Osama bin Laden and the Towers of Beirut

Juan Cole has an excellent post on middle east history this morning explaining bin Laden's reference to The Towers Of Beirut. I suggest you read his post but here is his very significant closing paragraph:

When Dwight Eisenhower perceived the 1956 war launched against Egypt by France, the UK and Israel to be a threat to US security, he knocked some heads together and made it stop. He ordered the Israelis summarily out of Sinai, and cursed out Anthony Eden "like an old soldier." He also threatened the French with an end to US loans if they didn't settle the Algerian crisis because he was afraid the Algerians would go Communist if it festered along. We need someone in the White House who will do more than ignore Arafat and kiss Ariel Sharon's enormous backside. We need an Eisenhower to reshape the political realities in the region in a positive way. Right now we don't have an Eisenhower in the White House.

Unfortunately Kerry is no Eisenhower either.