How can the new international force do a better job than the old UNIFIL at stabilizing Lebanon and preventing future attacks on Israel? Should the U.N. force insist on disarming Hezbollah?
Posted by David Ignatius on August 19, 2006 10:34 AM
Torture is something that can be justified, but not legalized. Once you allow torture into the state's apparatus of accepted practices you have so to say brought the very founding principles of democracy to an end. The entire concept of ÔøΩRIGHTSÔøΩ extends to even the most extreme situations. This idiotic ÔøΩwarÔøΩ on terrorism is about equivalent to a Freaks Brothers comic strip in which Fat Freddy is broke and thus he gets his pals together to devise a way to get some bucks. Fat Freddy walks into the nearest 7-11 and goes up to the guy behind the counter and says, ÔøΩHowdy Friend, you're about to become famousÔøΩ. The guy shrugs and laughs and then Fat Freddy tells him that he's from Candid Camera, and that shortly two guys are going to come running through the door, armed and are going to ask him to give up the cash, ÔøΩSo don't FA-u(k it up and remember to smile because you're on Candid Camera!ÔøΩ That is I guess comical robbery, but justifying torture amounts to allowing the government to press for wider and wider interpretations of when and what kinds of circumstances justify the need to torture. Torture can only be justified in the sense that imminent threat of an extreme nature requires the hopeful extraction of truthful information. That is of course the dilemma. Will this torture used in a situation of imminent attack actually yield the information needed to counter the potential attack? Whatever the statistics are in this matter, it would seem that given the state of terrorism in the world today, that torture has not yielded the desired results. We are further away today from countering terrorism than we were following 9/11 five years ago. That is to say the Bush torture liberalization program of allowing the use of torture, the use of preemptive warfare and the in general aggressive actions taken by the United States Government in all corners of the world has failed to even make a dent in terrorism. In fact it has because of its obvious injustices against better human values, increased the recruitment of terrorism, divided the world as opposed to unifying it, has more or less isolated the United States and dirtied the name of our good nation and all of its citizens. Torture is fowl and cannot be allowed!
you're a sweet girl with a penchant for bean0s....if anyone's going to guantonamo, it's you in about 30 years....
I'm a Washingtonion, that happens to know something besides side taking........right and wrong....sure, that makes a lot of difference when conquest has been the rule of thumb for most of the last 2,000 fricking years......
the jews, the arabs, how about the screaming fat kids?
Back on topic. Under the Bush Presidency I think we have zero chance of any ceasefire working. It has become apparent to just about everyone that this president (purposeful use of lower case...this boob doesn't deserve repect) everything is about posturing. That goes all the way back to the flight jacket and the "Mission Accomplished" banner, the "bring it on", comments, the Dept of Homeland Security (which most of us call the Dept Of Terrorism), the idiot lights, and all of these inane alerts. By now, only a very few, very stupid people don't believe that under a Gore or Kerry Presidency NONE of this would be happening. Instead, we have an over-extended military that is not equippped properly, a bunh of U.S. corporations busily selling sensative technology, even weapons systems, to our enemies -like North Korea and Iran and Hizbolla...to be sure they use their "overseas subsidiaries" but just follow the money, it ends up back here. A tough honest leader, someone with a deft political hand and intelligence, wouldn't allow all of this nonsense to exist. With what we got, though, we're in for three years more corruiption, incompitence, grief, economic and politicial havoc, heartache and misery. And, just like the Palestinian and Lebanese people who elected the whack jobs from Hamas and Hizbolla, we are reaping our just deserts for electing Bush and his equally despicable whack jobs.
jeremy taylor, port of spain, trinidad and tobago :
Framing your question in that way assumes that Hezbollah is simply an aggressor and Israel simply a victim. No solutions are viable in that context: the cycle will simply repeat itself. Stabilisation and disarmament can only occur in the broader context of a Middle East settlement. This will eventually involve guarantees of Israeli security in exchange for a sovereign Palestinian state. Nothing else will remove the motive for Hezbollah and Hamas to view themselves as resistance movements, and nothing else will prevent Israel from taking further action in what it sees as self-defence. This latest cycle of violence has been very costly for all concerned, and has put an eventual settlement even further into the future. The best that UNIFIL can hope to do is calm nerves on both sides; the real, monumental task lies with the diplomats and politicians, who seem incapable of retrieving an appalling situation, perhaps because a genuine peace does not suit everybody's interests.
AM, Vienna, VA - I am sorry. I was attempting irony. GWB *is* a complete idiot and a war criminal, in my humble opinion, to boot. Anyone watching the "war on terror" has seen he and Rove and the rest of his crew manipulate the idiot lights every election cycle...or whenever they need some stupid bill passed or some whack job votefd on by the Senate. From where I stand, the chief (and by far the most effective) users of "terror" as a weapon is GWB, not Bin Laudin and *his* lunatics. What I was attempting to point out, however, is that Israel has attempted to disengage from the constant war with her Arab neigbirs, but they wont let her. Also, once you get past all of the sob stories in the press about Lebanese civilian casulties, these same civilians elected the very Hizbulla scum that started the war with Israel to begin with. Likewise, the Palestinian's overwhelmingly elected Hamas. Now, anyone who reads knows what these two organizations are all about. So, as I see it, the Lebanese and Palestinians people were morons for not expecting exactly what happened....and they deserved a lot worse.
MikeB: August 22, 2006 02:54 PM & August 22, 2006 06:49 PM
On latter post: Even the Washington Post discounts GWB. He has sadly descended to the absurd.
As for the wall that Israel is building along the West Bank, it is entirely outside of Israel's internationally recognized border.
As for my original post, every country may take the measures it deems appropriate and necessary to protect its territory, on its own side of the border. So on this I agree with Fisch, BN, Germany August 23, 2006 07:16 AM
MikeB, even the Jewish "holy wall" in in former Arab Land, Eastern Jerusalem. See also the ICJ on the new wall further west. Israel of 1947 is much smaller than Israel of 1948 aka 1967. Of which "wall" are you talking?
Drawing a line, that includes the Jewish "holy places" and gives the rest of Eastern Jerusalem, including the Arab "holy places", back, shouldnt be to difficult. The mullahs in Iran will understand it. It could be a win-win for all sides, as long as a better solution is not possible.
Jack Matthews, excellent three questions! What are we fighting for is the best. But it sounds also a little bit like revenge for 82. You cannot blame Hezbollah for attacking attackers. Hezbollah is a part of the Lebanon and the Lebanon is the Lebanon. The UN SC must be neutral to be effectiv. The best it can do is to provide, in a more symbolic way, a situation in which Israel can start talking, if it wishes so, with all important players, that can contribute to some sort of a solution. IMHO Israel must speak with Hezbollah too, it must face reality, whoever in Israel is capable for such a task. Israel is very, very down today, the idiotic war, "magic".., is just a symptom.
A bigger question is whether there should be a seperate peace with Lebanon or, this could increase everybodys credibility, a big solution, that includes other parties as well, Hamas, Iran etc.
David Ignatius wrote:
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How can the new international force do a better job than the old UNIFIL at stabilizing Lebanon and preventing future attacks on Israel? Should the U.N. force insist on disarming Hezbollah?
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There are two questions here, not one.
It would be difficult for the new international force NOT to do a better job than the old UNIFIL, which was singularly hapless. This is not to say that the new force will be adequate to the task either. I should imagine that the Lebanese might also take exception to your definition of their “task”. Surely this should also include preventing future attacks on Lebanon from Israel, not so?
Of course the UN force should “insist” on disarming Hezbollah, and so should the Lebanese government. That is easy to say. The better question is, should the UN force (with or without the Lebanese Army helping) disarm Hezbollah? That is simply not going to be done by any UN force. If you can’t get there politically, you can’t get there forcefully.
Whatever one’s opinion of Hezbollah, they are entitled to considerable respect. They stood up to the IDF for 4 solid weeks and maintained their rocket/missile attacks at 100-200 per day throughout. There was never any indication in the South that they were either defeated or substantially disabled right up to the ceasefire. What they exposed was Israel’s vulnerability to short range (100km or less) missiles or rockets and the IDF’s difficulties coping with well-disciplined irregular forces defending their home turf. As Arab “victories” go, this one has actual substance to it.
And still, we remain in Iraq? Dumb, really really dumb.
kill two problems with one incident? what's all the buzz about who's backing hezbollah?
who is Cheney and Rumsfeld asking for
"
In the month following last year's 7/7 London bombings, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan "to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States". Implied in the contingency plan is the certainty that Iran would be behind a Second 9/11.
"
hmmmmmmmmmmm, no wonder the United States didn't take any strong action to ask Israel to stand down,
got your bad guy in the area....
with so much support in the Jewish community for Israel, it would be construed as an attack against the United States........
IF the United States wanted to protect itself and other Allied countries :
they would be looking for alternatives.
Since the Executive Branch, Complicit Congress, and the Military Industrial Complex are not looking for _alternatives_ for oil, they have all their chips stacked on controling the region...
Since the United States just started reclassifying the number of atomic nuclear devices at their disposal, taking that information off of the public market place.......there's a good likelihood that in the near term, that one might go missing, and end up in _your_ neighborhood.
The current president of the United States is not exactly "of strong character,"
you either close this deal fast or you may be looking at him becoming dictator through declaring national emergency because the United States has been attacked.........another 9/11, perhaps with a nuck u lear device..........which would mean that "retaliation," could be the same, without much repurcussion in the national community........
time to wake the eff up....these boyz aren't what you would call _model_ citizens(the Executive Branch and Complicit Congress), if I had a little more authority, I'd arrest 'em and make the world a safer place....
hopefully someone is listening to their phone calls.......
but anger and animosity. What frightfully intelligent posuers, oh, I mean posters. Specially those people who imitate me, the atheist entity, that even lifted my phrase,
neo conartiste' and now applys it to the Islamic faction. I tell racism is a nasty thing, but growing up in a trailer in south Texas, well what do you expect?
