While Condi Rice and George Bush fiddle, Lebanon burns. The U.N. now estimates 600 dead, the vast majority civilian, and a third children. Children! Where the hell is the outrage? The U.N.’s Jan Egeland visited the region and said, “It’s been horrific… There is something fundamentally wrong with the war, where there are more dead children than armed men.” This is not war, this is slaughter of innocents.

destroyed apartment buildings in South Beirut

Fleeing civilians continue to be targeted. This is not “collateral damage”. Mitch Prothero writes in Salon that “Hezbollah fighters — as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers — avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators — as so many Palestinian militants have been.”

It is obvious that Israel is, in the best light imaginable, targeting civilian infrastructure. This is abhorent, as it inevitably leads to the death of civilians (especially the very young, very old and the sick). But it is difficult to refute that they have been specifically targeting civilians. These are war crimes. Hezbollah, too, is engaging in war crimes, but the carnage of children in Lebanon is simply overwhelming.

The U.S. could step in and stop this bloodshed, but we haven’t. We were operating on the assumption that Israel could simply take out Hezbollah, and then we could have a cease fire. Unfortunately, this plan backfired. Israel underestimated Hezbollah, and Hezbollah now has a stronger political position than when they started this whole mess. And the U.S. position is severely weakened. And children are being immolated by bombs paid for by you and me.

Egeland is right: There is something fundamentally wrong with this war. I am just sick over this.