So I haven’t posted in a couple of days, and that is mostly because i have not really heard anything interesting that is different than what the news has been saying. there is a cease fire, though all the barricades are still in place, and the country is in chaos of course.
My parents are doing ok, still hangin’ in there, though dealing with all the deficiencies in resources, just like everyone else.
This morning, my dad sent me an article that was in the Washington Post that stated some stuff about the intention of the US in Lebanon. I thouhgt it was interesting. make of it what you will 
THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE WASHINGTON POST.
Summary:
The war on Lebanon of July 2006 presents a much-awaited opportunity for The United States to place a ‘robust enough’ force in southern Lebanon
along the Tapline route connecting Saudi Arabia and Iraq’s oilfields to the Mediterranean. In this way the US secures a vital route and prepares
the ground for Syrian-Israeli talks.
US goals in Lebanon:
In Lebanon, the US is intent on securing the vital — and only — pipeline route that connects the Saudi and Iraqi oil fields to the Mediterranean, and onto the lucrative European market as part of a longstanding strategy to beat Russian energy sales to the EU.
On its way to the Mediterranean refineries of Zahrani south of Sidon, Tapline crosses through the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and into the heartland of the Lebanese south. To ensure the safe passage of oil through Tapline, the US seeks to bring regional stability by coercing Israel and Syria to resolve the Golan dispute and solve the border and resource disputes between Lebanon, Israel, and Syria. The current war seems to be a step in that direction.
Following several years of pressure on both Israel and Syria, including stripping Syria of its influence on the Lebanese government while simultaneously exposing the role of the Israeli lobby in determining US foreign policy, there remain three issues before the negotiations can resume on US terms:
First, the US needs a pretext to place troops in southern Lebanon — and eventually the Golan - to secure the route. Israel has adamantly resisted
this option for years, sometimes even mobilizing its domestic partners in the US to oppose such moves.
Second, the US needs to stabilize the route by adjusting the power balance by weakening Hizballah’s military capability so that the US-backed Lebanese army could control all of the country including the areas controlled currently by Hizballah.
Third, the US needs to ensure that its presence in the area is accepted – if not called for — by all the parties involved. From the Lebanon side, for years US funded NGOs have been active in the south, in what seems to be a prescient sense of positioning of US ‘public diplomacy’ with the local population. (Today, the multinational force of about 7,000 will be dominated by NATO forces, including Turkish troops, with token contingents from Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia and Russia. The actual US role today seems to be limited, but it might change during the course of the resolution. The main base will be near the port of Sidon, and another logistical base may be established near Tripoli). From the Israeli side, preventing Hizballah rocket fire will be the primary role of the US-led force and will be tolerated only if it appears ‘robust enough’ to do so.
So what is the US strategy?
1- Encourage Israel to destroy Hizballah’s fighting capability.
2- Hope that the escalation in fighting will result in a serious and credible threat from Hizballah to Israel that Israel cannot solve on its own.
3- Make sure there are US partners both in Lebanon and Israel that support US presence on the border zone (Siniora and Peres).
4- Sell the idea of multinational troops that are more effective than UNIFIL troops as the only alternative to a continuous war.
5- Ensure that Syria is not alienated, and perhaps engaged, so that it can negotiate Golan with an exhausted, dependent Israel.
Why is the US silent on Lebanese infrastructure destruction?
1- It needs to give Israel space and time (3 weeks seems to be the pre-war agreement) to complete the task–at the risk of being complicit in the war crimes against Lebanon, more blatantly than in Kosovo.
2- It foresees that its presence in Lebanon will bring it the lion’s share of lucrative contracts to rebuild, following the same logic used in Panama,Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
3- It might have been the price Israel demanded for Israel to accept the multinational force. The logic is that since Lebanon is going to become a US ‘affiliate’, in preparation for a peaceful agreement, the economic war is about to begin. ‘Setting back Lebanon 20 years’, the stated goal of the IDF before the attacks, fits the convoluted logic of giving Israel a ‘head start’.
4- Targeting civilian infrastructure brings unity to the Lebanese polity, something that serves the US intention of stabilizing the country in the aftermath, marked by Washington’s insistence that Sinioria’s democracy is not weakened.
5- Escalating the war and widening the target base increases Hizballah’s response against Israel, prompting its people to call for an end to the war.
The precedents for this approach of using a simmering conflict as a pretext to bring in the troops are several. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Panama’s invasion, and the establishment of bases in Macedonia during the Kosovo crisis are all examples of the US exploiting a local conflict to provide a pretext for the US to intervene militarily. The strategic goal is the securing of the transportation and marketing routes of energy from Saudi Arabia to the European market.
The conflict exploited is the Hizballah-Israel simmering confrontation.