It's interesting to me that grownups can't come up with a solution that pins the tail on this donkey.
You have Arabs using Palestine and Americans using Israel, and the pot and the kettle claiming the high ground, while the UN is passed off as ineffective.
As an engineer, you don't mince words. Israel will be alone in 30 years, I don't care who Hezbollah is.
If they don't make some friends, the end may not be tomorrow, but it will be within 50 years. From that perspective, Israel lost the war.
Iran/Iraq, two different sides of the same coin. Oil and money. Iran is the only country that may give the current administration and complicit congress, posing as the United States, a run for control of that region. It could also lose permanently, and that's a fact.
So, what to do. First that information has to be made public, about Iran and Israel. From that perspective start working towards closure. Iran could lose big_time, and that is a fact....why else would they have given them plans for a nuclear weapon? It's called priming the propaganda pump, probable cause in legal terminology.
You can talk all day long about who's evil and who's not. People are still people, training is something that can be given. No particular group of people are irretrievable, 'cept maybe the international riche....who care not a whit about _any_ civilians.........
Every country that is looking for leverage is playing the citizens of their home countries, it's called "milking the cow,"
Russia makes money supplying arms, probably ships information to the United States about the deal........playing both sides.
Wake up and smell the inevitiability....Iran and Israel are looking at short term futures if someone doesn't cut a deal and the United States _has_ to replace it's current leaders as they are in it to control, and don't have reasonable social habits....
I would imagine, the boston atheist is "one of theirs" a shill.
att: Elias Eter, San Francisco. Change your meds. Arabs, generally, do not CARE about the Palestinians; most Arabs dislike/despise Palestinians. In fact, there has never been a Palestine. Arabs USE the Palestinins, cynically, as a pretext for the ONE thing that unites them, the little satan, Israel. I have taught at universities in Cairo & Amman, and, I can assure you that ALL my Arab friends would agree with this.
Labanon had great stability, until the troublesome Jews DEstabilized the poor country. Prior to the current situation, Lebanon was an exteremely stable attack platform for the Hitzbolla: supported by the Kofi/Chirac axis. Kofi is laboring hard to assist Hitzbi=ollah to once more assume their customary stabilizing function. Of course, an alternative, even more stabilizing situation would be for Israel to pave all of Lebanon/Syria, Hama style.
AM, Vienna, VA - Today President Bush gave one of those speaches about bringing democracy to Iraq and their lofty aspirations. Well, the Palestinian's eleced Hamas. he lebanese elected Hizbulla. The Iranian's selected the whack jobs that are building bomb and biological agent there. All democratically elected governments! Their lofty aspirations are the destruction of Israel, the slaughter of the Jewish people, and to kill as many Amercian's as possible. So much for "viable states".
Elias Eter, San Francisco August 22, 2006 03:24 PM
Exactly. The solution is to establish a viable, to the Palestinians state in the the whole West Bank & Gaza; to release all the prisoners; and to return all the occupied land.
That denies any hotheads the popular support they need.
The middle east needs a good 50 to 75 year bowel movement, and during this process, wild things (terrorism, fundamentalism, civil wars, etc) can and will happen. The best we can do during this period is try to minimize the damage it creates for us and our interests using common sense, go after the bad guys, but don't let that become our sole identity regarding the rest of the world. Otherwise, we should stay out of the way, if this is the shia's time to dominate that region of the world, let them, help them to mature, dialog with them, reach out to them, and stop being so naive, arrogant and clumsy. Humans are warlike beings, we go ape sometimes, the middle east is largely medieval, and needs a sea change, but it will take time, vigilance and some understanding so it doesn't end up hating us even more. Of course, I'm assuming the american people would actually care enough about arabs to help this happen, whooooeeeeeee. Oh, but oil, what will happen to our precious oil? Grow up. The real name of god is change.
Solve the Palestinian Problem in a JUST MANNER: Contiguious territories for Peace and all the mideast problems from IRAN to Lebanon will be solved. Otherwise you are waisting time:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
AM. That wall is built on land that has been a part of Israel since 1947. The Palestinian's mere *claim* it as their's....but they *claim* all of Israel is their's and demand a "right of return" (all land in Israel to go to some mythical Arab original inhabitant). All of this is simply nonsense, of course. The TOTAL Arab population of Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, all of "Palestine" was around 200,000 right up until WWII (vs a Jewish and CHristian population of about the same number, virtually all of that concentrated in modern day Israel. The whole "land grab" nonsense you hear spouted by the Arabs is simply fiction. As for the other lands "occupied" by Israel, do you propose giving Golan back to Syria? As I recall, the Syrian's used to sit up there and lob artilliary shells into Israel from up there. Syria LOST all claims to Golan when they persisted in that.
I sound very angry, but I've lived with Arab's and allow me to tell you they are the worst collection of murderous swine I have ever had the misfortune of encountering. This is NOT condeming them as a race, but rather as a culture. Their's is a culture of brutality, intolerance, hatred, vindictiveness, and deceit. That is Islam, and that is the Arab's "gift" to the West. If you want peace in the Middle East, you will work to exterminate Arab culture and all of the baggage it comes with and bring those people into the modern world.
By unleashing Hezbollah Iran got just what it wanted when Israel and the US took the bait.The UN is now intervening in the matter.The UN and Iran also now appear to be talking about Iran's nuclear program's future.Failure to reach something satisfactory in that area could result in the UN's force being placed in jeopardy by renewed Hezbollah activity.Restraint by Israel and the US at the beginning of the conflict would not have compromised UN's position on nukes.All talks concerning nukes must now include discussions about future of Hezbollah.Concessions on Nukes without some promise of protection for Israel are pointless.The trap can now be sprung on Iran the same way they used it to force the talks.
What you are referring to is a wall built by Israel on occupied Palestinian land. There is a very big difference: I what I suggested, was an action strictly within Israel (good); what you pointed out was a land grab (bad).
I commanded a Marine battalion in Beirut from October 82 to March 83. Since its inception, UNIFIL has been and is nothing more then a bandage on a sucking chest wound. The IDF waved at UNIFIL when they drove by in Opperation Peace for Galilee in June 1982. UNIFIL was powerless to do anything about that Israeli invasion. The three operative questions for this new force are: What is the mission? How do you intend to accomplish thay mission? And what at the ROEs?
It was totally disingenuous of the UN—with US concurrence—to suggest that UNIFIL, augmented by the Lebanese Army, could tell the Hezbollah to do anything, let alone disarm them if that indeed becomes their mission. The Lebanese Army—which we helped train and equip in 1982-83—is a third rate army with a checkpoint mentality. We've alreay seen Lebanese Army officers, probably Maronites, having coffee with members of the IDF. That alone speaks volumes of how UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army will fail. It is only a matter of time before the Hezbollah infiltrates back into southern Lebanon and a new round of terror begins. The dysfunctional Lebanonese government with the assistance of UNIFIL is incapable of solving the Hezbollah issue.
So then what's the solution? I think David Ignatius knows better then me, but he also knows that we—The US—should have dealt with Hezbollah after they killed 241 Americans. We didn't and now look what we have on our hands. I stand with the Israelis in this fight .
AM, Vienna - Israel already tried that. They were accused by the Palestinian's of some sort of crime — preventing them from working in Israel. Israel attempted to simply pull out of Gaza and the West Bank. The result? Terrorist attacks. Daily rocket and artilliary and mortar attack by her Arab neighbors. Virtually ALL of the Arab population surrounding Israel is a direct result of Israeli economic activity. It's very much like the situation we have with illegal Mexican workers along our border. We are so insane, however, that we actually pay our illegals to have babies, commit crimes, take jobs from Amercian workers, and deflat wages and benefits with all of the accompanying social ills. Israel doesn't have the monye for that to begin with and couldn't do it if they wanted to. The result? The Palestinian's and Lebanese blame Israeli's for "having", as if they had somehow stole it from them. So...they want to kill them, to annihilate Israel, and take the wealth there. It's the old story of the goose that laid the golden egg and the Arabs never seem to have had the thought that all of that wealth of the Jews was the result of honesty, hard work and ingenuity.
An interesting set of comments. It seems to me that the valid response is for Israel to build a wall, and establish a no-man's land on the Israeli side of the International border.
Perhaps we, in the US, should finance that instead of the, so far, ineffective jets and bombs.
As of today (Aug. 22) there is no new international force, only the vapors of French and European "questions," Syrian and Iranian victory whoops, Kofi Annan indignation, and American spin. The UN has no force that can or will disarm Hezbollah, and the Europeans will not stand up to achieve this goal. 1559 is mute testimony to this impotence and the hypocrisy of those calling for peace (1701) with no intention of paying the price to create it. Israel's war response to Hezbollah's threat is clear in this context.
The Italian government has pledged to commit 2000 soldiers. What is clear is that we should expel France from its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). We should give the seat to Italy.
Another matter that is quite clear is that the NIF should ignore the rules (of engagement) that Paris wrote into the proposal approved by the UNSC. The NIF should basically take one position: disarming Hezbollah. The NIF should face the fact that disarming Hezbollah may require killing several thousand Islamic thugs.
Of course, the utter disgrace in this picture is Japan. Its government should be committing 5000 soldiers to the NIF but is not doing one damned thing.
How can the new international force do a better job than the old UNIFIL at stabilizing Lebanon and preventing future attacks on Israel? Should the U.N. force insist on disarming Hezbollah?
MY CRITICS
Before I answer thos questions. I have to critisize the statement "preventing future attacks on Israel?". I think "you do not finish the questions". In my view, the true statement is "preventing future attacks on Libanese people and Israel?
MY ANSWER
First, the UN should be strict and stick on its commitments to bring peace for the world. The United Nations do belong to the world, not belonging to a few countries. Having this identity, this body should work properly and freely to create peace without any interferences of its decisions.
