After Israel attacked a building in Qana that they claimed was a Hezbullah rocket launch site and killed more than 50 sleeping civilians (including at least 22 children), massses of Lebanese citizens stormed the UN embassy in Beirut, forcing Condoleeza Rice to cancel her plans to go there.

The building struck by Israel housed refugees fleeing the violence elsewhere.

I was watching Condi talk on CNN a few moments ago. She was expressing condolences and looked and acted for once like a caring human being. Still, it rang hollow, after weeks of refusing to join the call for a ceasefire, to hear her ask for a cessation in the violence at this late date.

Key Israeli leaders - again like the errant knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail - are lining up to say “Terribly sorry, didn’t mean to” while promising more.

Hezbullah precipitated the conflict. But the Israelis, instead of dealing with it based on events unfolding, chose to launch a long-planned offensive trying to eliminate Hezbullah as an entity. Just as our invasion of Iraq was based on a years-old plan to take out Saddam, with the intel fabricated to support the move, the Israeli plan has now been proven an unmitigated disaster.

From Bush’s radio address yesterday:

“This approach will demonstrate the international community’s determination to support the government of Lebanon, and defeat the threat from Hezbollah and its foreign sponsors,” Bush said.

The administration has insisted that any cease-fire come with conditions to address long-standing regional disputes, including the insistence by Israel that Hezbollah be disarmed — something the Lebanese government has been unable to do.

“An effective multinational force will help speed delivery of humanitarian relief, facilitate the return of displaced persons, and support the Lebanese government as it asserts full sovereignty over its territory and guards its borders,” Bush said in his radio address.

Americans can now see fresh anti-American hatred being brewed before their eyes, partly the result of Bush’s refusal to stand against violence in a Middle East country that was building a democratic society. These are the citizens that forced Syria - its previous occupier - to depart. They’re not going to accept another occupation force from Israel.

It remains doubtful that will dissuade Israel from continuing the current trajectory of its vengeance-based strategy. As a citizen of the US, as useless as it may be, I extend my condolences to the people of Lebanon, and apologize for the idiots in control of our government.

I applaud the innocent Lebanese civilians now rising up to protest the war being foisted on them. And to the government and military planners in Israel, I extend a one-fingered salute to their vicious failure of a policy. This is a clear case of a second wrong being advanced in response to the first wrong. This time, Isael’s gone way too far, there is no excuse and they should begin a ceasefire immediately.

As for Bush, Rice, et al, their credibility is shot ad the first, most appropriate step Congress must now take is to reject John Bolten’s nomination as US ambassador.

It is well past time for accountability for an administration whose foreign policy initiatives have been marked by repetitive and costly failures. Not an elective official, not an appointee, not even one military general has been asked to resign for this world-record string of debacles.

If Bush can’t clean house, if Congress refuses its oversight role, it’s time for US citizens to storm a few government buildings of our own. Democracy is supposed to mean representation of the best interests of our population. And when that representation continually falls short, the only way democracy can persist is for US citizens to unite in opposition and throw da bums out.

The world came through for us in response to the 9-11 attacks. It’s time we stood up for other innocents, and in opposition to a heartless, vicious administration whose only talent lies in killing, with an absolutely unacceptable loss of innocent lives.

Endless war shall not be the American way.

Update 4:04 am PDT: Some key points to consider…

From News24.com:

Qana was the site of an Israeli bombing of a United Nations base on April 18, 1996 that killed 105 people who had taken refuge there during Israel’s “Grapes of Wrath” offensive - also aimed at wiping out Hezbollah.

Ten years later tragedy has returned to Qana.

From the International Herald Tribune, partners of Israel respond:

The attack drew immediate condemnation from the Arab world, with Jordan’s King Abdullah II voicing his strongest criticism of his Israeli peace partner yet. Abdullah called it an “ugly crime.”

And Billmon thinks Israel’s much-vaunted military machine may have made a mistake that exposes a weakness to the military solution they thought they could force through.