This ain't good, either

From Israel Launches Offensive Across Lebanon Border by Laura King and Vita Bekker Los Angeles Times 07/12/06:

Israel sent troops deep into Lebanon today for the first time in six years after guerrillas from the Hezbollah militia group rocketed northern Israel and crossed the border, capturing two Israeli soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the Hezbollah raid as an "act of war" for which the Lebanese government bore responsibility.

Seven Israeli soldiers were killed — three in the initial assault by Hezbollah fighters and four after they pursued the soldiers' captors across the border — the Israeli military told journalists in the northern Israeli town of Sefat.

Israel was stunned by the capture of three soldiers in the span of less than three weeks. The first soldier was seized by Palestinian militants June 25 in a cross-border raid just outside the Gaza Strip, prompting an ongoing Israeli offensive in that seaside territory. The push into Lebanon leaves Israel waging battles on two fronts.

Israeli forces launched a campaign of airstrikes and shelling, mainly at targets in southern Lebanon, where reports said two civilians had been killed. Israeli warplanes also attacked a Palestinian guerrilla base about 10 miles south of Beirut today, the Associated Press quoted Lebanese security officials as saying.

From Hezbollah Attacks Israeli-Lebanon Border: Seven Israeli Soldiers Killed; White House Demands Release of Captives by Anthony Shadid, Scott Wilson and Debbi Wilgoren Washington Post Online 07/12/06:

The militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others in an attack along the Israel-Lebanon border Wednesday morning. Four more Israeli soldiers were killed when troops and tanks crossed the border in pursuit of the captives.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the ambush an "act of war" and said Hezbollah would pay a "heavy price," the Associated Press reported. He said Israel's response would be "restrained but very, very, very painful." The assault followed the June 25 capture by Palestinian gunmen of an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip, which has triggered a major Israeli military offensive in that region.

Israel will hold the government of Lebanon "fully responsible" for Hezbollah's actions, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said in a statement. He said the government "must act immediately and seriously to locate" the missing soldiers, "to prevent any harm done to them and to return them to Israel."

The White House demanded the immediate release of the Israeli soldiers and said it held Syria and Iran - longstanding supporters of Hezbollah - responsible for what it called an "unprovoked act of terrorism" by the Lebanese group.

Is anyone in the Bush administration seriously taking into account how this will affect the US position in Iraq?  The government there, our alleged ally, is Shi'a dominated and pro-Iranian.  The pro-Iranian Shi'a Hizbollah is now being directly attacked by the Isreali Defense Force (IDF) in Lebanon.

Even before this latest development, things weren't exactly going swimmingly in Iraq.  The Shi'a government there demanded that the UN remove the immunity of American troops from Iraqi law in the wake of the rape-murder scandal along with many questionable shootings of civilians by US troops. 

Now this comes along to complicate things further.  The Middle East is "our neighborhood" in a real sense as long as we have 135,000 troops in Iraq in the middle of an insurrection and a civil war.