Second, all countries should not hesitate to protect Libanon from the attacks by Israel And Hiizbollah. All International peace keeping force should do a better task for a strong commitment without any barries of religions,races,cultures,skin colours. All international soldiers should have holy missions for peace,not for special purposes or "Black Missions".
FOR THE LAST QUESTION
I reckon that it is not important to disarm Hozballah. The most important thing to do is that BOTH SIDES should obey to the UN's RESOLUTION, not to break it simply for "made-up" reasons. Both Parties should refrain and think humanely to the devastations and untold suffering for LIBANESE people.
As Islamic terrorism spreads from the Middle East and contaminates various parts of the West, you experts from various think tanks in the West will be interviewed by the BBC, CNN, Fox News, etc. You will be called upon to "debate" Islamic con artists who support the Islamic thugs.
The Islamic con artists typically try to frame the debate in such a way that it focuses on "white racist America" versus "non-white Islamic Middle-Eastern victims" in the period up to 1980.
Never, ever, fall into this kind of "debating" trap. There is certainly discrimination in America, the discrimination in America pales in comparison to the racism, sexism, and homophobia in all Islamic nations in the Middle East.
Never ignore the 26 years from 1980 to 2006. Those 26 years greatly expanded the amount of evidence that we can use to justifiably condemn the Muslims. During those 26 years, we saw the rise of Eastern Europe from the yoke of Soviet oppression. We also saw the rise of Thailand. We are seeing the rise of Vietnam.
Always reference Japan. It rose from radioactive rubble by fully embracing Western values. Always reference how the Japanese dealt with the fact that Russians stole the 4 northern islands. The Japanese specifically did not commit religious terrorism against the Russians.
When some Islamic bigots start mouthing off about how being unable to get more than 94%[#] of the West Bank justifies the Palestinians' continuing to act like animals, you remind those bigots about the fact that the Japanese did not resort to animal-like violence against the Russians. For the benefit of the CNN audience, you reference Japan — over and over and over. Use Japan to club the Islamic bigot — over and over and over.
What, the hell, is wrong with the failed societies in the Middle East?
Washington proposed a compromise (that Jerusalem reluctantly accepted) giving 100% of the Gaza Strip and 94% of the West Bank to the Palestinians to create an independent state. The Palestinians rejected the compromise because they could not get 100% of the West Bank. The Palestinians then proceeded to commit animal-like violence against the Israelis.
(To op-ed witers, reporters, foreign-policy analysts: Feel free to borrow the ideas that you read in my articles. I do request that you credit me for them.)
Apologists say, "Look. The Middle Easterners never had a democratic tradition like that in the Czech Republic. Hence, the Czech Republic succeeded, and the Middle Easterners failed."
All democratic societies, prior to the starting point of democracy, had no prior democratic tradition. Yet, if we accept the asinine argument of the apologists, then democratic societies could never have appeared because they never had a democratic tradition prior to the starting point.
Let us face the matter squarely. We are human beings endowed with the power to choose. When we are faced with new ideas, we can either embrace them or reject them. When the new idea of Western values (i.e., human rights and democracy) came along, the Czechs embraced those values.
So did the Japanese. Moreover, Japan hailed from a radically different cultural background. Still, the Japanese embraced Western values. When the Ku Klux Klan, Arab Muslims, the liberal extremists, various African-American bigots, and culture relativists insisted that cultural values are in the genes, the Japanese told them to go to hell. The Japanese people so embraced Western values that they even changed the date of their New Year celebrations to coincide with the traditional Western New Year celebrations.
Western values are not rocket science; they are easy to understand. Implementing Western values in the form of a democratic government is quite simple — if you want it. The Japanese wanted it. The Czechs wanted it. The Islamic bigots rejected it.
When the Muslims in the Middle East came upon the new ideas in Western values, they rejected them. They deliberately and conscientiously chose barbarism.
I do not exaggerate. Look at Vietnam. Thousands of Vietnamese are dying and have died from the agent orange that American airplanes poured over Vietnam. Yet, the Vietnamese do not spend every waking moment in plotting how to kill Americans. The Vietnamese have no intention whatsoever to build a nuclear weapon. All their efforts are focused on building a prosperous society.
By contrast, the Iranians are plotting to kill Americans, Iraqis, and Israelis. The Iranians — deliberately and voluntarily — built a brutal theocracy that exports terrorism. The Iranians spend millions of dollars to build missiles and nuclear bombs. The Iranians send millions of dollars to Hezbollah.
Look at the Japanese. Then, look at the Iranians and other Middle Easterners.
Look at the Vietnamese. Then, look at the Iranians and other Middle Easterners.
Look at the Czech people. Then, look at the Iranians and other Middle Easterners.
Lebanon does not need "stabilisation", it is allready perfectly "stabil". The Lebanon is the Lebanon. Force Israel to decide whether it wants a one state or a two state solution and give it two years time, not more, with a strong and credible thread of forcefull "decolonisation". Impossible, but the only solutiuon.
Lets face reality, besides Israels claims from the days of the Bible, wow, there is nothing but an act of the colonial powers, in one form or the other, that "justifies" its existance. Nemo plus transferre potest quam ipse habet.
Tous comprendre cest tous pardonner, there is nothing to understand in Israel. Israel is perfect to wrap its "problems" into "present paper", but behind this fog it is a plain Apartheit state. In the de facto borders of Israel, that is "Big Israel". "Peace", bla, Israels game is some "open twilight zone", its main interest is water.
someone that calls a spade a spade, and you my fiend ar damaged goods, looking to make a noise at the party....that is _all_ you care about...the world, other people, nada.
I do not believe that the UN force will be successful in disarming Hezbollah. At the most, there will be temporary cessation of hostilities for a few days. Israel will not let this impasse go on for ever. They will start bombing again sooner rather than later.
an enculturement...sortof models yours without the fat domineering mother?
you're out of your league...can you read, or do you just make up stuff to respond to...like bush at his latest press conference.
Thom, you don't understand what I mean. Americans and Israelis aren't genocidal racists. The 'Hezbollans' are. I can document the evidence to support this view (see links)
Nasrallah by virtue of apologizing for killing Israeli Arabs and in failing to apologize for killing Israeli Jews has demonstrated that his intent is to kill Jews. Consequntly, the entire Iranian missile battery in southern Lebanon has served no other purpose. http://news.google.com/news?q=Nasrallah+apologized+Nazareth
Warning Israeli Arabs to leave Haifa because they might get killed alongside the Jews is another such statement that should shock civilized people because the aim so clearly is to target one single people. http://news.google.com/news?q=warns+israeli+arabs+haifa
You say that the difference between Nasrallah and Bush, Olmert or Blair depends on ones perspective? It doesn't. Do you believe that the Israelis and Americans deliberately kill Arabs because they are Arabs? Do you have evidence to support that view? With Nasrallah the evidence supporting that he is a genocidal racist is obvious, but you will not find any mainstream news media supporting your view.
"you know, racist isn't exactly an intelligent response"
"ps. I'm implying that bullies are not"
So...undere your twisted logic, anyone who isn't FOR mass murder of an entire race of people is a racist? Get back on the wagon, drunk! You sound exactly like a Bushie? Are you? Or just the ordinary, run of the mill Nazi?
you know, racist isn't exactly an intelligent response :
when dealing with that kind of personality....it just makes them eat more. Being angry about the way you were treated as a childe is a major problem with bullies....but monsterizing them gives them a certain pistache that makes them feel smart rather than simple...
Of all the criminals that Arnold Schwarztenegger kicks around the kitchen floor, rarely do we get to see the criminal being kicked around the kitchen floor by an alcoholic father........
similarly here, we have in Israel/Lebanon, injured children who want to blame someone other than themselves for their current situation...
help them out, tell them the truth.
.
after all, you've only got a couple of months before those missing nukes show up again.
Mark - "Belize chose a peaceful means of dealing with their neighbors"???? And, I suppose, if her neighbors kidnapped innocent women aned children, slit the throats of farmers, and had "religious leaders" (in the case of Hibolla - worshippers of evil) who daily called for the extermination of Belize's entire population, you wouldn't have a problem with that either? Please excuse us, but Israel's neighors are murderous animals. The entire blood soaked history of Islam and Arab "culture" is one of bloodshed, murder, bigotry, and deceit. Israel wouldn't last one week without the wall of her army and her citizens would be butchered like cattle if left to the mercies of her neigbors.
this just came up in the EarlyWarning blog hosted by William Arkin at the Washington Post :
"
In the month following last year's 7/7 London bombings, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan "to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States". Implied in the contingency plan is the certainty that Iran would be behind a Second 9/11.
This "contingency plan" uses the pretext of a "Second 9/11", which has not yet happened, to prepare for a major military operation against Iran, while pressure was also exerted on Tehran in relation to its (non-existent) nuclear weapons program.
What is diabolical in this decision of the US Vice President is that the justification presented by Cheney to wage war on Iran rests on Iran's involvement in a hypothetical terrorist attack on America, which has not yet occurred:
"
could this be the December surprise, hinted at by the classification of the number of weapons that the US has, as a way of hiding that information in the future....you know like were there 3 or 4 cookies in the bag?
well the bag is goin missing, and you won't be allowed to count.
This is a very biased question obviously. Israel and Belize share some common things — both countries are surrounded by other countries that are very different peoples, and many do not recognize thier right to exist. Belize chose a peaceful means of dealing with their neighbors. Israel chose to become the neighborhood strongman, able to bully and intimidate thier neighbors, to take over lands that do not belong to them and kill others in the so-called name of self-preservation. Israel did not need to do this — they chose to. Want to make it fair, have UN take over 20 miles of Lebanon and 20 miles of Israel. Use UN warplanes to bomb IDF targets when Israel breaks the cease-fire as they just have. Want UN to do better job, start with not being so biased! Yes, UN needs to deal with aggressors in Lebanon, but they are not the only ones!
