This war needs a name

News continues to pour in from the Middle East. And sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but as I read I can't help noticing the absence of such words as "cease fire," "negotiations," "withdraw," and "peace is really taking root here."

Rather, there are mentions of "civil war," "escalating violence," and "ground troop occupations." In an analysis piece this morning, the Post's Robin Wright wrote:

The real issues, U.S. officials say, are not simply the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah but far wider questions of Lebanon's sovereignty and what the administration sees as an existential battle between forces aligned for and against democracy in the region.

Existential battle? That sounds a lot like "reckoning" to me. So on that note, I think this war needs a name. A real name. Not some mealy-mouthed catch-all like "the Second Gulf War," or "Crisis in the Middle East" or "The War on Terror." With so many nations involved and so many cross-streams of hatred, it should now be The Middle East War, or The Culture War (kinda like that one) or, dare I say, World War III. It's out of control out there. It is total, utter bedlam. And I think the way we define (and, thus, the way we think about) what's happening needs to change to reflect that.

Hyperlinks:
- Washington Post story on adding troops
- Washington Post story on heavy Israeli casualties
- N.Y. Times story on Israel occupying Lebanon
- Washington Post story on killed U.N. peacekeepers

Technorati tags: Israel, Politics, Current Affairs, War, Middle East, Iraq, Lebanon