the conflict escalates, what else is new

So I'm away for two days and the conflict escalates, big surprise there. The meeting in Rome proved to be a fool's errand, with the entire world as the fool thinking the rising civilian casualties could be enough for the United States to support an immediate cease-fire.

This is how the Finnish foreign minister put it:

"We agreed upon what we could agree upon, but that does not change the fact that the European Union has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities" while the United States has not.

And this is what Condoleezza Rice said, essentially the same thing she's been saying since this thing started:

"I have made very clear that I seek urgently to get an end to these hostilities, an end to this violence. We all want this urgently," Rice said in the news conference. But, she added: "We have to be effective. It means that we have to have a plan that will actually create conditions in which we can have a cease-fire that will be sustainable."

Look at the American position this way, they want more people to die now, so that other people don't die later. Does that make sense to you?

From Reuters we have this about the four U.N. peacekeepers killed by Israel.

DUBLIN, July 26 (Reuters) - An Irish army officer in south Lebanon warned the Israeli military six times that their attacks in the area were putting the lives of U.N. observers at risk, Ireland's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The strike on the peacekeers proves one of two things, either they were targeted by Israel, which is unlikely, or that Israel's strikes are that haphazard and irresponsible, and if they can't avoid killing unarmed U.N. personnel, then they certainly can't avoid killing civilians.