Bad case scenario

This morning’s WaPo gives us this analysis of Middle East events. There are some great money lines (I’ll give you some in a second), but the premise seems to be that the immaturity and stupidity that thinks that Middle East problems have been intractable for something and therefore “something” has to be done, or even “something different,” no matter how shortsighted or irresponsible, has put the United States, and in this case, Israel, in about as isolated and untenable position as they have been in… well, anybody remembers.
One money line calls what will happen in Lebanon now, especially after the carnage in Qana, a “bad case scenario”, but the likeliest one. Another is:
[Richard] Haass, the former Bush aide who leads the Council on Foreign Relations, laughed at the president’s public optimism. “An opportunity?” Haass said with an incredulous tone. “Lord, spare me. I don’t laugh a lot. That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what’s Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?”
In short, the likeliest scenario from the gross Israeli overreaction that we didn’t stop in the interest of satisfying moron war-hawks’ wet-dreams about having Israel costlessly take out Syria and Iran for us is that Hizbollah will be strengthened in Lebanon and the government weakened, and other Arab states (i.e. our friends) will have to adjust to an even more radicalized populace whose anti-Israel and anti-American feelings are heightened.
Let’s just say that the first President Bush would have been a bit more cautious, as he would have felt that all of these machinations… wouldn’t be prudent.