To all those people calling Israel-Hezbollah WWIII...

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(such as this one quoted here)...can I just mention that the estimates for the death toll in Darfur are in the hundreds of thousands? Numerous recent conflicts completely dwarf the violence going on with Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon. The civil war in Iraq dwarfs it. Israel and Hezbollah are not in World War III. They are in a minor spat that has the potential to draw in many other entities, which after about 7 levels of escalation could end up being World War III. One tiny nation and one well-trained terrorist organization don't get to have WWIII all by themselves, no matter how many bigwigs are shipping weapons to them. I know it's disrespectful to say so, but right now this is really small potatoes as far as human conflict goes. If it weren't for the fact the geography in question is the object of a peculiar religious fetishes, and the state of Israel the object of peculiar political fetishes, this would be one of those things you only read about on the inside pages of the Christian Science Monitor. (OK, I'm talking out of my ass here: it's been a long time since I've looked inside the CSM, and by all accounts I hear it's an excellent publication.)

I know I shouldn't be flip when lives are being lost and terrible human suffering is going on in the area. But this World War III/IV hype is driving me nuts. Knock it off.

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