Israel halt its attacks in Gaza.

The proposal also demanded that Palestinian militants release the Israeli soldier abducted June 25 in a raid in Israel and stop launching rockets at Israel from Gaza. In addition, it called on Israel to release Palestinian government officials and lawmakers it took into custody after the soldier’s abduction.

Ten nations on the council voted in favor of the resolution, and four abstained.

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that “in light of the fluid events on the ground,” the United States believed the Qatar-sponsored resolution was untimely and out of date, and would have helped inflame passions in the Middle East.

How could “passions” get more “inflamed” than the bloody all out war that is currently occurring in the region? Is there some part of the bombing of the Palestinian foreign ministry or Beirut airport that strikes you, John, as calm consideration of the geopolitical consequences of their actions. How many more dozens of people have to die before we can assumed that “passions” are about as “inflamed” as they are going to get?

Maru, among others, posts on the Faux fascination with a DKos “Flame War”.

Flame War? The server still responds. That’s a “spark spat” not a FLAME WAR!!!

On the news groups an “all out, Godwin-inducing, your Momma, flame war” crashed servers, brought the backbone to a crawl, and had people standing by the router cabinet with a CO₂ fire extinguisher to keep it from melting. You had people adding memory and writing code to try to keep their mailboxes empty. You had university payrolls running late because of the overload on the system. Fuses would blow, circuit breakers would snap, and the discs in electric meters would “Frisbee” away.

What wimps.

If things look a little weird at your favorite TypePad sites it is not your imagination.  They were doing something last night that affected a lot of people and destroyed the best comment I ever made at Musing’s musings.

Ah, well.

Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Mexico, Venezuela, Libya, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia – as long as all of these countries are stable and untroubled, the bulk of the world’s supply of oil can be pumped out of the ground and the price stays stable. At the moment, Libya is the least troubled.

Of course, increased tensions anywhere near these countries, or along the sea lanes from these countries to oil refineries can be a problem.

The price of a barrel of crude jumped $20 on threats to Iran, $5 on the North Korea missile tests, $5 on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, not to mention the existing problems in Iraq – none of which has anything to do with supply or demand, merely the perception of possible supply problems if things go bad.

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Valerie Plame has filed suit against Cheney, Libby, and Rove. [CNN MSNBC all breaking news flash only at this time.]

This could be interesting. Too bad the Supremes decided that it was alright to do this sort of thing to serving Presidents.

Update: CNN link.

I was otherwise occupied and didn’t make it to the used book sale this morning.

I’m not sure it would have mattered with prices like this: A rare complete copy of the First Folio of William Shakespeare’s plays has sold for £2.8m [$5.14 million] at a Sotheby’s auction. That’s a bit high for a book with scribbles in the margins that wasn’t signed by the author[s].

From BBC: Israel attacks Beirut’s airport.

This is around the bend and will start a major war. Ehud Olmert had better be given a reality check by the other parties, because things have gotten out of hand. There is no justification for this.

Shakespeare’s Sister, among others, is rather nonplussed by the statement of Administration toady attorney, Steven Bradbury, that: “The President is always right.”

Of this is not the same as Papal infallibility which was defined by the First Vatican Council of 1870. Heavens, no, that would be entirely too confining for the President, who has to deal with the important issues of the Global War on Terror. There can be no limits on the power of the President to always be correct.

Only counter-revolutionary forces would mention posters saying: “Der Führer hat immer recht.” There is no need to talk about Khrushchev [Хрущёв] and the speech to the 20^th Party Congress about Stalin’s “cult of personality” [Культ личности Сталина].

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Apparently distracted by Gaza, the Israeli army was surprised by a raid in which two Israeli soldiers were captured. In response Israel launches raids on Lebanon, losing a tank and four crew members almost immediately to a mine, so more raids continue.

Israel claims it was an “act of war”, but the lack of any settlement, other than between Egypt and Israel, since the 1967 Six-Day War makes it more accurately an “act during war.”

The reports call the Hezbollah raid a “cross-border raid”, but that would only be true if you think the Shebaa farms area belongs to Syria, rather than Lebanon, which is still in dispute. What is not in dispute is that it is occupied by Israel and Hezbollah wants them out.

Hezbollah regularly sends rockets into what it considers to be part of Lebanon. The rockets are directed at Israelis occupying the area. These actions are considered “liberation” activities, not terrorist attacks by the Lebanese government. The Shi’ia of Lebanon, as well as the Shi’ia governments of Syria and Iran, consider the actions of Hezbollah reasonable and praiseworthy.

Like many things in this area of the world, a little more attention to detail by the bureaucrats of the foreign ministries in London and Paris after World War I would have clarified these things.