Again, we seem to have lost it in the Middle East! No one is doing anything concrete on the Iraqi brewing civil war, even if it is not fully there yet. No one, not least the Quartet, is doing anything concrete on the Israeli-Palestinian front, where daily carnage is now raging - after Lebanon.

We do not know what the world leaders know, but...hello o!...it cannot be right for blood to be so ceaselessly flowing in that region. It cannot be fair to the women, children and the aged that our leaders cannot stem/stop the tide. Just plain wrong, period.

Internal political and other crises are rocking both Israel and Palestine. No help is discernible from known credible and critical external players! In Iraq, it is all so surely tending towards an internal political and sectarian implosion. The occupying forces, especially the US and UK, are at their wits' end. Both Washington and London are now in their own internal political turmoil over the invasion, and glaring operational failures, with all sorts of cracks in the coalition-armour! So many questions are being asked, even by friends/loyalists of both governments! The military are also speaking up!! Real bad news all round!!!

So, who will step up and lead us forward on these concerns now? When shall it be?

These are really dim times, indeed.