8-2-06, 8:30 pm

LONDON -- The government is out of step with public opinion over the need to bring about an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and to end the suffering of the Lebanese people.

Our Prime Minister is like a rabbit caught in the headlights, knowing what is the right thing to do but petrified of being seen to disagree openly with the US president.

He knows, as we all do, that there can be no justification for the scale of death and destruction that Israel is raining down on Lebanese populated areas.

Tel Aviv claims that its air raids and artillery barrages are pinpointed against 'Hezbollah targets,' but the pictures tell a different story.

It is clear that Israel is pursuing a scorched-earth policy, telling people to flee and then bombing their villages to rubble, whether or not they have fled.

Southern Lebanon is to become, in Israel's plan, a zone that is sterilised of human settlement, other than by military patrols by its own armed forces.

It speaks of a small buffer zone, but zionist pioneers, from David Ben-Gurion onwards, were open about their intention of effecting mass population transfer and of basing Israel's borders on defensible geographical features such as the Jordan and Litani rivers. If Israel succeeds in establishing a small bridgehead, it will press on towards the Litani.

Mr Blair has heard Ehud Olmert say that there will be no ceasefire, so he cannot continue to pretend that one is close.

He should listen to the humanitarian agencies and speak out to insist on an immediate cessation of Israel's military onslaught.

Blair sucks up to Washington LESS than 24 hours after gung-ho British general David Richards took command of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, vowing to 'strike ruthlessly' against the Taliban, three British soldiers are dead and another is seriously wounded in Helmand province.

Lt-Gen Richards has presided over a 50 per cent rise in one day in total British fatalities suffered over the past two months.

In taking up his command, Lt-Gen Richards insisted that NATO was bent on being in Afghanistan 'for the long term,' which is precisely the reason why his forces will suffer casualties.

Afghanistan's history demonstrates that Afghans do not take kindly to outside military interventions, no matter how much rhetoric is devoted to claims of assisting the government and people of the country.

Afghans know that the Hamid Karzai 'government' does not represent them. It answers to the US ambassador, is protected by US special forces and its policies are devised in the US embassy.

British troops and their colleagues from other NATO countries have been given a mission impossible at US behest.

No matter how many improvements NATO forces make to the infrastructure, the fact that their brief includes destruction of farmers' poppy crops and imposition of the government's writ will put them in the firing line.

Once again, Tony Blair is using British troops as pawns in a game to curry favour with the Bush administration.

From Morning Star Online