E Pluribus Unum

Way back in the day (c. 1974) I spent a summer in Beirut as an exchange student. It was the summer after the Yom Kippur War and it was also the summer that Yassir Arafat began building up the PLO presence in Lebanon. As a result, the Israeli Air Force was accustomed to low-flying flights at sonic speed over the Lebanese capital. Trust me when I say I have never -- ever! -- heard anything that loud in my life. The Beirutis would, of course, laugh saying that you could always tell the tourists because they were the ones who would dive under the cafe tables when the jets went booming overhead.

I remembered all that when I saw this video of the the U.N. Secretary General diving for cover after an enormous blast went off in the Green Zone during a press conference.

[Note: When the camera pulls back, check out the reporters in the audience -- they ducked too. But not Maliki, of course. He never even blinks barely winces -- he's like an fracking action hero!]

P.S. Maybe I'm not paying attention, but when was the last time a rocket exploded inside the Green Zone? Isn't that, um, a bit too close for comfort? [I guess I've been slacking off -- there was a rocket attack on the Green Zone in late January.]

P.P.S. What surge?