"What sadder fascination to watch and read journalists from al-Jazeera to the Wall Street Journal try to give their interpretation of this latest conflagration, to, quote unquote, try to make sense of it, as if there is anything to be made sense of when senselessness is the preferred and universal fuel. What sense is there, regardless of the legitimate objective of getting those barbaric militants out of the Palestinian camp and out of Lebanon if possible, to attack them with barbarism in turn—to blast off civilians in the refugee camp like so much collateral irrelevance? Once again, those paying the heaviest price are those who have nothing to do with the fight. Who to blame first is silly. The genealogy of responsibility is as long as Abraham’s. No one can be spared, no one should be. But in the immediate vicinity of the mayhem, let’s not be too relative, either: those Datah al-Islam types think nothing of spreading destruction, of using terrorism to their limited advantage—not that the action they’re involved in against the Lebanese army can be termed terrorism (no battle between combatants can be). The consequences of the battle, of course, can be. The Lebanese and Palestinians of Tripoli and Nahr al Bared camp are being terrorized no less than the Lebanese were terrorized by Israel’s invasion last summer. And who are those fanatical Fatah al-Islam types, what are they, if not much more than the latest collection of ideological rags wrapped in perversions of Islam pretending to serve the cause of Palestinian nationalism? They’re minor-league butchers who think a stint of loitering and ganging about Iraq makes them kings in their miserable little camp."

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, hopefully I didn't miss it: the US might have been funding Fatah al-Islam through Saudi Arabia as part of a plan to bolster armed opposition to Hezbollah. And now we're arming Lebanon in order to route out Fatah al-Islam. Feeding both sides doesn't make much sense, but it sure is good for business.
- jim 5-30-2007 10:50 pm

Good catch, I read the Seymour Hersh article a while ago but missed that connection.
- L.M. 5-31-2007 5:49 am

Israel used to back Hamas to counter Arafat's Fatah movement. That sure didn't have any blowback.
- mark 5-31-2007 9:51 pm