"Middle East Week," with Jimmy Doohan

Hello, I'm Jimmy Doohan from the year 1966, and I'm the host of "Middle East Week." You may know me better as T.V.'s Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott of the Starship Enterprise, but in real life I'm kind of a news buff -- and in particular, I'm following this warfare between Israel and Lebanon with a keen eye towards history repeating itself.

It seems as if no major world political entities can't come down on the fighting right now, because they are fixed in doing it in such a way that would admonish one side over another. Why does it have to be that way? Isn't the killing of people -- any people -- not quite right? It was extremely poor judgment on the part of Hezbollah that lead to the border excursion that kicked off this quagmire, and it should be held accountable. Likewise, Israel has been fairly unfettered in its payback of Hezbollah, with the point of destroying it wholesale and leaving a threat deterrent as a legacy.

I don't like it when warfare targets civilians, no matter their stripe. It's a shame that this is allowed to continue unabated. This reminds me of episode 26, "Devil in the Dark," where Captain Kirk encounters a creature called "The Horta," which pretty much resembles a guy crawling around under a shag rug. It turns out this alien creature is killing space miners who are unwittingly harming her eggs -- all a big understanding -- until Spock mind-melds with the creature and overcomes interspecies communication issues, to everyone's satisfaction.

And that's what we need now -- people who listen without admonishment, without fear of punishment. Have we not lost so much humanity already? We can't even begin to quantify winners and losers. Nor should we -- we're all losers.