Below The Beltway

Ladies and gentlemen, the General Election campaign has officially started:
WATERTOWN, S.D. — Barack Obama rebuked Republican rival John McCain and President Bush for “dishonest and divisive” attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists, staunchly defending his national security credentials for the general election campaign.
Obama responded Friday to Bush’s speech to the [...]

It’s pretty obvious that Hezbollah is actively trying to overthrow the elected government of Lebanon:
BEIRUT, Dec. 3 — Sunni residents and Shiite protesters clashed in the capital Sunday, leaving one man dead and raising tension across Lebanon on a third day of demonstrations aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
The shooting death [...]

Victor Davis Hanson asks whether Europe and the U.S. have lost the will to fight for their civilization:
Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit. The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of our [...]

Victor Davis Hanson has long been one of the leading writers on the War on Terror, in his latest piece for RealClearPolitics, he asks whether the West could stumble in its fight against Islamic Radicalism:
The recent November election made it clear that the American public is tired of Iraq, tired of the televised bombings, tired [...]

When we last left the nation of Lebanon, a cease fire was in place in the month-long war that erupted between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist army. That cease fire, of course, did nothing to address the fundamental causes of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s state-within-a-state and was really nothing more than a pause [...]

Apparently, Hezbollah is branching out into the world of boy bands:
YAMOUN, West Bank (AP) — They were struggling in a boy band, working the West Bank wedding circuit and dreaming of stardom.
Now the five singers who make up the Northern Band have come a little closer to their goal, with help from an unwitting [...]

Newt Gingrich appeared on Bill O’Reilly Thursday night and called the cease fire deal that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war a defeat for the United States and Israel, and a victory for terrorism:
O’REILLY: Continuing now with FOX News analyst Newt Gingrich. Nobody I know thinks that the United Nations force and the Lebanese army is going [...]

USA Today is reporting that, during the early stages of the Israel-Hezbollah war, the United States, Turkey, and Iraq intervened to stop a shipment of missiles from Iran to Hezbollah:

WASHINGTON ? The United States blocked an Iranian cargo plane’s flight to Syria last month after intelligence analysts concluded it was carrying sophisticated missiles and launchers [...]

Its barely a week old and already the United Nations brokered cease fire in Lebanon is being revealed for the fraud that it is:
BEIRUT, Aug. 15 — Hezbollah refused to disarm and withdraw its fighters from the battle-scarred hills along the border with Israel on Tuesday, threatening to delay deployment of the Lebanese army and [...]

James Joyner has an article at TCS Daily explaining why the current cease fire is a defeat for Israel and a victory for Hezbollah.
Money quote:
Israel has accepted a truce that falls far short of its original war aims, failing to establish control over their border with Lebanon, let alone deliver a crushing blow to Hezbollah. [...]