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August 16th, 2006
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
Interesting News, Lebanon stuff, Uncategorized |
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I have talked to my parents yesterday to get an update on the situation in Lebanon. Fortunately, they’re still safe. Resources are still getting lower and lower by the day.
At this point, there is no more gas in the country, and there is at least an hour wait at any gas station to get gas, and that is only to get about $6 worth of gas… do the math … so my dad is going down to work only about twice a week now, and once his tank is empty, they’ll pretty much be staying home. Same goes for electricity, there are some fuel ships awaiting to enter Lebanon to supply fuel for power plants, however, these are not being allowed to go in, so at this rate, in about 1 or 2 weeks, there will be no more electricity, and we’ll go back to the stone age with candles.
Food seems to still be available in moderate quantities, so that’s not to worry about for now. As I speaking with my dad, we are starting to have talks about alternatives of communication (if at all possible) if we actually do loose communication. Obviously, if there is no electricity, E-Mail communication will cease, as well as as probably phone services, especially that Israel is threatening to destroy any communications channels that Huzbollah might be using, which is sometimes the same channels that the rest of the population uses.
This morning, I received a couple of pictures from my sister. no worries, nothing gory this time, but interesting nonetheless. If you’ve been hearing the news, you might have heard of the city of Dahieh, which is mostly muslims, with a lot of Huzbollah in it, the following is a before and after picture of it…
 
The next few pictures are from (what used to be) the Mdairej bridge, which is the highest bridge in the Middle East, or so I think.
 
 
 
The next few are the ”little smile” part of the post my sister’s email comment was that:
This why hizbolllah declared war???
In order to die in the hands of the Israel’ soldiers.
They found heaven on earth
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Wow, I’m impressed!
August 7th, 2006
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
Funnies, Lebanon stuff, My Thoughts, Uncategorized |
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So for the past 2 days, since the Huzballah kidnapping of the isareli soldiers, things have been very unstable in Lebanon. I have been hearing the breaking news at CNN, and communication with my parents has been flaky at best.
Apparently, cell phone towers have been bombed, and the one of the main power plants has been bombed. My parents told me this morning, that the whole country is without electricity.
I tried to call them over skype this morning, and I was only able to get about 5 seconds worth of talk before I got cut off. Apparently, incoming calls to Lebanon are virtually impossible at this time. They had to call me back in order for us to be able to talk.
Unfortunately, they are expecting things to get worse. I am unsure whether communication over landline, or email will be even possible over the next few days. People in Beirut, and my family are starting to evacuate the city, but since there’s no outlet outside of the country, everyone is moving up to the mountains, in case Israel decide to start bombing Beirut suburbs, which sort of started in a way:
The airport has been bombed 3 times now, and is now completely unusable, the road to damascus has also been bombed and blocked, and the Israeli naval forces are blocking all sea ports. currently, the only open road out of the country is up north to Syria. Expectations are that this road will also be bombed to get blocked.
My parents have been stocking up on food, gas for the generators and some other reserves in case they get stuck with no resources.
I will try to keep this blog updated as I hear more from my parents. I know things are on CNN, but I might have some more details on things that are not in the news, when I hear directly from my parents.
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Meanwhile, here’s an email I received from my dad this morning, as a personal account of what they’re going through….
[…]Â
As for the situation today, it is getting worse than yesterday especially in Dahyeh where they bombarded all the main road and bridges that lead there, and they are telling all the people to leave their homes who live near the Hizbullah offices, and I am afraid they will be bombing those offices. They already threatened Hassan Nasrallah the Hizbullah leader that they want his head dead or alive!!… they also bombarded the roads leading to Bekaa and the south including the new bridge in Sowfar and Mdayrej. They also bombed the remaining parts of the runway of the airport, and the fuel tanks there… and now they started bombing all cell phone antennas… you can hear the roaring of the aircrafts all day !!
In east side of Beirut, it is very calm so far, but people are in line at the gas stations and bakeries as it was the situation during the war… Micha and Pat are still staying with us as they are afraid that they might come to bomb Bsalim power station which is very close to their home…
[…]… but you should see the tourists yesterday running away towards Syria as the airport was bombarded, and Israel threatened to bombard the Damascus road (which they did this morning), , and most of the Arabs have their cars with them… about 12000 tourists left in one day and the hotels which was books by 108% two days ago became totally empty today !!
Finally, now the Israelis started throwing leaflets that they will soon bombard the bridges of Barbir and Charles Helou (which leads the way to Hamra)… so it seems it is getting closer to Achrafieh!!
