Cleveland

Every single news network is showing the exact same thing: a reporter in Northern Israel with an American-made, Israeli Howitzer cannon behind them.

I was watching  a documentary this evening about the men who strap bombs onto their chests and walk into crowded plazas to blow themselves up for Allah.  One such man was a father of seven children who decided to wear a bomb Hamas had built for him.  Not only were their explosives on his chests, but he was wearing boxes of nails, so when he would detonate himself, shrapnel would "enhance" the effect of the explosion.  Anyway, this man pressed the button to detonate himself  in the middle of a crowded checkpoint between Israel and Palestine - only the bomb didn't explode.  The man awoke from unconsciousness hours later in an Israeli hospital, quite confident he was in heaven.  The medical staff insisted he was not dead.  It was only until an Israeli Intelligence officer said, "Do you think there are Israeli's in you heaven" did he realize he was denied the "glorious gift" of dying for Allah.

The interview ended with the failed bomber answering some questions.  The question I found most intriguing was about how  suicide bombers are guaranteed 90 virgins in heaven upon successful detonation.  The reporter asked: you are promised 90 virgins when you reach heaven, but this promise is not a heavenly one.  Heaven is not about passion for lust or sex or human wants, it is about being with the spirit of Allah.  Were you thinking of this when you were wearing bombs on your chest?  It was only then that the failed terrorist realized the fallacy of why these men, most of them not much older then me, blow themselves up for a cause they really do not understand at all.

Secretary Rice is traveling to the Middle East to begin construction of a lasting peace.  You know how Condi should arrive?  She should be commanding a fleet of America's largest cargo ships, full of hardware supplies, food, and medicine, and set anchor in the port of Beirut.   America needs an unforgettable act of public diplomacy - Rice getting off the State Department jet in Tel Aviv is not what much of the world is looking for.  The Middle East, Europe - they want to see a different America light.  

I am afraid to say it, but sometimes I think Hezbollah is better in public diplomacy than the US is in Lebanon.  When Israeli shells destroy a family's home, it is not USAID or the Lebanese government rebuilding, it is Hezbollah.  The family did not receive any incentives to be loyal to the sovereign government, and the US surely did not receive any bonus points - no, it was Hezbollah who received the friendship of a family who may be asked by the terrorists to one day sacrifice their son or daughter in a suicide bombing.  

America needs to show the world - most important Lebanon, that America stands for  good.  It is a false belief that the common Lebanese man or woman will believe America is good only through words - we need to show action.  Otherwise, I fear Hezbollah will win the hearts of the Lebanese people again, and only more peril will play out in the Middle East.