Being Clear (or trying to be ... )

      I didn't mean Saturday's post to sound like a harangue. Lord knows, there's way too much of that around already.  But I was really tired from another week of hearing about suffering and tragedy caused by what to me seems like either stupid or insane or uninformed or malevolent policy on the part of our current government.
      I mean, when people all over the world differentiate between Americans (they generally like us individually, when they meet us face-to-face) and American state policy (they all scratch their heads, at best, or condemn us as fiends out to destroy them -- which, in the case of this Administration, seems to be the idea) -- I mean, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?!  Actually, we all view other citizens in many countries the same way -- Israelis vs. their government's apparent policies, Lebanese, Syrians, Iranians, Chinese -- the list goes on.  How is it that so many governments act contrary to their citizens' wishes?
      It seems to me there is something wrong when governments present us all as enemies, while most of us, as individuals, would really like to know people in other countries, one to one, person to person.  Or we already do know some, and can only be mutually embarrassed, even appalled, by our respective governments' behavior.
      Anyway, at the Daily Kos, two responders to It Just Keeps Getting Worse! kindly showed me a couple of points that I need to clarify.
Iraqi-American naltikriti, "born and raised in New Orleans," asked, "Howard Dean said WHAT?"

"Did al-Maliki say something in his comments about Israeli actions in Lebanon to merit that characterization?  If so, someone please point out what it might have been.  If not, my days as a Deaniac may be numbered."

      My apologies for not following this up, to find out BEFORE I posted.  Maliki's apparently offending comments were reported by UPI on July 19:  "The Israeli attacks and air strikes are completely destroying Lebanon's infrastructure,' Maliki told reporters in Baghdad.  'I condemn these aggressions and call on the Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo to take quick action to stop these aggressions.  We call on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression.'"  Apparently, Dean disliked his calling it "aggression."  Ah, how important it is, what we call things.  A good one I heard yesterday:  "There are facts, and there are facts; and then there are perceptions, which are the only reality."  Indeed, it is our perceptions on which we act.
      Then the agnostic asked, "How do you propose Israel should fight?"  To which there were several cogent replies.  The agnostic, true to moniker, started a productive dialog leading to more questions than answers -- which, in my mind, is great.  Questions are always good.  Answers are often dangerous.  At the very least, answers lead us to stop questioning, which is ALWAYS dangerous.
      Today (Monday, July 30), watch or listen to Robert Fisk on Democracy Now!  Amy Goodman got him on the telephone at his home in Beirut, after he returned from Tyre, where many victims of Sunday night's Qana "incident" were taken.  If you have a strong stomach.  And don't miss the second part of this interview on Tuesday.
      How many more children are to be sacrificed before we have "conditions that will make [a ceasefire] also sustainable"?  (Condoleezza Rice, on returning July 24 from "a trip to calm violence in the Middle East."