"He stopped, interrupting himself. "All this war, just for that!" he exclaimed, outraged. "They want to make the Middle East new, to be in Israel and America's hands." You hear this a lot in Lebanon these days. When Condoleezza Rice described the death of Lebanese civilians as "the birth pangs of a new Middle East," I don't think she really thought through how that would sound in Lebanon. Or maybe she just didn't care."