As many of you know, I am a U.S. citizen who grew up in Beirut. Since I went to the American Community School there and then the American University of Beirut, I am still in contact with alumni and other people who live there.

I have called my contacts there since the Beirut airport was first bombed - early morning of July 13 and again last night - also early morning there - from Texas there is eight hours difference.

My main contact could not sleep at night due to the bombing and is now attempting to get some rest. She has enough water and electricity, although both have been sporadically supplied since the 15-year war that sputtered to an end in the late eighties. For now, the phones are working.

...so will Al-Qaeda (Bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri, etc.) go back to fighting the "far" enemy, namely, us here in America? As many of you know, I have read that Zarqawi was of the worst Salafi breed, who believed in fighting the enemy that is "near" the enemy surrounding them, there in Jordan (where he was from) and then in Iraq. Salafis are against anything new, innovative, against any slight wandering from the what they consider to be the purest form of Islam - although calling it "pure" is a misnomer and slanderous to Islam and to true Muslims, since nothing can be pure that is related to Zarqawi and his most evil type. We made it easy for him by going there, so that he could fight both the "near" and "far" enemy in the same place. Now that Zarqawi is gone, will Al-Qaeda, more focused on the "far" enemy, less extreme than the most exteme Salafis, start pushing for the fight against the "far" enemy again? Will they bring the fight back to us, here in America? This is what I can't stop thinking about.

Some food for thought:  This article backs up my feelings of uneasiness with the current administration's claim that there was an Qaeda-Iraq link prior to the war, although they are indeed talking about it less and less.  Not to mention the hyping of all the intelligence (ugh), and also the need that our Secretary of State now has to spend her time telling the world, especially our European allies, that we don't "do torture."I still believe that there was no Qaeda-Iraq link before the war, as I mentioned in my first posting; however, there is surely a link now (Zarqawi, with his "Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia"), and it is spreading to Jordan and Egypt. 

From the Diaries -- Brent

As usual, with his op-ed piece, "The Next Iraq Offensive" in the The New York Times on December 6, 2005, Wesley Clark met my expectations, and then some. 

As some of you already know, I am originally from New York, but grew up in the Middle East, and then lived in France for 25 years.  I've been back home now for over six years, and am so glad to be here.

I have absolute faith in Wes' extraordinary mind and superior intelligence, and thus his ability to understand the complexities of a region and to place its current conflict in its correct historical and geopolitical context.