Beirut, Lebanon

Expatriates and tourists in Beirut are abuzz with evacuation plans, and their respective embassies and foreign ministries are busy making arrangements to get them out of "Dodge."

Last week, another Norwegian "expert" was asked why the Lebanese government hadn't done more to disarm Hezbollah, and he answered that "no government would willingly start a civil war; and especially not one that had recently recovered from one." And he is probably right.

And I thought: well, the Lebanese government had to choose between two potential enemies, and it chose Israel.