An US Air Force General Curtis LeMay, once infamously suggested in 1965 that the "US should bomb Vietnam into the Stone Age." That was his "solution" to resolve the Vietnam conflict. The US didn't test that hypothesis then; however, Israel seems resolute to execute that very same stratagem against the Palestinians. By declaring a "war" against a fledging democratic state of 4 million people in Lebanon, in all essence, the same tactic is now executed against that country with the acquiescence of the West, especially the US.

The lack of decision on a cease fire in Rome at the July 26 meeting of the dignitaries prompted Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon to lash out with a cry of despair. "Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere?" he asked. "Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?" Accusing Israel of "barbaric destruction," he vowed to seek justice, announcing that Lebanon will begin legal proceedings for war reparations.

"Where are the Christians?" wondered Patrick Buchanan (twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the Reform Party's candidate in 2000). "Why is Pope Benedict virtually alone among Christian leaders to have spoken out against what is being done to Lebanese Christians and Muslims? Democrats attack Bush for crimes of which he is not guilty, including Haditha and Abu Ghraib. Why are they, too, silent when Israel pursues a conscious policy of collective punishment of innocent peoples? Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests. It is un-American and un-Christian."

Lebanon has a pro-American democratic government; a glowing example of Bush's democracy crusade in the Middle East. Yet, with his open display of exuberance for Israel's decimation of Lebanon with American made arsenals of destructions, F-16 fighter planes, and laser guided missiles, Israel has turned back the clock of Lebanon's accomplishments for at least 20 years.

The Bush administration seem to give an impression that Israel has an unrestrained "license to kill" its enemies no matter what the costs are. In case of Lebanon, the purpose is to inflict irreparable economic and political costs to the Lebanese government for its "support" of Hezbollah. Hardly any consideration was evoked if that support was a deliberate policy stance or a syndrome of a militarily weak state. In reality, the Israeli armed escalation and onslaught was aimed less about the two soldiers that Hezbollah kidnapped and more about its design to disarm the Lebanese resistance. This will facilitate the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1559.

Chuck Goudie in his July 24 column in The Daily Herald of Chicago wrote that Hezbollah had been trying to kidnap military officers for sometime because "nothing would be as prized as a captured Israeli soldier" to swap for Lebanese prisoners rotting in Israeli Prison. Hezbollah finally accomplished kidnapping a pair of Israeli soldiers. Why the Israeli army didn't act against the Hezbollah whose outpost is on the outskirts of the Israeli-Lebanese border? Goudie argues: "Defense officials had a plan, either to wait for the provocation of an actual kidnapping or the recent kidnapping of two soldiers happened before the offensive could be carried out." Could it also be possible, if I may ask, that Israel deliberately let the kidnapping be consummated to trigger the provocation?

Bush and Olmert are realizing that democracy, when it comes to the Middle East, is unlikely to be cozy with either of them. So America will keep protecting autocracy in the Middle East until oil reserves are emptied. Israeli invasion of Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon simply guarantees more insurgency in Iraq and more distrust of America and Israel in the Muslim world.

Bush administration didn't accolade the democratic election victory of Hammas because Israel rejected such a victory. Hezbollah's winning of parliamentary seats in Lebanon was also an ominous sign for both Israel and the US. If democracy were to be rooted in the Middle East they must be acceptable to Israel first -- a precondition to receive America's clapping. Here goes the old saying: "It needs two hands to clap."

Had Israel and the Bush administration welcomed the election victories of both Hamas and the Hezbollah, and talked with them, things could have taken a different turn. The notion that the use of force will breed western style-liberalism and moderation are increasingly proving a nonsensical stance.

Many neutral observes argue that Israel and her paid lackeys appear whispering in Bush's ear to cease the opportunity to expand the Iraq and Afghanistan war to include Syria and Iran, and have America fight and subdue all of Israel's enemies.

The whisperers are the same crusaders of democracy who duped Bush with the wistfulness that Iraq was only months away from acquiring nuclear arsenals; that the invasion of Iraq would be a "cakewalk;" that the invading US troops would be hailed with flowers; that democracy would glow across the Middle East; that Israelis and Palestinians would live peacefully thereafter.

The history of the region bears no indication that Israel's obliteration of popular mass movements led by Hamas or Hezbollah would inveigle their descendants closer to western-style democracy. But the evidence of happening of the opposite is irrefutable.

Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 drove away the PLO only to the innovation of a stronger resistance group Hezbollah instead.

Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad of Syria has said: "America and Israel are mistaken to think that destroying Lebanon will bring peace. What Israel is doing with US involvement will only produce more violence and hatred." Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel has "pushed the button of its own destruction" with the attacks on Lebanon.

The western press and the leaders seem embarked on a deliberate policy of exploiting the theological differences between Sunnis and Shiites, and working to pit one against the other like the way they maneuvered the 1979 Iran-Iraq war. So the US is courting Saudi Arabia. Egypt and Jordan and jolting the autocratic rulers of the Sunni dominated countries that Iran is building nuclear arsenal to become the regional power and dominate the rest of the Muslim countries. They even connected the dots with Shiite majority rule in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. The Kings, Sheikhs, Emirs, Sultans and the thugs of the Sunni majority countries are falling for the trap. Myself being a Sunni Muslim, I find this outright deplorable and despicable.

If Egypt and Jordan can peacefully co-exist with Israel and if President Musharraf of Pakistan can meet with Israeli leaders in Washington last year, I believe all other Muslim countries should also recognize Israel's right to exist, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

This is attainable only if all parties are committed to a cessation of all hostilities against Israel in exchange for Israel's concomitant resolution of all outstanding issues with its neighbors. The alternative is: all parties including Israel will continue to be worse off but Israel will continue to exist, although in continued enmity with its neighbours.

The war in Afghanistan, the devastation of Iraq, the death and destruction in Gaza, the bombing of Beirut and the invasion of South Lebanon are all underscoring an evolving evil design meant to break Arab and Muslim will and subjugate it to untrammeled Israeli brute force backed by the world's sole superpower.

Dr. Abdullah A. Dewan is Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University.