The way we get into these scrapes and get out of them, it's almost as though someone was dreaming up these situations; guiding our destiny.

The familiar feeling of helplessness has gripped me these last couple of days as the events in Lebanon escalate. Under normal circumstances it would be something I'd just keep a wary eye on and proceed on with my life. Normal circumstances being a President who has a better understanding of foreign affairs than a five-year old and who would place domestic political calculations at the bottom of a list of priorities when it came to dealing with the situation.

Watching the administration sit on it's butt while the regional violence spins out of control is literally painful. There is simply no reason other than politics as to why the U.S. would not be vigorously working towards a diplomatic solution. The administration and their media surrogates have made no secret of their intentions towards Iran. Unfortunately for President Bush the U.N. and our allies have simply refused to provide any diplomatic cover towards military action. It appears that the administration sees an escalation of the conflict as an opportunity. An opportunity to throw some ordinance at Iran. An opportunity to show muslims just how tough we are (again, sigh.) But - most importantly - an opportunity to put security front an center in the looming congressional midterm election.

I've used the monkey with a grenade analogy many times when talking about this President. This time the monkey is playing with the detonator on a thermonuclear warhead. To say that's engendering a little anxiety would be the understatement to end all understatements.