John MacLean's Profile

This is also a tremendous place to see a false dawn.

The finest was the first, the Israeli-Palestinian handshake on the White House lawn in 1993.

President Clinton, beaming, stood between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, old enemies, now officially partners for peace.

That was the saddest too, because it might have worked. Two years later, Mr Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.

On February 14, Lebanon will commemorate two years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Lebanon has only known a semblance of peace a few years at a time. But even in its tragic history, not many periods have been as violent and unsettled as the last two years.

In the course of this very short period, Lebanon has known 15 targeted bombings and 9 attempts at political assassination, 6 of which succeeded and 3 that led to maiming. Interspersed were the toppling of two governments, endless demonstrations, and sit-ins. To top it all, a 34-day Israeli military aggression beginning last July led to the near-total destruction of a freshly rebuilt infrastructure and the displacement of more than a quarter of the population. Now the entire country is ripped in half in political disagreement and once again on the brink of civil war.

All the most senior ministers were at the Afghan strategy meeting.

They knew things were not going well, but from their leader there was a whiff of panic.

"We just need to be sure that the final result does not look like a humiliating defeat: to have lost so many men and now abandoned it all... in short, we have to get out of there."

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev - the speaker of those words - was understandably alarmed.

The industry has prospered to the extent that it now transports nearly 10 times more freight by rail than the European Union does.

That may come as something of a surprise when you consider how ready Europeans tend to be to lecture Americans about the environment.

But religious affiliation still governs the life of every citizen here.

Lebanon's entire society, and its political system, is divided along sectarian lines: a Sunni Muslim in Lebanon could become a prime minister but never a president because that position is reserved for Maronite Christians.

The speaker of the parliament can only be Shia Muslim. And when Lebanese citizens want to marry, divorce or adopt, or when they register a birth or a death, they have to refer to courts that are run by the religious sects to which they belong.

There is no such thing as a civil court here, and that is why human-rights groups say the government's decision regarding the ID cards is a welcome - but purely symbolic - step.

"It's all his fault," my taxi driver spat out, pointing straight ahead. I ducked out to look.

There, in the middle of the sea of honking cars, stood a thin young man in an oversized policeman's uniform.

Helplessly he waved his skinny arms trying to steer angry drivers. The problem was that he was steering them in all directions at the same time.

"He is the one who created the jam, he should just mind his own business," my taxi driver said. The fact that traffic was the policeman's business did not seem to cross his mind.

Ask anyone in Beirut and they will tell you that, if there is a really bad traffic jam, chances are there is a policeman behind it. It is not always true, of course, but it is certainly indicative of how Lebanese people approach authority.

A 14-year-old boy in the tribal region of Bajaur, in north-west Pakistan, says he was detained by Taliban forces who tried to turn him into a suicide bomber. The boy is now in army hands.

He provided a detailed account to BBC correspondent Orla Guerin. His story cannot be independently verified.

I want to tell the Taliban that they are cruel, and what they did to me was unjust. I can't kill innocent Muslims.

I am not afraid of them. I am only afraid of God. I am answerable only to Him.

Pat Robertson, however, said Hasan's actions show that Muslims should be barred from service.

"If we don't stop covering up what Islam is—Islam is a violent—I was going to say religion, but it's not a religion, it's a political system, a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination. That is the ultimate aim," Robertson said on Monday's 700 Club broadcast. "And I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such, as we would members of the Communist Party or members of some fascist group."

On  Tuesday's broadcast, Robertson blamed political correctness in the military for the shooting.

"We don't dare speak out against somebody who's of the Muslim faith. Of course Muslims can serve in the Armed Forces; of course radical Muslims from Al Qaeda and others can come into our secret services; of course they can. We can't discriminate against anybody. That's nonsense. A society deserves the right to protect itself," he said.

But wouldn't eliminating Muslims from the military severely limit the availability of Arabic translators and personnel familiar with Middle East culture? On the 700 Club's Veterans Day broadcast, "terrorism analyst" Erick Stakelbeck said the need could be met by recruiting Christians and Jews from the Middle East. "We can use them without always turning to Muslims," he concluded.

Robertson was not alone in blaming political correctness for the tragedy. "The Left would have us believe that political correctness never killed anyone," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC). "But there are 13 fresh graves in Fort Hood, Texas to prove them wrong."

Bryan Fischer, director of issues analysis for the American Family Association (AFA), also argued that all Muslims should be barred from the U.S. military.

"The reason is simple," wrote Fischer. "The more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teachings of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels. Yesterday's massacre is living proof. … The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They're inside the fort."

Yesterday, Fischer reiterated his position that "we simply should not have people serving in the U.S. military whose holy book commands them to kill American soldiers."