Dude, Here Is Your Civil War

Good Morning. A few new items today.

• Dude, Here's Your Civil War: Remember Ralph Peters, the occasional New York Post columnist and permanent Pentagon flacker who tripped around Baghdad last March and derisively asked, "Dude, Where's My Civil War?" He might have found his answer fuming in a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, as we revisit the wildfires of the Iraqi ranch...

• Room for Disagreement: The focus on Lebanon in the last three weeks has generated what no discussion about the Levant has managed to avoid since the third day of creation (did God create oranges first that day, or lemons? Citrus groves have been waging their own intifadas over that one ever since). Namely: disagreement. I post two of the more compelling recent comments, one by an American married to a Lebanese Christian, disagreeing with my characterization of Hezbollah as, among other things, a Shiite Taliban. The other, by one of our friends at Jewlicious, disagreeing with my take on Israeli designs as described in yesterday’s piece. See the letters...

• Candide's Recommendations for Friday will be posted today in the early morning hours, Eastern Standard.

Good weekend all.pt