I should close now as I have to go down to Zalfa and probably I should be going home as things might get more serious…
Â
July 14th, 2006
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
Lebanon stuff, My Thoughts, Uncategorized |
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I have been looking around for some package that would allow me to monitor my home network, without having to spend a month trying to learn how to use it … Nagios was one of the first packages I looked at, but for monitoring about 5 servers only, I didn’t really feel like learning Nagios from the ground up to get it to work. Granted, it’s a good a software package to know for an excellent open source monitoring software. as an alternative, I looked at my need for monitoring, and found that all I need is really ICMP monitoring, and monitoring some ports for some of the main services, and to make sure that my mail servers are up and running, and receiving mail.
Ok, so it looks like my requirements aren’t too bad, so I started looking around for some open source product that would do that for me.
I did end up finding this application from BixData (http://www.bixdata.com)
It’s a little weird with this product, when I first looked at it, I thought, man it looks very robust with a lot of features, which it does in a way, but when looking at it more closely, it’s a little bit limited with what it can do. it’s by no means Nagios, but i can definitely say that it’s more user friendly, easier to manage and setup on both windows and linux clients (mac clients are also available, but I don’t have those in my network, so I wouldn’t know).
I’m not sure about the company history, but from looking at their product, I would think that in the future they’ll be making a lot of development to their product. Currently, they have a version of the software that is open source, that supports up to 30 servers, which is perfect for someone trying to monitor their home network. for production environments, they have a version of the software that supports up to 1000 hosts. I have not asked them about pricing or anything, and they don’t have that posted on their site either. so if you’re interested in that, you’ll have to ask.
Some of the cool features I found in BixData that are probably in Nagios, but are for sure very easy to configure in BixData, are the reporting and data collection of different performance items. it’s as easy as choosing what server, or “tagged” group of servers you want to run a report on, and choose a report, which will create a very nice graph on the item, for the past 12 hours, day, week, weeks, year , etc ….
It has natively built in, monitoring for http, mail, ping and a couple other basic services, and also has the capability to run scripts locally or remotely on hosts, which, if written wisely, I guess you can do anything with them.
 One last thing that I really found useful, is the fact that it can do a network scan for you, with the option of adding the hosts to a network topology design which will show how your hosts are interconnected. pretty cool to see what your network looks like.
 This is BixData in a nutshell. their support in their forums is pretty quick, and they seem to always try to solve your problems pretty quick. So far I haven’t seen very much activity in the forums, but I was able to get answers pretty quick.
 Give it a shot if you’re looking for a similar product, it might be just the right one for you.
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July 9th, 2006
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
Geek Stuff, Uncategorized |
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I was stumbling today, and I ran into this website: http://www.blingmethod.com .
I tried to contact this guy through his website, and I couldn’t find it, so I figured, I’d put my kudos to him on MY site, link back to him, and hope that he’ll see it at some point
Basically, he just took some good’ole computers, and tweaked them… basically, it’s like the pimp my ride show, only for computers… and he definitely pimps them. check out some of the pictures above and below.. you’ll know what I’m talking about!!
January 6th, 2006
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
Uncategorized |
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Ok, so because some friends seem to be haunting me about not having time to update my blog, I figured I’d post a quick one for those interested.
It looks like Microsoft Office 12 Beta has been released. I have looked at some screenshots and some improvements, and it looks like Microsoft has done some major UI redesign, and improvement in functionality.
If interested to see more, head over to this link. I figured PC Mag has all the screenshots… why bother post them again !
November 17th, 2005
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
Geek Stuff, Interesting News, Uncategorized |
no comments
So I’m not really a big photoshop expert, but when I find little easy to follow instructions for doing little things in photoshop, I hang on to them, today’s link that I found was right here: http://home.versatel.nl/epragt/tutorials/photoshop/index.jsp.htm
I had found another one at another location at a previous time, but I can’t remember where it was. If I ever find it, I’ll put an addendum to this post
meanwhile, enjoy this useful info.
July 8th, 2005
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
General, Uncategorized |
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Today, I spent most of my day reading up about CSS. I don’t consider myself a web designer by any means, but I do occasionally hack at some existing sites or CSS pages with minor changes.
I’ve always found CSS to be fascinating, but never really spent the time to actually learn it. today, as I was googlin’ up on CSS, I found this site:
http://www.westciv.com. I think this is one of the most useful CSS sites I’ve been on, mostly because i found it to be the most detailed. I’m still half way through it, as I’m reading up on the details of different things, but I definitely learned a lot from it. I would highly recommend it if you’re trying to learn about CSS. It also has a series of hands on tutorials that will help you get going with writing up your own CSS files.
So far I’ve never really created a full website using CSS. I think my next project is going to be to rewrite my main website http://www.foreignkid.com , and use CSS in it, i guess we’ll see how it goes… maybe i’ll even post about my progress and problems I ran into while doing it; someone might just find it useful
April 3rd, 2005
Posted by
Georges Khairallah |
Geek Stuff, Uncategorized |
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