Terror Against Terror
They’re doing it again! This time it’s the people who run Israel: somebody does something bad to them, so they start whacking on a third party. In this case, Hezbollah, a group of people within Lebanon, kidnaps two Israeli soldiers, and the next thing you know, Israel is destroying airports, bridges, UN observers, and forcing tens of thousands to flee (being strafed along the way). They’re going after Hezbollah, but they’re going after the Lebanese, too, in places where there are no Hezbollah, presumably to terrorize the Lebanese into kicking the Hezbollah out.
The only problem is, the Israelis are doing exactly what the US did in Iraq (who learned from whom, I wonder), and the outcome is clearly going to be the same: a whole lot of innocent people killed, and their survivors are so incensed they’ll become your enemies. Bombing roads and airports, trashing entire cities, targeting powerplants and even UN observers who have been there for years.
All the while the Cheney administration refuses to even ASK them to stop. The US was able to get other countries to start talking about sending relief to those being bombed (who will soon be starving, if they survive), but Cheney won’t allow anyone to talk about stopping the attacks that are causing the suffering. How much sense does that make? Now Australia has withdrawn their UN observers, and said a proposed UN security force to replace the Israelis would be a "suicide mission."
And to top it off, even the Democrats quickly jump on the bandwagon, saying, in effect, that Israel can do anything it wants to whomever it wants. They say that if Canada attacked the US, we’d be justified in fighting back. Right. Somebody in BC sends a missile at Walla Walla, and it’s OK to make a parking lot out of Toronto?
Somehow, people are missing the obvious: going after innocent people, tens of thousands of them, to get at a small group attacking you is not only wrong, it’s counterproductive. What’s really going on here is that these people in the Muslim world, driven up against the wall over the past several decades, have come up with an effective strategy to go after those they see as their oppressors. Their method of warfare is terrorism, and, short of killing every muslim person in the world, you’re never going to stop them. Declaring “war on terrorism� makes as much sense as declaring war on poverty and killing the poor. Just as embedding the press in the infantry they’re supposed to be covering makes them part of the story, the Hezbollah folks know that embedding themselves in Lebanese society makes them part of that society. Thus the Israelis argue that, to kill the Hezbollah, you have to destroy the host society.
They’ve had 50 years to learn it hasn’t worked with the Palestinians, still living and dying in “refugee camps� (for 50 years??), and they still don’t get that it won’t work in Lebanon. All that will happen is a lot of innocent people will die, be driven from their homes, their lives blasted, and they’ll end up becoming terrorists. And their children will kill Israelis, and so on ad infinitem.
And we can’t even ASK for a cease fire.
Come on, people, let’s THINK for a change. If one behavior doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to try something different.
Comments
poor lebanon they house invaders (kidnapped two soldiers)from where, israel?
killed 8 soldiers on israel land and then return to their country and say you cant get us. Well maybe lebanon will take control of their border,they plea for ceasefire and get one then claim victory? very odd.
Posted by: karl | August 16, 2006 02:03 PM
I think that this inability to learn from past experience (i.e.,killing people is not a good way to make friends) is a counterargument for evolution. The unintelligible previous comment only serves to re-inforce my opinion.
Posted by: Mary | August 17, 2006 08:46 PM