A Whole New War

"Nadia Bilbassy of al-Arabiya television wondered if there was a contradiction between Bush hastening both humanitarian aid to Lebanon and shipments of missiles and bombs to Israel, which will drop them on Lebanon. 'No,' Bush said, 'I don't see a contradiction in us honoring commitments we made prior to Hezbollah attacks into Israeli territory.' "

Bush and Lebanon

Meanwhile, the White House continues to pursue a policy of contradictions when it comes to Lebanon. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she favors a quick end to the violence -- just not yet. And there are indications that -- like that most infamous of Vietnam-era quotes -- the Bush Administration is destroying Lebanese democracy in order to save it.

Robin Wright writes in The Washington Post: "The real issues, U.S. officials say, are not simply the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah but far wider questions of Lebanon's sovereignty and what the administration sees as an existential battle between forces aligned for and against democracy in the region. . . .

"The administration is using these loftier causes to try to shift the focus from Israel's punishing and controversial bombardment of Lebanon to the question of freedom for the region. 'It is time for a new Middle East,' Rice said in Jerusalem."

But Rice's pro-democracy rhetoric is not getting any backing from the democratically-elected Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora. Stephen Collinson of AFP reports that, standing next to Rice at a high-level international meeting in Rome today, Siniora "launched into a tirade against Israel, and delivered a moving elegy to the Lebanese he said were dying every day."

Collinson writes: "Earlier, in the closed-doors meeting of the international conference on the Lebanon crisis, Siniora asked 'what future other than one of fear, frustration, financial ruin and fanaticism can stem from the rubble?' "

Kim Murphy and Sebastian Rotella write in the Los Angeles Times: "U.S. allies in Europe and the Arab world are warning that without Washington's endorsement of an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, the possibility of escalating violence could eclipse any hope to transform a region beset by autocracy and terrorism to one based on democracy."

Meet the New Plan

David S. Cloud and Sheryl Gay Stolberg write in the New York Times: "Legislation drafted by the Bush administration setting out new rules on bringing terror detainees to trial would allow hearsay evidence to be introduced unless it was deemed 'unreliable' and would permit defendants to be excluded from their own trials if necessary to protect national security, according to a copy of the proposal.

"The bill, which officials said was being circulated within the administration, is not final, but it indicates the direction of the administration's approach for dealing with a Supreme Court decision that struck down the tribunals established to try terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"The 32-page bill preserves the idea of using military commissions to prosecute terror suspects and makes modest changes in their procedural rules, including several expanded protections for defendants, many of them drawn from the military's legal code. . . .

"Rather than requiring a speedy trial for enemy combatants, the draft proposal says they 'may be tried and punished at any time without limitations.' Defendants could be held until hostilities are completed, even if found not guilty by a commission. . . .

"The bill would also bar 'statements obtained by the use of torture' from being introduced as evidence, but evidence obtained during interrogations where coercion was used would be admissible unless a military judge found it 'unreliable.' "