Billmon: Babes in Toyland

This is really quite revealing of the neocon mind set -- and the increasingly large gulf between that mind set and what American power and influence can support:

"The position that we're taking in the UN is just nuts," a former White House official close to the US decision-making process said during the negotiations. "The US wants to put international forces on the ground in the middle of the conflict, before there's a ceasefire. The reasoning at the White House is that the international force could weigh on the side of the Israelis -- could enforce Hezbollah's disarmament" . . .

A former US Central Intelligence Agency officer confirmed this view: "I am under the impression that George Bush and Condoleezza Rice were surprised when the Europeans disagreed with the US position -- they were running around saying, 'But how can you disagree, don't you understand? Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.'" (emphasis added)

And a tough and dangerous one to boot. This is supposed to encourage the French to plunk their people down in the middle of a hot LZ?