Rein, no doubt that the double standard exists in the part of US government but I think it is just another bitter truth of life that we have to swallow. Every situation is different and it has to be taken into consideration in its own entirety. But here is the problem I have with Hezbollah and believe it or not it won't be the first time you are hearing it. How can a group be a part of the a democratic process when it has its own standing army? If it thinks that Lebanon needs a strong enough army to defend it against Isreal than why doesn't its party stand behind it and run the election on that and let the people decide? Apparently hezbollah did run on that and the people of Lebanon decided otherwise and hence they are the minority party. The other thing with Hezbollah is that it is too manupalive and has different forces action upon it visibily. The only way I would even think of supporting Hezbollah is if it decied to disarm itself and also demonstrated its independentness.