14 August 2006 - 3:09pm
Israel defeated Hezbollah (psst! Don't tell Hezbollah!) [updated]
Bush has his opinions. He's a realisticker, after all. Of course, Bush also says that we're winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis in that war. It seems that our president believes that his presidential powers give him the ability to alter reality.
I've largely stayed away from this whole story. Religious conflicts over 1000 years old and ethnic hatreds that go back 1000s of years before that aren't going to be solved by American peacock feathers, Shiite terror raids or Israeli brutality. And a lot of this smacks of fragile male ego, with each side striving to out-hate each other in a ridiculous pissing contest using bombs and rockets.
For now, they've been shamed into a ceasefire, with tenuous rationales to justify it. But the hate persists.
"Hezbollah attacked Israel, Hezbollah started the crisis, and Hezbollah suffered a defeat in this crisis," the president said. "The reason why is, this is because there's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon, and that's going to be a Lebanese force with a robust international force to help them seize control of the country."
Of course, this will only happen if Hezbollah lets it happen, and they will do that only if they believe it's in their interest to do so, and there's no counting on their rationality on that score. There's a lot of hate in that region, and a UN peacekeeping force won't erase that.
"It will take time for people to see the truth, that Hezbollah hides behind innocent civilians," Bush said.
The problem is that, when it comes to Lebanese civilians, Israel is the one pulling the trigger. You don't swat a wasp with a sledgehammer, and you don't fight a guerrilla war with 1,000-pound bombs. And two wrongs don't make a right, even when you do it 1000 times over.
Update: Apparently the dittosphere is at odds with their leader. Witness the defeatist proclamations collected by Unclaimed Territory.
Also recommended: Amanda's insights regarding the genocidal mania in the Christian right regarding the Middle East, and The Heretik's take on Bush's self-congratulation.
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Comments
Evidently G Bush thinks slapping people across the face is a great way to win their hearts and minds. We have lost their hearts and minds. Notice more terrorist plots? I do
If they refuse to admit the truth, then the truth cannot become real, right?
When these guys proclaim victory, they know what they're talking about. Don't you doubt it for one second mediagirl. Just look at their track record.
the people in Israel that support the war have the same type of mindset as those in America who constantly preach "killing them all because they want to kill us all"... The mind-numbing justifications they give involving a thousand years of murder on both sides don't seem to sink in. You have been killing each other for thousands of years. The only peace begins with dialogue and diplomacy. Empathy and understanding. Turn around the loving their children quote to: When you can love Their children as your own, they will love your children as their own. Peace is the only way to get peace. And some will kill anybody to prevent it from happening.
Hate and kill. Never mind that that just makes it all worse, raising the hate and desire to kill on the other side.
My objection is more to the kind of response Israel made. They bombed neighborhoods and killed hundreds of civilians. They justified it by saying, "We have a right to defend ourselves." This is true, but bombing civilians is not an act of self defense.
It's not that Hezbollah was in the right. Far from it. But that Israel's response was inappropriate almost to the point of irrelevance.
Does God make any more women like you ? I hope so. I love the thingy on Ryan Dobson. I see you know the scriptures but you are a feminist. Oh thank God Christianity is still alive. And liberal Christians have girl (this matters) with a whip for a tongue. There is a just God.