****

President Bush used the word “shit” in a conversation with Tony Blair at the G8 conference in St. Petersburg.

The reaction of the American media was one of shock and/or poking fun at another example of Bush’s “crude” language. The word “shit” was of course bleeped out every time.

Last Monday morning I was watching the news about the Middle East when I got the same feeling I had a few days after hurricane Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map.

Where is the government? Where are our leaders? How can it be that the same government that spoke so strongly and acted with such force in the War Against Terrorism is now so weak, powerless and ineffective?

(Remember Bush’s words to Michael Brown, the Director of FEMA? “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”. If there had been no microphones or cameras around he would have said “hell of a”. Two weeks later Brown resigned because of incompetence.)

War is raging again in the Middle East. Houses and neighbourhoods are being bombarded, innocent civilians are being killed. There is a real possibility of escalation and spread of war.

And we hear nothing from the leaders of the West.

Where is the government? Where are our leaders? How can it be that the same government that spoke so strongly and acted with such force in the War Against Terrorism is now so weak, powerless and ineffective?

In the same conversation with Blair Bush also said: “I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen.”

When he wanted to attack Iraq Bush paid no attention to Annan’s opinion and didn’t need him for anything. Now he wants Annan to take care of this problem. Why doesn't he get on the phone?

I get angry and sad at this lack of leadership shown by America, Great Britain, France, Russia, Holland – go down the whole list.

The world and the Middle East need leadership so badly.

And we are not getting it.

I think that is ****.

(For an interesting and interactive map of Lebanon and Israel which shows up to date nieuws and blogs, click here. But take this warning from the website seriously: The purpose of this page is to aggregate what is being said and reported: readers must make their own judgement on what to believe, and what to agree or disagree with.)