Just as George Bush apologizes for the deaths of Americans but calls the deaths of Iraqi and Afghan civilians "collateral damage."
On the other hand we have Israel, who apologizes for the deaths of civilians, and then blames their enemies for putting the civilians there, instead of themselves for dropping the ordnance.
Where you stand depends an awful lot on where you sit.
Thom, In apologizing for killing Israeli Arabs and in failing to apologize for killing Israeli Jews (women and children amongst them), Hassan Nasrallah has shown himself to be as criminal a racist murderer as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are, albeit fortunately on a much smaller scale.
just because some one does you some favors doesn't mean they are the good guys. Many people appreciated the Mafia for offering them protection, but sometimes the Mafia was the criminal element, not the friend....telling the truth about people tends to make the world a safer place.
We are all getting closer to gether, without civilization, understanding, and honesty, there is no progress. I have seen several things that indicates that the Hezbollah are not simply "the peoples" army.
why is it okay for primitive societies to kill each other like they wear loin clothes and have spears, and yet they sit in open air markets sipping tea? Are Iran and Syria inciting Hezbollah? Or is it the United States inciting Iran and Syria to incite Hezbollah?
Will Israel be a hated country without protection in 30 years? Is that necessary? Are the border countries of Israel mean spirited people with primitive belief systems. Is Israel a primitive country too, where eye for an eye is the only truth?
"Hizzbollah, if it doesn't serve the people, needs to be exposed too."
To which people are you reffering? They certainly serve the Lebanese. They are a social organization which has translated into a defense organization. They also serve the Lebanese by keeping the Israelis out.
people were all for taking over the world before we started persecuting them?
and the kurds, do you think we may have angered them by selling WMD to Saddam to use against them? as well as inciting them to take up arms against him during desert storm and then leaving them for target practice at the end of that exercise in establishing military bases in Kuwiat?
you want to disarm the fundamentalist Muslims? tell them the truth....they live in the real world and not everyone likes them, many consider them primitive tribesmen, uncivilized and dangerous....no one will welcome dangerous people, that is a simple truth that is easy to see....
religious views are _belief_ based and have nothing to do with reality
fundamental christians, jews and muslims need to be shown their predjudices
and called on them.
Hizzbollah, if it doesn't serve the people, needs to be exposed too.
You have posted the same statements many times on different boards. Sadly, if there was a complete withdrawal as you state, then Hizballah would not have captured the 2 Israeli soldiers on Lebanese (according to Syria by the wa) land (the Shabaa farms).
So stop the nonsense.
PS: Blog master: Your rules state that name, city are required.
In May 2000, Israel completed a full withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425 from 1978. The Lebanese government was full of praise for the move and Israelis were relieved. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1310 to confirm that Israel indeed fulfilled its obligation to leave Lebanese territory. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, however, the "liberator of the South," did not recognize the new border. His patrons in Iran ordered continued jihad against Israel. As a pretext for his military buildup and provocations against Israel, Nasrallah argued that Israel had not pulled out from the Shebaa Farms which were on the Golan Heights and disputed between Israel and Syria. Syria agreed to play along with the Lebanese claims to the Shebaa Farms, without formally acknowledging their being under Lebanese sovereignty, in order to enable the ongoing armed struggle against Israel to continue.
"good response...". At least I'm an "qual opportunity hater". I simply cannot stand idiots, illegals, Arabs, European's (especially the British and French...cowards and crooks, all), Mexico, most Republicans and Democrats, neocons, leftists, George Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton (George Bush in drag), Texas and Texans, "Southerners", soccer moms, NASCAR fans, anyone who watches NFL football, anyone who listens to country and western music, Arab culture, Fundimentalist Christians, the East Coast, New York, politicians, CEO's, multinational corporations, Indian, China..... Did I leave anything out?
Why only post UN troops in Lebanon? Last I looked it was Israel who invaded, Israel who killed a thousand civilians, and Israel who committed war crimes. How about a UN Force in Israel to make sure that her naked aggression towards the countries that surround her (still have a piece of each) is toned down.
Hezbullah exists to prevent Israeli invasion. Look at its history; created during the 20 year Israeli occupation (after a UN resolution explicitly telling the I's to leave), and have committed no acts against civilians except in retaliation for Israeli acts of agression, whether it is causing sonic booms over the President's residence, kidnapping civilians, or commando raids deep into a sovereign nation's territory. You haven't heard about these? Not surprised.
Anyone who believes differently does not know the region, is not up on current events, or is deluding himself.
maybe Jerry could get a couple of fat fundamentalists from all the hate spewing groups and have them "face off" off against each other
they we could be equally repulsed by all of them.
I guess that is sort of what Bush is doing, unknowingly....little does the world know what sort of nuck lear surprise he has planned for them.......and why is he classifying
information now?
this pendeho telegraphs his punches, but you guyz never seem to catch on.......I hope someone has his and rummys fone tapped....I hear Jordan...
you say, you're a cracker from georgia and you hate negrahs?
gawd help us from people pretending to have viewpoints that speak to polarize as a way of making a point......
you're either with us or against us? talk about sophmoric
if you were here, I would put you on television, sort of like the Jerry Springer version of "Meet the Press" to show the world the sort of people that get involved in these kind of thought processes......that's really more your level, but that's good.
What? Israel has a "persecution complex"? And it's the wife's fault that her husnad beats her? I'll say this is a fitting analogy! It fits because you quite obviously have an Arabic world view. Your logic is that the Jews somehow deserved to be run out of Medina and were later murdered in cold blood for loaning the blood money payment to Muhammid in the first place. It is "okay" to rape defenseless women because Islam permits "temporary marriage". Israel is somehow illegally occuppying Arab land when history teaches us that the "Palestinian's" and "Arabs" were late comers that only arrived after their wars of conquest between 850 and 1500? Is that why Osama Bin Laudin, the idiot leader of Hizbulla, and the other collected whack jobs and swine representing "pan Arabism" are also calling for the return of Sicily and Southern Italy, Spain, and quite a bit of Eastern Europe? Because they were once Isdlamic conquests? God preserve us from Arab culture, from the spohmoric claptrap of Islam, and from the delussions of pan-Arabists.
PS. John Negroponte was given the right, the ability to :
take away someones pension if they talk about corruption once they leave any of the intelligence agencies......or before.
this is new, never happened before, it speaks of punishment for telling the truth.......dishonesty, criminalization of good citizenship.........
we the United States have used due process and existing laws to protect us from criminals. apparently, things have changed, now we have secret military tribunals like China, and torture
what kind of a world do you live in now, where the most powerful military government in the world looks like some penny ante' dictatorship from a 3rd world country
do the world a favor, talk about it.
Hezzbollah, Israel
small potatoes, this is _your_ future if you want one, if you want to return to feudal times where only royalty has "the good life," just pretend I'm a mad man.........
Readers’ Responses to Our Question (122)
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September 4, 2007 11:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Torture is something that can be justified, but not legalized. Once you allow torture into the state's apparatus of accepted practices you have so to say brought the very founding principles of democracy to an end. The entire concept of ÔøΩRIGHTSÔøΩ extends to even the most extreme situations. This idiotic ÔøΩwarÔøΩ on terrorism is about equivalent to a Freaks Brothers comic strip in which Fat Freddy is broke and thus he gets his pals together to devise a way to get some bucks. Fat Freddy walks into the nearest 7-11 and goes up to the guy behind the counter and says, ÔøΩHowdy Friend, you're about to become famousÔøΩ. The guy shrugs and laughs and then Fat Freddy tells him that he's from Candid Camera, and that shortly two guys are going to come running through the door, armed and are going to ask him to give up the cash, ÔøΩSo don't FA-u(k it up and remember to smile because you're on Candid Camera!ÔøΩ That is I guess comical robbery, but justifying torture amounts to allowing the government to press for wider and wider interpretations of when and what kinds of circumstances justify the need to torture. Torture can only be justified in the sense that imminent threat of an extreme nature requires the hopeful extraction of truthful information. That is of course the dilemma. Will this torture used in a situation of imminent attack actually yield the information needed to counter the potential attack? Whatever the statistics are in this matter, it would seem that given the state of terrorism in the world today, that torture has not yielded the desired results. We are further away today from countering terrorism than we were following 9/11 five years ago. That is to say the Bush torture liberalization program of allowing the use of torture, the use of preemptive warfare and the in general aggressive actions taken by the United States Government in all corners of the world has failed to even make a dent in terrorism. In fact it has because of its obvious injustices against better human values, increased the recruitment of terrorism, divided the world as opposed to unifying it, has more or less isolated the United States and dirtied the name of our good nation and all of its citizens. Torture is fowl and cannot be allowed!
September 12, 2006 6:32 AM | Report Offensive Comments
bush, fraudulent electoral processes did, ala Diebold, phone jammin in New Hampshire and vote counting in Ohio and Florida......
hopefully it won't happen again.
August 23, 2006 7:28 PM | Report Offensive Comments
you're a sweet girl with a penchant for bean0s....if anyone's going to guantonamo, it's you in about 30 years....
I'm a Washingtonion, that happens to know something besides side taking........right and wrong....sure, that makes a lot of difference when conquest has been the rule of thumb for most of the last 2,000 fricking years......
the jews, the arabs, how about the screaming fat kids?
.
