The 2006 Mideast War has begun

Lest anyone misunderstand what is happening over there, it now undoubtedly is a wider war that looks to get only wider before all is said and done.

Here's two exceptional writeups on this escalating conflict from two gifted writers. The first is from Michael Ledeen over at National Review Online:

No one should have any lingering doubts about what’s going on in the Middle East. It’s war, and it now runs from Gaza into Israel, through Lebanon and thence to Iraq via Syria. There are different instruments, ranging from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon and on to the multifaceted “insurgency” in Iraq. But there is a common prime mover, and that is the Iranian mullahcracy, the revolutionary Islamic fascist state that declared war on us 27 years ago and has yet to be held accountable.

The second recommended piece of reading is at ThreatsWatch, where the talented and insightful Steve Schippert regularly posts high-caliber pieces like this one:

In the Jerusalem Post is an AP story from Ramallah in the West Bank with the headline “Abbas: Situation raises fears of regional war.” In it, Abbas is quoted as saying after a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister that “The expansion of the military action to the neighbor, Lebanon, is raising our fears of a new regional war.”

It should be recognized openly that it already is and always has been a regional war, with the conflict managed and tensions instigated from Damascus and Tehran...