Lebanon's summer surprise
I've done my Lebanon post of the day here at the Detroit News. I don't really want to talk about it any more. I want them to stop this crazy shit before it drives me crazy. It's so senseless and today's justification memes are so irritating. I'll only add to my thoughts at DetNews on blaming the civilians that I'm as surprised as Hezbollah is that Israel would react with extreme aggressiveness to an ordinary skirmish in a long standing conflict over disputed terroritory.
Eugene Robinson, just back from vacation, sums it up well. I'm giving him quote of the day on the situation.
Eugene Robinson, just back from vacation, sums it up well. I'm giving him quote of the day on the situation.
Bush's endorsement of the violence that Israel is inflicting on Lebanon -- a sustained bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of civilians and can only be seen as collective punishment -- is truly astonishing. Of course Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah's rocket attacks. But how can this utterly disproportionate, seemingly indiscriminate carnage be anything but counterproductive?I can't think of a way but if anyone else can, please leave it in comments.
posted by Libby Spencer at 8:37 PM
4 Comments:
Hezbollah and Hamas have been provoking Israel regularly, but the provocation became especially serious when (1) Hezbollah crossed the border into Israel to abduct two IDF soldiers, and (2) they began lobbing longer-range rockets into civilian population centers such as Haifa.
You may call Israel's response "disproportionate," and perhaps it is. But Israel is not playing "hitsies and nougies" with Hezbollah. The way to stop Hezbollah is to crush them to the point where they can no longer attack Israel.
Israel - unlike Hamas and Hezbollah, who deliberately target civilians - tries to minimize civilian casualties. Sadly, when your enemy uses a strategy of placing rocket launchers and other militarily important targets in the midst of civilians, some loss of civilian life is unavoidable. Storing weapons in - and positioning fighters in - schools and mosques makes those locations targets.
Hezbollah started this fight, and I hope Israel continues it as long as necessary to eliminate the threat to their existence. As for the non-Hezbollah citizens of Lebanon, why do they not cast this nest of vipers out from amongst them?
you can't crush hezbollah. hezbollah survives on arabs hatred of the state of israel. even if there is not one hezbollah left they will exist in spirit in that sense.
and they've been playing hitsies and nougies for years. if Sharon or one of the other military guys had been in charge this never would have nblown up the way it did. both sides would have made their point, they would have echanged prisoners nad things would have gone along.
israel killed 16 in gaza today. were they terrorists? no it was just random people, a disabled guy and a bunch of kids.
Israel hass killed way more civilians than hezbollah. they're dead. who targeted what is immaterial. israel needs to go back to their borders or call it day. islam is growing not shrinking.
also- is that the samne eugene robinson who wrote "out of america" ? that was one EDGY book
Well, this is why I hate to talk about Israel. I'm afraid my opinions on this long running conflict are fated to offend my Jewish friends. I value El's opinion and answered this privately but I'll just say here that I wish I could believe this bombing would actually crush Hezbollah. I don't want organizations who trade in hate to survive, but I just don't think it's possible to "crush" these non-state players by destroying the states they reside in and neither do I think it's possible for the civilian populations to somehow "cast them out." I think like most of us, the majority of ordinary people in the world mind their own business and try to live their own lives the best they can and hope whoever they hold as a higher power will sort out the rest.
For myself, I abhor war in all its forms and just want the destruction in all the war zones to stop. More bombs equal more deaths, so I urge us as a civil society to stop the bombs and work towards saving lives by negotiating for peace.
libby- the fact is MOST people know all they know about the middle east from people like tom friedman or bill kristol. that's only one side of the story. look at the iraq war. that's what happens when your go-to guys are people with a horse in the race
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