August 23, 2006 7:20 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Back on topic. Under the Bush Presidency I think we have zero chance of any ceasefire working. It has become apparent to just about everyone that this president (purposeful use of lower case...this boob doesn't deserve repect) everything is about posturing. That goes all the way back to the flight jacket and the "Mission Accomplished" banner, the "bring it on", comments, the Dept of Homeland Security (which most of us call the Dept Of Terrorism), the idiot lights, and all of these inane alerts. By now, only a very few, very stupid people don't believe that under a Gore or Kerry Presidency NONE of this would be happening. Instead, we have an over-extended military that is not equippped properly, a bunh of U.S. corporations busily selling sensative technology, even weapons systems, to our enemies -like North Korea and Iran and Hizbolla...to be sure they use their "overseas subsidiaries" but just follow the money, it ends up back here. A tough honest leader, someone with a deft political hand and intelligence, wouldn't allow all of this nonsense to exist. With what we got, though, we're in for three years more corruiption, incompitence, grief, economic and politicial havoc, heartache and misery. And, just like the Palestinian and Lebanese people who elected the whack jobs from Hamas and Hizbolla, we are reaping our just deserts for electing Bush and his equally despicable whack jobs.
August 23, 2006 12:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Framing your question in that way assumes that Hezbollah is simply an aggressor and Israel simply a victim. No solutions are viable in that context: the cycle will simply repeat itself. Stabilisation and disarmament can only occur in the broader context of a Middle East settlement. This will eventually involve guarantees of Israeli security in exchange for a sovereign Palestinian state. Nothing else will remove the motive for Hezbollah and Hamas to view themselves as resistance movements, and nothing else will prevent Israel from taking further action in what it sees as self-defence. This latest cycle of violence has been very costly for all concerned, and has put an eventual settlement even further into the future. The best that UNIFIL can hope to do is calm nerves on both sides; the real, monumental task lies with the diplomats and politicians, who seem incapable of retrieving an appalling situation, perhaps because a genuine peace does not suit everybody's interests.
August 23, 2006 12:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments
AM, Vienna, VA - I am sorry. I was attempting irony. GWB *is* a complete idiot and a war criminal, in my humble opinion, to boot. Anyone watching the "war on terror" has seen he and Rove and the rest of his crew manipulate the idiot lights every election cycle...or whenever they need some stupid bill passed or some whack job votefd on by the Senate. From where I stand, the chief (and by far the most effective) users of "terror" as a weapon is GWB, not Bin Laudin and *his* lunatics. What I was attempting to point out, however, is that Israel has attempted to disengage from the constant war with her Arab neigbirs, but they wont let her. Also, once you get past all of the sob stories in the press about Lebanese civilian casulties, these same civilians elected the very Hizbulla scum that started the war with Israel to begin with. Likewise, the Palestinian's overwhelmingly elected Hamas. Now, anyone who reads knows what these two organizations are all about. So, as I see it, the Lebanese and Palestinians people were morons for not expecting exactly what happened....and they deserved a lot worse.
August 23, 2006 12:26 PM | Report Offensive Comments
this is for Hetzbollah "hmmmmmmmmmmm..... ". They are watching & ady. Enjoy Guantanamo.
August 23, 2006 9:59 AM | Report Offensive Comments
MikeB: August 22, 2006 02:54 PM & August 22, 2006 06:49 PM
On latter post: Even the Washington Post discounts GWB. He has sadly descended to the absurd.
As for the wall that Israel is building along the West Bank, it is entirely outside of Israel's internationally recognized border.
As for my original post, every country may take the measures it deems appropriate and necessary to protect its territory, on its own side of the border. So on this I agree with Fisch, BN, Germany August 23, 2006 07:16 AM
August 23, 2006 9:06 AM | Report Offensive Comments
The ICJ and the wall further EAST (in the WESTbank..), sorry.
August 23, 2006 7:19 AM | Report Offensive Comments
MikeB, even the Jewish "holy wall" in in former Arab Land, Eastern Jerusalem. See also the ICJ on the new wall further west. Israel of 1947 is much smaller than Israel of 1948 aka 1967. Of which "wall" are you talking?
Drawing a line, that includes the Jewish "holy places" and gives the rest of Eastern Jerusalem, including the Arab "holy places", back, shouldnt be to difficult. The mullahs in Iran will understand it. It could be a win-win for all sides, as long as a better solution is not possible.
August 23, 2006 7:16 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Jack Matthews, excellent three questions! What are we fighting for is the best. But it sounds also a little bit like revenge for 82. You cannot blame Hezbollah for attacking attackers. Hezbollah is a part of the Lebanon and the Lebanon is the Lebanon. The UN SC must be neutral to be effectiv. The best it can do is to provide, in a more symbolic way, a situation in which Israel can start talking, if it wishes so, with all important players, that can contribute to some sort of a solution. IMHO Israel must speak with Hezbollah too, it must face reality, whoever in Israel is capable for such a task. Israel is very, very down today, the idiotic war, "magic".., is just a symptom.
A bigger question is whether there should be a seperate peace with Lebanon or, this could increase everybodys credibility, a big solution, that includes other parties as well, Hamas, Iran etc.
August 23, 2006 6:49 AM | Report Offensive Comments
David Ignatius wrote:
++++++++++++++++++++++++
How can the new international force do a better job than the old UNIFIL at stabilizing Lebanon and preventing future attacks on Israel? Should the U.N. force insist on disarming Hezbollah?
++++++++++++++++++++++++
There are two questions here, not one.
It would be difficult for the new international force NOT to do a better job than the old UNIFIL, which was singularly hapless. This is not to say that the new force will be adequate to the task either. I should imagine that the Lebanese might also take exception to your definition of their “task”. Surely this should also include preventing future attacks on Lebanon from Israel, not so?
Of course the UN force should “insist” on disarming Hezbollah, and so should the Lebanese government. That is easy to say. The better question is, should the UN force (with or without the Lebanese Army helping) disarm Hezbollah? That is simply not going to be done by any UN force. If you can’t get there politically, you can’t get there forcefully.
Whatever one’s opinion of Hezbollah, they are entitled to considerable respect. They stood up to the IDF for 4 solid weeks and maintained their rocket/missile attacks at 100-200 per day throughout. There was never any indication in the South that they were either defeated or substantially disabled right up to the ceasefire. What they exposed was Israel’s vulnerability to short range (100km or less) missiles or rockets and the IDF’s difficulties coping with well-disciplined irregular forces defending their home turf. As Arab “victories” go, this one has actual substance to it.
And still, we remain in Iraq? Dumb, really really dumb.
August 23, 2006 4:26 AM | Report Offensive Comments
where might that missing nuke turn up? Tel Aviv?
kill two problems with one incident? what's all the buzz about who's backing hezbollah?
who is Cheney and Rumsfeld asking for
"
In the month following last year's 7/7 London bombings, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan "to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States". Implied in the contingency plan is the certainty that Iran would be behind a Second 9/11.
"
hmmmmmmmmmmm, no wonder the United States didn't take any strong action to ask Israel to stand down,
got your bad guy in the area....
with so much support in the Jewish community for Israel, it would be construed as an attack against the United States........
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........
naw, that's too obvious
August 22, 2006 10:33 PM | Report Offensive Comments
they would be looking for alternatives.
Since the Executive Branch, Complicit Congress, and the Military Industrial Complex are not looking for _alternatives_ for oil, they have all their chips stacked on controling the region...
Since the United States just started reclassifying the number of atomic nuclear devices at their disposal, taking that information off of the public market place.......there's a good likelihood that in the near term, that one might go missing, and end up in _your_ neighborhood.
The current president of the United States is not exactly "of strong character,"
you either close this deal fast or you may be looking at him becoming dictator through declaring national emergency because the United States has been attacked.........another 9/11, perhaps with a nuck u lear device..........which would mean that "retaliation," could be the same, without much repurcussion in the national community........
time to wake the eff up....these boyz aren't what you would call _model_ citizens(the Executive Branch and Complicit Congress), if I had a little more authority, I'd arrest 'em and make the world a safer place....
hopefully someone is listening to their phone calls.......
.
American citizens are dying to pay their bills.
August 22, 2006 10:03 PM | Report Offensive Comments
but anger and animosity. What frightfully intelligent posuers, oh, I mean posters. Specially those people who imitate me, the atheist entity, that even lifted my phrase,
neo conartiste' and now applys it to the Islamic faction. I tell racism is a nasty thing, but growing up in a trailer in south Texas, well what do you expect?
It's interesting to me that grownups can't come up with a solution that pins the tail on this donkey.
You have Arabs using Palestine and Americans using Israel, and the pot and the kettle claiming the high ground, while the UN is passed off as ineffective.
As an engineer, you don't mince words. Israel will be alone in 30 years, I don't care who Hezbollah is.
If they don't make some friends, the end may not be tomorrow, but it will be within 50 years. From that perspective, Israel lost the war.
Iran/Iraq, two different sides of the same coin. Oil and money. Iran is the only country that may give the current administration and complicit congress, posing as the United States, a run for control of that region. It could also lose permanently, and that's a fact.
So, what to do. First that information has to be made public, about Iran and Israel. From that perspective start working towards closure. Iran could lose big_time, and that is a fact....why else would they have given them plans for a nuclear weapon? It's called priming the propaganda pump, probable cause in legal terminology.
You can talk all day long about who's evil and who's not. People are still people, training is something that can be given. No particular group of people are irretrievable, 'cept maybe the international riche....who care not a whit about _any_ civilians.........
Every country that is looking for leverage is playing the citizens of their home countries, it's called "milking the cow,"
Russia makes money supplying arms, probably ships information to the United States about the deal........playing both sides.
Wake up and smell the inevitiability....Iran and Israel are looking at short term futures if someone doesn't cut a deal and the United States _has_ to replace it's current leaders as they are in it to control, and don't have reasonable social habits....
I would imagine, the boston atheist is "one of theirs" a shill.
.
August 22, 2006 9:52 PM | Report Offensive Comments
att: Elias Eter, San Francisco. Change your meds. Arabs, generally, do not CARE about the Palestinians; most Arabs dislike/despise Palestinians. In fact, there has never been a Palestine. Arabs USE the Palestinins, cynically, as a pretext for the ONE thing that unites them, the little satan, Israel. I have taught at universities in Cairo & Amman, and, I can assure you that ALL my Arab friends would agree with this.
