Mike covers the story, so I don’t have to:

It is, of course, impossible to ascertain how many of the Lebanese casualties were civilian and how many were Hezbollah, given that Hezbollah hid and fought among civilians, its fighters often wore civilians clothes, and many of its wounded fighters were evacuated to Syria.

However, what is clear is that around half of the Lebanese casualties were Hezbollah fighters; in fact, if the lower figures for total Lebanese casualties and the upper figures for Hezbollah fighters are nearer the mark, then the majority of Lebanese casualties were Hezbollah. What clearly isn’t true is the BBC’s mantra that most of the Lebanese casualties were civilians.

The point of this post isn’t to rehash the wider debate on civilian casualties in Lebanon or any other war, which has been well aired. The point is to draw attention to the fact that, more than a year after the war, the BBC continues to publish claims about civilian casualties which it must know to be false, and continues to play down the losses inflicted on Hezbollah.

Read it all.

Please. Don’t complicate the situation with facts, people! Israel is the reason the Bush neocons started the Iraq war. Everyone knows that. Well, except for this guy:

WASHINGTON - Israeli officials warned the George W Bush administration that an invasion of Iraq would be destabilizing to the region and urged the United States instead to target Iran as the primary enemy, according to former Bush administration official Lawrence Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, then a member of the US State Department’s policy planning staff and later chief of staff for secretary of state Colin Powell, recalled in an interview that the Israelis reacted immediately to indications that the Bush administration was thinking of war against Iraq. After the Israeli government picked up the first signs of that intention, said Wilkerson, “The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy - Iran is the enemy.”

Wilkerson describes the Israeli message to the Bush administration in early 2002 as being, “If you are going to destabilize the balance of power, do it against the main enemy.”

The warning against an invasion of Iraq was “pervasive” in Israeli communications with the US administration, Wilkerson recalled. It was conveyed to the administration by a wide range of Israeli sources, including political figures, intelligence, and private citizens.

Oh, come on. You can’t flout conventional wisdom, and CW says that Israel did it. Sharon wanted it. Sharon was Bush’s puppet-master. Everyone knows that.

Sharon, who was incapacitated by a stroke last year, never revealed publicly what he said to Bush in the February 7 meeting. But Yossi Alpher, a former adviser to prime minister Ehud Barak, wrote in an article in The Forward last January that Sharon advised Bush not to occupy Iraq, according to a knowledgeable source. Alpher wrote that Sharon also assured Bush that Israel would not “push one way or another” regarding his plan to take down Saddam.

Alpher noted that Washington did not want public support by Israel and in fact requested that Israel refrain from openly supporting the invasion in order to avoid an automatic negative reaction from Iraq’s Arab neighbors.

Please. You expect us to believe this crap? Don’t be ridiculous. We know the troof, and the Troof is that Bush Lied, People Died, and Neocons were why.

Get oil changed and find out why the condensation from the AC was dripping on your gas pedal foot the last time you drove to NorVA Company: Check.
Pay rent a day early: Check.
Make sure bills are paid before you leave: Check.
Do laundry: Check.
Fill gas tank: Check.
Put “Out of Office” message on work Outlook: Check.
Okay. Now all I have to do is finish cleaning, pack, leave tons of cat food, stop at the bank, and I’m good to go.

Oh. Blogging will be light today. Traveling. I decided not to bother going yesterday, because everyone I know was going to be working. Then there was the little matter of my bashing my toe on the stair. There’s a bruise all along the toe and a big bruise about an inch square where the toe joins the foot. No way that would have been comfortable to drive with, and of course, it’s my gas pedal foot.

Turns out I had to work, too, as something came up unexpectedly. But I will be visiting my family and friends this weekend, and will be relaxing and enjoying myself. I wonder if I should bring a long-sleeved shirt. New Jersey isn’t as hot as Richmond.

Eh. I can borrow my brother’s shirts. Been able to do that since he became a teenager and shot up to six feet.