"No one likes us/I don't know why...."

Funny, I've not heard anyone else put it this way:

Far from ending terrorism, George Bush's tactics of using overwhelming military might to fight extremism appear to have rebounded, spawning an epidemic of global terrorism that has claimed an estimated 72,265 lives since 2001, most of them Iraqi civilians.

The rest, some 30,626, according to official US figures, have been killed in a combination of terror attacks and counter-insurgency actions by the US and its allies. The figures were compiled by the US based National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (Mipt).

And I don't think I'll be reading anything like this in the US press anytime soon:

A US led-invasion swept away the Taliban regime in a matter of weeks, and did the same to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party in 2003, but far from bringing stability and democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, the outcome has been one of constant warfare.

Even though it's undeniably true. Speaking of American news coverage:

Addressing 15,000 American Muslims at the weekend, Mr Khatami also made a clear assault on the influence of Israel's political lobby in the US. "We are unfortunately witnessing the emergence of policies that seek to confiscate public opinion in order to exploit all the grandeur of the nation and country of the United States ... policies that are the outcome of a point of view, that despite having no status in the US public arena as far as numbers are concerned, uses decisive lobby groups and influential centres to utilise the entirety of America's power and wealth to promote its own interest and to implant policies outside US borders that have no resemblance to the spirit of Anglo-American civilisation and the aspirations of its Founding Fathers or its constitution, causing crisis after crisis in our world."

....

"Any popular or democratic change or transformation that is outside the realm of their influence is not acceptable," he said, "for they find it far more convenient to deal with non-nationalistic and non-popular trends and regimes rather than popular ones, who naturally tend to care about the welfare and the physical interests of their people."

Thus did Mr Khatami dispose of America's cry for "democracy" in the "new" Middle East.

Needless to say, his words were given scarcely a few seconds on America's major news channels. Mr Khatami's wisdom is not wanted in Washington.

Like, say, Hezbollah:

Jihad Construction -- the engineering arm of Hezbollah -- was on the streets in Lebanon the day after the cease-fire with Israel went into effect. The company has dozens of engineers on the payroll and thousands of volunteers. It's already worked out how many homes need to be rebuilt, who needs compensation, and begun repairing electricity and water lines in the district.

So how's the electricity and water in New Orleans working? Maybe it's better if I don't ask.

One conclusion we can draw, however: whatever is not wanted in Washington, is not wanted in America. Apparently.

Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.