[Overpaid Slacker]

Yes, kach, you're missing something. Choices may be but not limited to:

1. Clue

2. Context

3. Ability to admit when an adversary is right.

Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese Druze leader, and a man of impeccable anti-American credentials: "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, eight million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Berlin Wall has fallen."

Please provide context for your ability to astrally project yourself into the "inner thinking/workings" of the typical Lebanese standing in Martyr Square, as I've provided the actual statements of one of their leaders.

Note also, as part of our ongoing reading comp. lessons, that I did not say that W deserves all credit for what is happening in Lebanon; only that this action, linked as it is (to all but the most willfully blind) to the election successes in Iraq, does vindicate W's efforts to democratize the middle east.

As does Mubarak's announcement that after 4 "elections", this time he'll allow an actual opponent; an "historical decision in the nation's 7,000-year-old-march toward democracy." As does Syria handing over Hussein's half-brother and 29 other Baghdad Baathists. As does Prince Saud announcing that women will be allowed to vote in the next Saudi election.

Add each of the foregoing to the weighty litany of things you're missing here.

JP