Saturday, July 15, 2006

A Western correspondent in Beirut sent me this:
"Dear As'ad:
The more they bomb, the more determined I am to stay. J.'s internet cafe has a subterranean level where I am holed up and will probably remain at least for tonight. One of the schools nearby is filled to the brim with displaced persons from Dahiyeh and other neighborhoods. I am boiling with rage to the point where I am calm. Nothing, absolutely nothing (and by nothing I guess I mean nobody) is going to stop them from doing this. Did you expect that they would go this far, even further? So they bombed the al-Manara lighthouse, but they are killing scores, dozens, hundreds of people. Our cleaning lady this morning was crying because she saw dead children in Dahiyeh (that's what I understood, at least. It doesn't help that neither she nor I have a very good command of Arabic). I told her to stay with us tonight. I really hope she knows I'm serious. These are small silly remedial gestures, but what more can I do?
I don't know what to write, I don't know who to write for."