[Ben Lahnger]

KMD, we've been "involved" for decades. It's not like Vietnam in that both parties (for the most part) want us involved, although we have been accused of siding too much with Israel. And unlike Vietnam, we have been primarily engaged as a diplomatic "peace broker" of sorts.

When I first heard Secretary of State Clinton's and then President Obama's statements about the Israeli refusal to stop building settlements in the West Bank, I thought maybe we were going to bring real pressure on them to stop and get serious at the negotiating table. Since then it seems that due to the complexities of the situation all the U.S. can do is speak dourly about what a disappointment Israel has been and offer vague threats of maybe not being so nice to them in the future. Those developments, and this well-sounding but ultimately meaningless statement, lead me to believe that not much is going to change in the near future. Except, of course, for the possibility of further Palestinian/Israeli violence. *sigh*