Israel to Bush: Bite me?

Now here's an interesting development: Commander Codpiece has made it clear he has no intention of getting into the middle of this thing:

President Bush rejected Lebanon's calls for a cease-fire in escalating Mideast violence on Friday, saying only that Israel should try to limit civilian casualties as it steps up attacks on its neighbor.

"The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

But that's odd. After all, given the potential for this spiralling entirely out of control, one would think Bush would have at least a little incentive to get everyone to step back and take a deep breath. What might explain this? Oh, wait ... this might:

Although I do not have independent confirmation, I heard the rumor from a well-placed source that Secretary of State Rice attempted to increase pressure on Israel to stand down and to demonstrate "restraint". The rumor is that she was told flatly by the Prime Minister's office to "back off".

Suddenly, it all becomes clear, as George sees the possibility that, if he tried to intervene, he would be told to fuck right off in a very public and humiliating way. I'm pretty sure his ego wouldn't take kindly to that, so he's just going to sit this one out. Better to watch the Mideast tear itself apart than let your pride take a beating.

P.S. If you want a good idea of just how out of control this is getting, you might want to check out Juan Cole. Or you could subject yourself to the predictable idiocy of folks like Michelle Malkin and remain as stupid and misinformed as ever. The choice is yours.

P.P.S. And for those unspeakable dumbfucks who think Israel's unrestrained bombing of civilian areas is just ever so peachy, those folks might want to think just a little longer term, as Cole explains:

Americans have to understand that when Israel goes wild and bombs a civilian airport and civilian neighborhoods in Beirut, a lot of the world's Catholics (Lebanon is partially a Catholic country) and its 1.4 billion Muslims blame the United States for it. Israel is given billions every year by the United States, including sophisticated weaponry that is now being trained on the slums of south Beirut. It should also be remembered that Bin Laden said, at least, that he started thinking about hitting New York when he saw that 1982 Israeli destruction of the skyscrapers or "towers" of Lebanon. How many future Bin Ladens are watching with horror and rage and feelings of revenge as Israel drops bombs on civilian tenement buildings? When will this blow back on Americans? (I mean blow back in other ways than an already painful further spike in petroleum prices).

You want "blowback?" When those "future bin Ladens" go looking for asses to kick, what do you think they'll do with something like this?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Thursday condemned the abduction of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah, saying he supported Israel's right to "defend itself" and characterized its response to the kidnappings as "measured."

I'm guessing life for Canadians in general just got a lot more interesting. And a lot less safe.