Smoke on the water... Fire in Jounieh

If anyone's paid attention to the news as of lately one can see that the middle east has gone to hell in a hand basket. Israel for the past week has been air-striking fuel depots, docks, and airports of neighboring Lebanon, as retailiation for rocket attacks and the abduction of two Israeli soldiers. Of course this risks drawing in the attention of Iran and neighboring Syria, as the Israeli's continue their onslaught against Lebanon.

I think that Israel has taken things a bit to far going on a all out attack, however I cannot overlook the amount of pressure neighboring Islamic states have been pushing on Israel over the past 10 or so years. Since the death of Arafat, and the regime changes in Iran, and Syria we have seen a more radical viewpoint of Islamic rule which counter's the U.S policy on the middle east.

As for North Korea, we have taken this issue to the U.N and a resolution has been adopted which is fairly weak and is laughed at by the North Korean government, however it's a step in the right direction no matter how baby-ish that step is. So North Korea and the middle east have one thing in common and that is stiring up th international community, creating new tensions, and gaining the attention of every major world power, as the crisis continues to jepordize peace keeping within our quaint little world...

I can only hope that this doesn't escalate into another mid-eastern conflict that drags the U.S into it, we are far overstretched in our current engagements with Iraq and Afghanistan!