LEBANONSENSE

I'd like everyone to imagine something for a moment.

Let's imagine that there are a bunch of people from Mexico sneaking into our country. Okay, so that's not much of a stretch. But let's imagine our government decides to send some troops down to patrol the Rio Grande in an effort to plug the leak. A little extreme? Maybe. Others might say necessary. Regardless, let's just imagine that's the scenario. Troops on the border.

Now imagine one night a handful of Mexicans sneak across the border and kidnap a couple of American soldiers. They announce they are holding them for ransom and make a number of ludicrous demands that could never be met - like releasing all people of Mexican descent from jail, or making the burro our national equine.

To solve the crisis, our government declares the abduction an act of war and starts launching airstrikes against unrelated targets in Mexican cities, demanding the Mexican government be held responsible for returning our soldiers. We roll tanks across the border and start shelling everything in sight. I know - this seems a little far-fetched, because even the most war-hungry nation on the planet wouldn't react in such an irresponsibly volatile way. It's completely insane, right? We'd probably go through the United Nations first and accuse Mexico of engineering weapons of mass emigration, then gather a coalition of reluctant, well-funded allies to support a few calculated military strikes and a coup d'etaco.

The point to this geopolitical finger painting is that it isn't far removed from what's going on in the Middle East right now. TODAY.

Israel has, for all intents and purposes, invaded Lebanon - bombing airports and other targets of interest - following the abduction of military personnel on the border. Granted, they have every right to be mad as hell, but a full scale military invasion? That's like pouring rocket fuel on a hibachi. This wasn't the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand here. It was a random act of terrorism. How is this response justified? And why is the U.S. supporting Israel's incursion into Lebanon as an act of self-defense?

It is becoming all too clear that the precedent we set in pre-emptively invading Iraq may have unintended consequences we never could have imagined.

Put me in charge. New policy decision: Israel can do whatever it wants, but we're staying out of it.