August 22, 2006 8:57 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Labanon had great stability, until the troublesome Jews DEstabilized the poor country. Prior to the current situation, Lebanon was an exteremely stable attack platform for the Hitzbolla: supported by the Kofi/Chirac axis. Kofi is laboring hard to assist Hitzbi=ollah to once more assume their customary stabilizing function. Of course, an alternative, even more stabilizing situation would be for Israel to pave all of Lebanon/Syria, Hama style.
August 22, 2006 8:00 PM | Report Offensive Comments
We need to get a substitute energy source for oil as soon as humanly possible, and then cut all ties with the arabs.
August 22, 2006 7:58 PM | Report Offensive Comments
AM, Vienna, VA - Today President Bush gave one of those speaches about bringing democracy to Iraq and their lofty aspirations. Well, the Palestinian's eleced Hamas. he lebanese elected Hizbulla. The Iranian's selected the whack jobs that are building bomb and biological agent there. All democratically elected governments! Their lofty aspirations are the destruction of Israel, the slaughter of the Jewish people, and to kill as many Amercian's as possible. So much for "viable states".
August 22, 2006 6:49 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Elias Eter, San Francisco August 22, 2006 03:24 PM
Exactly. The solution is to establish a viable, to the Palestinians state in the the whole West Bank & Gaza; to release all the prisoners; and to return all the occupied land.
That denies any hotheads the popular support they need.
August 22, 2006 6:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
The middle east needs a good 50 to 75 year bowel movement, and during this process, wild things (terrorism, fundamentalism, civil wars, etc) can and will happen. The best we can do during this period is try to minimize the damage it creates for us and our interests using common sense, go after the bad guys, but don't let that become our sole identity regarding the rest of the world. Otherwise, we should stay out of the way, if this is the shia's time to dominate that region of the world, let them, help them to mature, dialog with them, reach out to them, and stop being so naive, arrogant and clumsy. Humans are warlike beings, we go ape sometimes, the middle east is largely medieval, and needs a sea change, but it will take time, vigilance and some understanding so it doesn't end up hating us even more. Of course, I'm assuming the american people would actually care enough about arabs to help this happen, whooooeeeeeee. Oh, but oil, what will happen to our precious oil? Grow up. The real name of god is change.
August 22, 2006 6:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Solve the Palestinian Problem in a JUST MANNER: Contiguious territories for Peace and all the mideast problems from IRAN to Lebanon will be solved. Otherwise you are waisting time:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
August 22, 2006 3:24 PM | Report Offensive Comments
AM. That wall is built on land that has been a part of Israel since 1947. The Palestinian's mere *claim* it as their's....but they *claim* all of Israel is their's and demand a "right of return" (all land in Israel to go to some mythical Arab original inhabitant). All of this is simply nonsense, of course. The TOTAL Arab population of Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, all of "Palestine" was around 200,000 right up until WWII (vs a Jewish and CHristian population of about the same number, virtually all of that concentrated in modern day Israel. The whole "land grab" nonsense you hear spouted by the Arabs is simply fiction. As for the other lands "occupied" by Israel, do you propose giving Golan back to Syria? As I recall, the Syrian's used to sit up there and lob artilliary shells into Israel from up there. Syria LOST all claims to Golan when they persisted in that.
I sound very angry, but I've lived with Arab's and allow me to tell you they are the worst collection of murderous swine I have ever had the misfortune of encountering. This is NOT condeming them as a race, but rather as a culture. Their's is a culture of brutality, intolerance, hatred, vindictiveness, and deceit. That is Islam, and that is the Arab's "gift" to the West. If you want peace in the Middle East, you will work to exterminate Arab culture and all of the baggage it comes with and bring those people into the modern world.
August 22, 2006 2:54 PM | Report Offensive Comments
By unleashing Hezbollah Iran got just what it wanted when Israel and the US took the bait.The UN is now intervening in the matter.The UN and Iran also now appear to be talking about Iran's nuclear program's future.Failure to reach something satisfactory in that area could result in the UN's force being placed in jeopardy by renewed Hezbollah activity.Restraint by Israel and the US at the beginning of the conflict would not have compromised UN's position on nukes.All talks concerning nukes must now include discussions about future of Hezbollah.Concessions on Nukes without some promise of protection for Israel are pointless.The trap can now be sprung on Iran the same way they used it to force the talks.
August 22, 2006 2:47 PM | Report Offensive Comments
MikeB August 22, 2006 12:44 PM
What you are referring to is a wall built by Israel on occupied Palestinian land. There is a very big difference: I what I suggested, was an action strictly within Israel (good); what you pointed out was a land grab (bad).
August 22, 2006 2:19 PM | Report Offensive Comments
I commanded a Marine battalion in Beirut from October 82 to March 83. Since its inception, UNIFIL has been and is nothing more then a bandage on a sucking chest wound. The IDF waved at UNIFIL when they drove by in Opperation Peace for Galilee in June 1982. UNIFIL was powerless to do anything about that Israeli invasion. The three operative questions for this new force are: What is the mission? How do you intend to accomplish thay mission? And what at the ROEs?
It was totally disingenuous of the UN—with US concurrence—to suggest that UNIFIL, augmented by the Lebanese Army, could tell the Hezbollah to do anything, let alone disarm them if that indeed becomes their mission. The Lebanese Army—which we helped train and equip in 1982-83—is a third rate army with a checkpoint mentality. We've alreay seen Lebanese Army officers, probably Maronites, having coffee with members of the IDF. That alone speaks volumes of how UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army will fail. It is only a matter of time before the Hezbollah infiltrates back into southern Lebanon and a new round of terror begins. The dysfunctional Lebanonese government with the assistance of UNIFIL is incapable of solving the Hezbollah issue.
So then what's the solution? I think David Ignatius knows better then me, but he also knows that we—The US—should have dealt with Hezbollah after they killed 241 Americans. We didn't and now look what we have on our hands. I stand with the Israelis in this fight .
August 22, 2006 12:48 PM | Report Offensive Comments
AM, Vienna - Israel already tried that. They were accused by the Palestinian's of some sort of crime — preventing them from working in Israel. Israel attempted to simply pull out of Gaza and the West Bank. The result? Terrorist attacks. Daily rocket and artilliary and mortar attack by her Arab neighbors. Virtually ALL of the Arab population surrounding Israel is a direct result of Israeli economic activity. It's very much like the situation we have with illegal Mexican workers along our border. We are so insane, however, that we actually pay our illegals to have babies, commit crimes, take jobs from Amercian workers, and deflat wages and benefits with all of the accompanying social ills. Israel doesn't have the monye for that to begin with and couldn't do it if they wanted to. The result? The Palestinian's and Lebanese blame Israeli's for "having", as if they had somehow stole it from them. So...they want to kill them, to annihilate Israel, and take the wealth there. It's the old story of the goose that laid the golden egg and the Arabs never seem to have had the thought that all of that wealth of the Jews was the result of honesty, hard work and ingenuity.
August 22, 2006 12:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
An interesting set of comments. It seems to me that the valid response is for Israel to build a wall, and establish a no-man's land on the Israeli side of the International border.
Perhaps we, in the US, should finance that instead of the, so far, ineffective jets and bombs.
August 22, 2006 12:22 PM | Report Offensive Comments
As of today (Aug. 22) there is no new international force, only the vapors of French and European "questions," Syrian and Iranian victory whoops, Kofi Annan indignation, and American spin. The UN has no force that can or will disarm Hezbollah, and the Europeans will not stand up to achieve this goal. 1559 is mute testimony to this impotence and the hypocrisy of those calling for peace (1701) with no intention of paying the price to create it. Israel's war response to Hezbollah's threat is clear in this context.
August 22, 2006 11:55 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Click on the following Web link to get the latest information about the new international force (NIF).
http://euobserver.com/9/22251
The Italian government has pledged to commit 2000 soldiers. What is clear is that we should expel France from its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). We should give the seat to Italy.
Another matter that is quite clear is that the NIF should ignore the rules (of engagement) that Paris wrote into the proposal approved by the UNSC. The NIF should basically take one position: disarming Hezbollah. The NIF should face the fact that disarming Hezbollah may require killing several thousand Islamic thugs.
Of course, the utter disgrace in this picture is Japan. Its government should be committing 5000 soldiers to the NIF but is not doing one damned thing.
August 22, 2006 4:53 AM | Report Offensive Comments
How can the new international force do a better job than the old UNIFIL at stabilizing Lebanon and preventing future attacks on Israel? Should the U.N. force insist on disarming Hezbollah?
MY CRITICS
Before I answer thos questions. I have to critisize the statement "preventing future attacks on Israel?". I think "you do not finish the questions". In my view, the true statement is "preventing future attacks on Libanese people and Israel?
MY ANSWER
First, the UN should be strict and stick on its commitments to bring peace for the world. The United Nations do belong to the world, not belonging to a few countries. Having this identity, this body should work properly and freely to create peace without any interferences of its decisions.
Second, all countries should not hesitate to protect Libanon from the attacks by Israel And Hiizbollah. All International peace keeping force should do a better task for a strong commitment without any barries of religions,races,cultures,skin colours. All international soldiers should have holy missions for peace,not for special purposes or "Black Missions".
FOR THE LAST QUESTION
I reckon that it is not important to disarm Hozballah. The most important thing to do is that BOTH SIDES should obey to the UN's RESOLUTION, not to break it simply for "made-up" reasons. Both Parties should refrain and think humanely to the devastations and untold suffering for LIBANESE people.
August 22, 2006 3:36 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Good afternoon, Asia. Good morning, Europe.
