Please Do Not Disturb

The Middle East is coming closer every day to an all out regional catastrophe with Iraq on the brink of civil war, the Israeli-Hezbollah and Israel-Palestine wars threaten to draw in Syria and further involve Iran while a humanitarian crisis is reaching critical mass.

General John Abizaid had this to say to the Senate Armed Services Committee on August 3, 2006:

"The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it...If not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war."(The Seattle Times)

Tony Blair, just about to go on vacation, decided that things were too grave to take time off:

"British Prime Minister Tony Blair will delay the start of his holiday to work on a U.N. deal for a cease-fire in Lebanon, his office says...Basically he's delayed to try and do further work to try and get this U.N. deal together. And he thinks the next few days will be critical, a spokesman said, adding he expected Blair to delay his departure by several days".(CNN)

While we know President Bush is deeply concerned with the situation, he still decided to go on vacation and even stopped by a Texas Border Patrol station before heading off to his ranch for a week and a half:

"He got an up close look at several tools the Border Patrol uses to catch people sneaking across — helicopters, a boat and a small plane — and he stopped to pet some horses that are used on old-fashioned patrols." (MSNBC)

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