Certain deranged reactions are now anticlimactic—a local water main bursts and so we blame Bush for diverting resources away from infrastructure; an arctic freeze or a summer tornado alike evokes Bush and his wayward attitude toward global warming. In the same vein, Hamas blankets Israel for days with rockets and the Europeans are silent until Israel responds with force—only to be blamed for inordinate aggression—the subtext being both that the militarily capable party is to be condemned for being,well, too militarily capable, and that those who can field and deploy terrorists, or aid those who will, against Western targets are deserving of some sort of exemption.