As Islamic terrorism spreads from the Middle East and contaminates various parts of the West, you experts from various think tanks in the West will be interviewed by the BBC, CNN, Fox News, etc. You will be called upon to "debate" Islamic con artists who support the Islamic thugs.
The Islamic con artists typically try to frame the debate in such a way that it focuses on "white racist America" versus "non-white Islamic Middle-Eastern victims" in the period up to 1980.
Never, ever, fall into this kind of "debating" trap. There is certainly discrimination in America, the discrimination in America pales in comparison to the racism, sexism, and homophobia in all Islamic nations in the Middle East.
Never ignore the 26 years from 1980 to 2006. Those 26 years greatly expanded the amount of evidence that we can use to justifiably condemn the Muslims. During those 26 years, we saw the rise of Eastern Europe from the yoke of Soviet oppression. We also saw the rise of Thailand. We are seeing the rise of Vietnam.
Always reference Japan. It rose from radioactive rubble by fully embracing Western values. Always reference how the Japanese dealt with the fact that Russians stole the 4 northern islands. The Japanese specifically did not commit religious terrorism against the Russians.
When some Islamic bigots start mouthing off about how being unable to get more than 94%[#] of the West Bank justifies the Palestinians' continuing to act like animals, you remind those bigots about the fact that the Japanese did not resort to animal-like violence against the Russians. For the benefit of the CNN audience, you reference Japan — over and over and over. Use Japan to club the Islamic bigot — over and over and over.
What, the hell, is wrong with the failed societies in the Middle East?
[#] See the web page at the following Web link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
Washington proposed a compromise (that Jerusalem reluctantly accepted) giving 100% of the Gaza Strip and 94% of the West Bank to the Palestinians to create an independent state. The Palestinians rejected the compromise because they could not get 100% of the West Bank. The Palestinians then proceeded to commit animal-like violence against the Israelis.
August 22, 2006 3:15 AM | Report Offensive Comments
(To op-ed witers, reporters, foreign-policy analysts: Feel free to borrow the ideas that you read in my articles. I do request that you credit me for them.)
Apologists say, "Look. The Middle Easterners never had a democratic tradition like that in the Czech Republic. Hence, the Czech Republic succeeded, and the Middle Easterners failed."
All democratic societies, prior to the starting point of democracy, had no prior democratic tradition. Yet, if we accept the asinine argument of the apologists, then democratic societies could never have appeared because they never had a democratic tradition prior to the starting point.
Let us face the matter squarely. We are human beings endowed with the power to choose. When we are faced with new ideas, we can either embrace them or reject them. When the new idea of Western values (i.e., human rights and democracy) came along, the Czechs embraced those values.
So did the Japanese. Moreover, Japan hailed from a radically different cultural background. Still, the Japanese embraced Western values. When the Ku Klux Klan, Arab Muslims, the liberal extremists, various African-American bigots, and culture relativists insisted that cultural values are in the genes, the Japanese told them to go to hell. The Japanese people so embraced Western values that they even changed the date of their New Year celebrations to coincide with the traditional Western New Year celebrations.
Western values are not rocket science; they are easy to understand. Implementing Western values in the form of a democratic government is quite simple — if you want it. The Japanese wanted it. The Czechs wanted it. The Islamic bigots rejected it.
When the Muslims in the Middle East came upon the new ideas in Western values, they rejected them. They deliberately and conscientiously chose barbarism.
I do not exaggerate. Look at Vietnam. Thousands of Vietnamese are dying and have died from the agent orange that American airplanes poured over Vietnam. Yet, the Vietnamese do not spend every waking moment in plotting how to kill Americans. The Vietnamese have no intention whatsoever to build a nuclear weapon. All their efforts are focused on building a prosperous society.
By contrast, the Iranians are plotting to kill Americans, Iraqis, and Israelis. The Iranians — deliberately and voluntarily — built a brutal theocracy that exports terrorism. The Iranians spend millions of dollars to build missiles and nuclear bombs. The Iranians send millions of dollars to Hezbollah.
Look at the Japanese. Then, look at the Iranians and other Middle Easterners.
Look at the Vietnamese. Then, look at the Iranians and other Middle Easterners.
Look at the Czech people. Then, look at the Iranians and other Middle Easterners.
Who is the sub-human animal? You make the call.
August 22, 2006 2:52 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Lebanon does not need "stabilisation", it is allready perfectly "stabil". The Lebanon is the Lebanon. Force Israel to decide whether it wants a one state or a two state solution and give it two years time, not more, with a strong and credible thread of forcefull "decolonisation". Impossible, but the only solutiuon.
Lets face reality, besides Israels claims from the days of the Bible, wow, there is nothing but an act of the colonial powers, in one form or the other, that "justifies" its existance. Nemo plus transferre potest quam ipse habet.
Tous comprendre cest tous pardonner, there is nothing to understand in Israel. Israel is perfect to wrap its "problems" into "present paper", but behind this fog it is a plain Apartheit state. In the de facto borders of Israel, that is "Big Israel". "Peace", bla, Israels game is some "open twilight zone", its main interest is water.
My only hope is a strong Iran.
August 22, 2006 1:23 AM | Report Offensive Comments
someone that calls a spade a spade, and you my fiend ar damaged goods, looking to make a noise at the party....that is _all_ you care about...the world, other people, nada.
August 21, 2006 10:55 PM | Report Offensive Comments
I do not believe that the UN force will be successful in disarming Hezbollah. At the most, there will be temporary cessation of hostilities for a few days. Israel will not let this impasse go on for ever. They will start bombing again sooner rather than later.
August 21, 2006 10:02 PM | Report Offensive Comments
...anyone have any idea of who this whack job is?
August 21, 2006 8:39 PM | Report Offensive Comments
an en culture meant....
discuss the topics if you can, ranting is childish farting in elevators....meant to attract attention 'cause as a child you got the wrong kinds.
August 21, 2006 7:53 PM | Report Offensive Comments
an en culture meant....
discuss the topics if you can, ranting is childish farting in elevators....meant to attract attention 'cause as a child you got the wrong kinds.
August 21, 2006 7:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments
an enculturement...sortof models yours without the fat domineering mother?
you're out of your league...can you read, or do you just make up stuff to respond to...like bush at his latest press conference.
August 21, 2006 7:39 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Thom, you don't understand what I mean. Americans and Israelis aren't genocidal racists. The 'Hezbollans' are. I can document the evidence to support this view (see links)
Nasrallah by virtue of apologizing for killing Israeli Arabs and in failing to apologize for killing Israeli Jews has demonstrated that his intent is to kill Jews. Consequntly, the entire Iranian missile battery in southern Lebanon has served no other purpose.
http://news.google.com/news?q=Nasrallah+apologized+Nazareth
Warning Israeli Arabs to leave Haifa because they might get killed alongside the Jews is another such statement that should shock civilized people because the aim so clearly is to target one single people.
http://news.google.com/news?q=warns+israeli+arabs+haifa
You say that the difference between Nasrallah and Bush, Olmert or Blair depends on ones perspective? It doesn't. Do you believe that the Israelis and Americans deliberately kill Arabs because they are Arabs? Do you have evidence to support that view? With Nasrallah the evidence supporting that he is a genocidal racist is obvious, but you will not find any mainstream news media supporting your view.
August 21, 2006 5:18 PM | Report Offensive Comments
"you know, racist isn't exactly an intelligent response"
"ps. I'm implying that bullies are not"
So...undere your twisted logic, anyone who isn't FOR mass murder of an entire race of people is a racist? Get back on the wagon, drunk! You sound exactly like a Bushie? Are you? Or just the ordinary, run of the mill Nazi?
August 21, 2006 5:08 PM | Report Offensive Comments
usually born, they're made. Mike is just the product of an unhappy childhood as are Israel and Lebanon...
most criminals and racists, have abusive or encultured_brutish backgrounds...
August 21, 2006 4:58 PM | Report Offensive Comments
when dealing with that kind of personality....it just makes them eat more. Being angry about the way you were treated as a childe is a major problem with bullies....but monsterizing them gives them a certain pistache that makes them feel smart rather than simple...
Of all the criminals that Arnold Schwarztenegger kicks around the kitchen floor, rarely do we get to see the criminal being kicked around the kitchen floor by an alcoholic father........
similarly here, we have in Israel/Lebanon, injured children who want to blame someone other than themselves for their current situation...
help them out, tell them the truth.
.
after all, you've only got a couple of months before those missing nukes show up again.
.
August 21, 2006 4:51 PM | Report Offensive Comments
RACIST
August 21, 2006 4:50 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Mark - "Belize chose a peaceful means of dealing with their neighbors"???? And, I suppose, if her neighbors kidnapped innocent women aned children, slit the throats of farmers, and had "religious leaders" (in the case of Hibolla - worshippers of evil) who daily called for the extermination of Belize's entire population, you wouldn't have a problem with that either? Please excuse us, but Israel's neighors are murderous animals. The entire blood soaked history of Islam and Arab "culture" is one of bloodshed, murder, bigotry, and deceit. Israel wouldn't last one week without the wall of her army and her citizens would be butchered like cattle if left to the mercies of her neigbors.
August 21, 2006 4:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
"
In the month following last year's 7/7 London bombings, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan "to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States". Implied in the contingency plan is the certainty that Iran would be behind a Second 9/11.
This "contingency plan" uses the pretext of a "Second 9/11", which has not yet happened, to prepare for a major military operation against Iran, while pressure was also exerted on Tehran in relation to its (non-existent) nuclear weapons program.
What is diabolical in this decision of the US Vice President is that the justification presented by Cheney to wage war on Iran rests on Iran's involvement in a hypothetical terrorist attack on America, which has not yet occurred:
"
could this be the December surprise, hinted at by the classification of the number of weapons that the US has, as a way of hiding that information in the future....you know like were there 3 or 4 cookies in the bag?
well the bag is goin missing, and you won't be allowed to count.
