It's Evening Time Here

When I got up this morning I read my mail, and I got angry. So I wrote a long post to counter something I should have ignored.

Ahmad kindly linked to this post both at his own Cold Desert and at Lebanon Hearts.

Most likely it was because he flatteringly described it as "as interesting as a movie" (Thank you, sir), but today there've been about five times more hits than normal. If the theatres were open in Beirut I probably wouldn't have had any at all!

There haven't been as many comments as I thought there might. I find that something of a relief--it means that you either feel I'm being at least truthful (flattering--I try) or regard this as harmless (which it is).

My whole point was that there's more than one way to view the historic aspects of the Middle East conflict. There have been shameful acts on all sides.

In the interests of fair disclosure let me say that I don't feel quite that way about the current Lebanon conflict, though. Nearly a thousand Lebanese dead. How many were Hizbullah guerrilas? Even the IDF puts it at no better than one in ten. Statistics like that aren't "collateral damage"--they're war crimes.

Anyway ...
I always keep in mind the possibility that I might be dead wrong about something. And when I saw all the people coming here I thought "$#!7--I sure hope I got all my facts straight".

No-one has yet seen fit to slap me down if they weren't.

The reason I felt it necessary to follow up is that I really just wanted to say "thanks".

I hope some of you will come over sometime and have a read when I have something more pleasant on my mind.

Oh--and one last item: at time of writing my little Neotracker below and right lists 43 countries. But still no Norwegians! C'mon. Please? All I want is one!

And maybe an Icelander ...