Another Reluctant Ally on Bush's War on Terror

Bush may not know what is in America's best interest in the Middle East, but the Israelis are showing that they know what is in their's. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have been holding off ceasefire attempts so that Israel could strike deeper into Lebanon.

Despite what an article in Insight.com today said about a Bush neocon calling and yelling at a senior Israel to attack deeper inside Lebanon, the Israeli government has held off pushing to the Litani River on the ground.

Unlike Bush, the Israelis know full well that their conflict is not part of a War on Terror, anymore than Iraq is for the United States. Unlike Bush, they are acting in their own best interest, not in Bush's.

The Israelis have to live in the Middle East after our troops and Bush are gone and they know that they cannot afford to fight wars of attrition. To them this is just another chapter in a long-running conflict, not part of Bush's War on Terror.

This is something Bush needs to learn the next time the Israelis and the American neocons try to convince him that acting in Israel's best interests is the same as acting in America's best interests.