Posted on 07/26/2006 5:26:47 AM PDT by Mercat
Dear Everyone,
This is the most recent free article from the Strategic Forecasting Web site (“stratfor”) and the last that I’ll send. You can go to the site and sign up for the free emails with analyses.
Another good Web site is Debka Files. Just enter “debka”.
The network news actually gives very little news. This is war, and for security reasons more information is withheld than given out. But if you study the material on stratfor and debka, you can learn a lot more about what is going on.
Sunday was a nine-siren day, the most so far. I just work through them, and sleep through them if they go off at night. A rocket would have to do a loopity loop to find my office or my flat. Monday was very quiet, and I began to cautiously think that perhaps the tide had turned, that the IDF had knocked out enough missile launchers to reduce the number of rockets coming in. Wrong. Today I lost count of the number of sirens. A lot of damage was done to Haifa today, residential. However, staff morale is high.
Rockets are loud and unnerving. I guess the closest that one has come to me is about one mile, but they aren’t pleasant to hear. I can’t imagine what it would be like to hear one come really close.
The response to sirens and bombs is really twofold: one becomes complaisant because so many sirens are false alarms or the rockets fall in the bay, but one also starts imagining that innocent sounds are rockets landing.
People adapt to adversity, whatever it is. The abnormal becomes normal. Most of us do not remember World War II, the Battle of Britain, the blitz, etc. But you’ve probably all seen the documentary footage of Londoners sleeping in the subways night after night, month after month. You’ve seen the films of devastated, bombed out London and Berlin. But the English and Germans rebuilt their cities. The human spirit heals, and people move on with their lives, do what they must do, and rebuild.
You have probably seen Mr. Jumblatt, the Druze spokesman in Lebanon. The Druze are a sect of Islam and totally non-militant. They live primarily in Israel, Syria and Lebanon. They have contributed manpower to the IDF disproportionately to their numbers.
Cheers,
Eileen
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