My apologies if someone has posted this already: A journalism student from my school (University of Alabama) was doing an internship at a paper in Beirut and has been stuck there since the start of the fighting. The article is about a week old (I just read it for the first time though), but I thought everyone might be interested to see a view of from the ground: On the Front Lines of War There are some idiotic responses (from both sides) in the comments section, but I thought the article was an interesting read. An excerpt:
Yes a very tough situation and it could create problems for her. I just hope. I'll just say both sides are problematic and have attacked the USA. Some of those bombings are illrelevent accept to divert man power and not worry about other things. If Ground Forces had to go up there. That rubble could demorialize intrest in a heartbeat.
Fine article, even if it could be a little more detached. Good for her -- it probably won her a career.
"I am ... unable to relate to my own side." "It's true - my tax dollars bought the bombs ..." "It also hurts me to go back to a country that is painfully unaware of their plight, to a people who do not understand that the realities on the ground here do not fit neatly into their tidy American, democratic, peaceful worldviews. They just don't. And unless Americans accept that, they will never understand life - and death - here in the Middle East." As my father-in-law often says: "I'm not young enough to know everything!" How many tax dollars has this college student actually paid? Our tax dollars have gone to both sides in this conflict.
I didn't say that he authored the quotation, just that he makes frequent use of it when faced with yet another conclusory statement made by an all-knowing young adult.