August 21, 2006 4:34 PM | Report Offensive Comments
This is a very biased question obviously. Israel and Belize share some common things — both countries are surrounded by other countries that are very different peoples, and many do not recognize thier right to exist. Belize chose a peaceful means of dealing with their neighbors. Israel chose to become the neighborhood strongman, able to bully and intimidate thier neighbors, to take over lands that do not belong to them and kill others in the so-called name of self-preservation. Israel did not need to do this — they chose to. Want to make it fair, have UN take over 20 miles of Lebanon and 20 miles of Israel. Use UN warplanes to bomb IDF targets when Israel breaks the cease-fire as they just have. Want UN to do better job, start with not being so biased! Yes, UN needs to deal with aggressors in Lebanon, but they are not the only ones!
August 21, 2006 4:18 PM | Report Offensive Comments
of an even handed response. civilized, your response Thom. All sides treated to the same fair eye.
August 21, 2006 4:18 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Just as George Bush apologizes for the deaths of Americans but calls the deaths of Iraqi and Afghan civilians "collateral damage."
On the other hand we have Israel, who apologizes for the deaths of civilians, and then blames their enemies for putting the civilians there, instead of themselves for dropping the ordnance.
Where you stand depends an awful lot on where you sit.
August 21, 2006 4:09 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Thom, In apologizing for killing Israeli Arabs and in failing to apologize for killing Israeli Jews (women and children amongst them), Hassan Nasrallah has shown himself to be as criminal a racist murderer as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are, albeit fortunately on a much smaller scale.
August 21, 2006 4:04 PM | Report Offensive Comments
just because some one does you some favors doesn't mean they are the good guys. Many people appreciated the Mafia for offering them protection, but sometimes the Mafia was the criminal element, not the friend....telling the truth about people tends to make the world a safer place.
We are all getting closer to gether, without civilization, understanding, and honesty, there is no progress. I have seen several things that indicates that the Hezbollah are not simply "the peoples" army.
why is it okay for primitive societies to kill each other like they wear loin clothes and have spears, and yet they sit in open air markets sipping tea? Are Iran and Syria inciting Hezbollah? Or is it the United States inciting Iran and Syria to incite Hezbollah?
Will Israel be a hated country without protection in 30 years? Is that necessary? Are the border countries of Israel mean spirited people with primitive belief systems. Is Israel a primitive country too, where eye for an eye is the only truth?
.
August 21, 2006 4:01 PM | Report Offensive Comments
"Hizzbollah, if it doesn't serve the people, needs to be exposed too."
To which people are you reffering? They certainly serve the Lebanese. They are a social organization which has translated into a defense organization. They also serve the Lebanese by keeping the Israelis out.
August 21, 2006 3:51 PM | Report Offensive Comments
for your anger,
your mother.
"
Did I leave anything out?
"
August 21, 2006 3:51 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Also,
Why is it that resolution 425 took 22 years to implement, yet we HAVE to have 1559 implemented in less than 2.
Is it because one of them applies to Israel?
August 21, 2006 3:48 PM | Report Offensive Comments
people were all for taking over the world before we started persecuting them?
and the kurds, do you think we may have angered them by selling WMD to Saddam to use against them? as well as inciting them to take up arms against him during desert storm and then leaving them for target practice at the end of that exercise in establishing military bases in Kuwiat?
you want to disarm the fundamentalist Muslims? tell them the truth....they live in the real world and not everyone likes them, many consider them primitive tribesmen, uncivilized and dangerous....no one will welcome dangerous people, that is a simple truth that is easy to see....
religious views are _belief_ based and have nothing to do with reality
fundamental christians, jews and muslims need to be shown their predjudices
and called on them.
Hizzbollah, if it doesn't serve the people, needs to be exposed too.
August 21, 2006 3:42 PM | Report Offensive Comments
| Permalink August 21, 2006 02:14 PM
You have posted the same statements many times on different boards. Sadly, if there was a complete withdrawal as you state, then Hizballah would not have captured the 2 Israeli soldiers on Lebanese (according to Syria by the wa) land (the Shabaa farms).
So stop the nonsense.
PS: Blog master: Your rules state that name, city are required.
August 21, 2006 3:32 PM | Report Offensive Comments
In May 2000, Israel completed a full withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425 from 1978. The Lebanese government was full of praise for the move and Israelis were relieved. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1310 to confirm that Israel indeed fulfilled its obligation to leave Lebanese territory. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, however, the "liberator of the South," did not recognize the new border. His patrons in Iran ordered continued jihad against Israel. As a pretext for his military buildup and provocations against Israel, Nasrallah argued that Israel had not pulled out from the Shebaa Farms which were on the Golan Heights and disputed between Israel and Syria. Syria agreed to play along with the Lebanese claims to the Shebaa Farms, without formally acknowledging their being under Lebanese sovereignty, in order to enable the ongoing armed struggle against Israel to continue.
http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief006-8.htm
August 21, 2006 2:14 PM | Report Offensive Comments
"good response...". At least I'm an "qual opportunity hater". I simply cannot stand idiots, illegals, Arabs, European's (especially the British and French...cowards and crooks, all), Mexico, most Republicans and Democrats, neocons, leftists, George Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton (George Bush in drag), Texas and Texans, "Southerners", soccer moms, NASCAR fans, anyone who watches NFL football, anyone who listens to country and western music, Arab culture, Fundimentalist Christians, the East Coast, New York, politicians, CEO's, multinational corporations, Indian, China..... Did I leave anything out?
August 21, 2006 2:14 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Why only post UN troops in Lebanon? Last I looked it was Israel who invaded, Israel who killed a thousand civilians, and Israel who committed war crimes. How about a UN Force in Israel to make sure that her naked aggression towards the countries that surround her (still have a piece of each) is toned down.
Hezbullah exists to prevent Israeli invasion. Look at its history; created during the 20 year Israeli occupation (after a UN resolution explicitly telling the I's to leave), and have committed no acts against civilians except in retaliation for Israeli acts of agression, whether it is causing sonic booms over the President's residence, kidnapping civilians, or commando raids deep into a sovereign nation's territory. You haven't heard about these? Not surprised.
Anyone who believes differently does not know the region, is not up on current events, or is deluding himself.
August 21, 2006 2:06 PM | Report Offensive Comments
maybe Jerry could get a couple of fat fundamentalists from all the hate spewing groups and have them "face off" off against each other
they we could be equally repulsed by all of them.
I guess that is sort of what Bush is doing, unknowingly....little does the world know what sort of nuck lear surprise he has planned for them.......and why is he classifying
information now?
this pendeho telegraphs his punches, but you guyz never seem to catch on.......I hope someone has his and rummys fone tapped....I hear Jordan...
.
August 21, 2006 2:02 PM | Report Offensive Comments
you say, you're a cracker from georgia and you hate negrahs?
gawd help us from people pretending to have viewpoints that speak to polarize as a way of making a point......
you're either with us or against us? talk about sophmoric
if you were here, I would put you on television, sort of like the Jerry Springer version of "Meet the Press" to show the world the sort of people that get involved in these kind of thought processes......that's really more your level, but that's good.
August 21, 2006 1:52 PM | Report Offensive Comments
What? Israel has a "persecution complex"? And it's the wife's fault that her husnad beats her? I'll say this is a fitting analogy! It fits because you quite obviously have an Arabic world view. Your logic is that the Jews somehow deserved to be run out of Medina and were later murdered in cold blood for loaning the blood money payment to Muhammid in the first place. It is "okay" to rape defenseless women because Islam permits "temporary marriage". Israel is somehow illegally occuppying Arab land when history teaches us that the "Palestinian's" and "Arabs" were late comers that only arrived after their wars of conquest between 850 and 1500? Is that why Osama Bin Laudin, the idiot leader of Hizbulla, and the other collected whack jobs and swine representing "pan Arabism" are also calling for the return of Sicily and Southern Italy, Spain, and quite a bit of Eastern Europe? Because they were once Isdlamic conquests? God preserve us from Arab culture, from the spohmoric claptrap of Islam, and from the delussions of pan-Arabists.
August 21, 2006 1:46 PM | Report Offensive Comments
is pointing you at the British Version of wikipedia, Tony Blairs version....
this is the same Tony Blair that has intelligence agents murdered that want to out George Bush's lying about Iraqi WMD's
notice the en...in frontof the rest of the web address....he's in America
why is he pointing you towards an "english" version?
must be someone on the British Wikipedia staff has intelligence agency connections, wot?
look, this is the address he's using
: http://en.wikipedia.org
and the boston entity purports to live in the United States
a little too specific wouldn't you say?
I say, google these names, not go to england and see what they are saying.
google these names:
j edgar hoover, kennedy, (george h. w. bush in connection with CIA, florida, oil, halliburton, saudi, April Glaspie)
August 21, 2006 1:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
per aps the BBC is correct?
zionism is seperation, islam has it's jihads, israel has it's persecution complex...and seperatist belief systems
without honesty, there will be no change.
is it the wifes fault for the husband beating her? perhaps, does that make it "reasonable behaviour" the beating?
simple analogy, and fitting.
August 21, 2006 1:34 PM | Report Offensive Comments
take away someones pension if they talk about corruption once they leave any of the intelligence agencies......or before.
this is new, never happened before, it speaks of punishment for telling the truth.......dishonesty, criminalization of good citizenship.........
we the United States have used due process and existing laws to protect us from criminals. apparently, things have changed, now we have secret military tribunals like China, and torture
what kind of a world do you live in now, where the most powerful military government in the world looks like some penny ante' dictatorship from a 3rd world country
do the world a favor, talk about it.
Hezzbollah, Israel
small potatoes, this is _your_ future if you want one, if you want to return to feudal times where only royalty has "the good life," just pretend I'm a mad man.........
.
August 21, 2006 1:06 PM | Report Offensive Comments