The President of the United States engages in some private (oops, no it wasnt') straight-talking.
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A microphone picked up an unaware President Bush saying on Monday Syria should press Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit" and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon.
Since the Prez said it, the PG17C will allow it.
Of course, the writer and editors had their own fun, intentional or not, didn't they?
That noted, the sheepdog in me says the wolf population in that particular neck of the woods could use some thinning. Not that this couldn't bubble over into something larger, but all those Sunni Arab nations aren't going to mind seeing some Shias working for non-Arab Iran get spanked - even by the Israelis. There's been no sleep at CENTCOM this week, and little prospect for any anytime soon, either. And, as CDR Salamander noted elsewhere - there's no sleep in EUCOM, in whose territory this falls. And I rather suspect a tug-of-war for resources, too, if this goes on too long. The whole NEO thing (go read the posts at Milblogs) is going to eat up what little slack there is.
You can read the rest here.
Update: This is, for Europe, an uncharacteristically blunt statement - and word order matters. German Chancellor Merkel:
"We demand first that the Israeli soldiers be returned to Israel healthy, that the attacks on Israel cease, and then naturally for Israel to halt military action," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters.
Many times in the past, the order was "Israel cease, and then get (fill-in-the-blank). This is a significant change, I think. The Euros see the Iranian Lurker-in-Shadow.
More here, from ABC.
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