US an enabler of Israel's blitz

HOW IRONIC that just two weeks after viewing fireworks celebrating our nation's freedom, we watch fires and smoke erasing the freedom (and lives) of the Lebanese. Ironic also is the fact that these fires are caused by weapons purchased by US taxpayers and provided to our ``friend," Israel, with the gift card, ``Use as you wish in the name of democracy."

As one who has family members caught in Lebanon, I wonder how the United States must appear to the world, when Israel, its strongest ally in the Middle East, is allowed to recklessly destroy Lebanon's infrastructure using American weapons and training without even a shred of guilt or displeasure shown by the Bush administration, let alone a public outcry. At best, we look too weak to question our untouchable ally.

ZOUHDI HAJJAJ
Plymouth