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Mo Jul 24 -

FROM THE D.C. PAPERS -

Sharon Behn tells us that: *A senior member of Muqtada al-Sadr's Iraqi Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army, says the group is forming a squadron of up to 1,500 elite fighters to go to Lebanon.

"This is a must-do," agrees Iraqi Sunni cleric Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Duleimi.

+ Is he planning to make the trip himself or just send OPK's? That's short for Other People's Kids. Inquiring minds want to know...

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*In 1971, in the lobby of the Cairo Sheraton, Palestinian terrorists shot Wasfi al-Tal, the prime minister of Jordan at point-blank range. As he fell to the floor dying, one of his killers began drinking the blood gushing from his wounds. Doesn't that strike you as a little, um, overwrought?*

Do Hizbollah and Hamas provide Street Theater Entertainment for "opportunistic Arabs and indulgent Europeans?"

According to Mark Steyn: they're at that stage in the creature feature where the monster has mutated into something bigger and crazier.

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*A War Between Neighbors, Seen From Their Back Yard: The 13-day battle between Israel and both Hamas and Hezbollah may be the most up-close-and-personal ever transmitted by television ... It is Vietnam on satellite steroids.*

Howie Kurtz explores whether access facilitated by the new technologies leads to distortions in journalism. ::WaPo/RR::

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Jefferson Morley at World Opinion Roundup asks: *Are Americans being given a very different view of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict than their counterparts in Europe and elsewhere?

Yes, according to commentators in Muslim and European media.* ::WaPo/RR::

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