Aside from the obvious that there is no solution to the Wild Mideast and never will be, Israel continues to botch its national defense by always appearing as the aggressor by its continual destructive overreaction without any real results. Its three or four year span of parading its overwhelming military superiority, thanks to supplies from the US, in reaction to PLO suicide bombers was to no avail until they constructed a wall, along with the help of Arafat’s convenient death. Though Israel gave back Gaza its presence was always felt as if its generosity was but a loan that could be called in at anytime for whatever excuse. A single captured soldier should not be the catalyst for war, nor should as in Lebanon a single border skirmish be cause for the destruction of a nation’s infrastructure and innocent lives with the pretense that armament shipment from Syria and Iran must be stopped even though thousands of rockets are already in Hezbollah’s possession — an arrogant preemptive strike much like our own against Iraq — only to open another can of worms. It’s as though we should have destroyed Logan’s airport for allowing 9/11 terrorists to board.
The few brave senators in 2002 who voted against the war warned us that a more serious threat lay with Hamas and Hezbollah and our resources should be in that direction if the “war on terror” was to make any sense. The US and its allies patted themselves on the back for ousting Syria from Lebanon but failed to do anything about disarming the terrorist wing before elections. The West applauded the “free” elections in Palestine and then cut off aid to Hamas without first negotiating the plausibility of disarmament.
Bush now encourages Israel to “stay the course” by refusing to call for a cease fire as if more weeks of bloodshed would wipe out Hezbollah — chop-logic echoes of Iraq. Now all of Lebanon hates us. This is the price we pay for being the sole ally and benefactor of Israel and yet we have no say as to how it should conduct its affairs.
Copyright © 2006 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: July, 27, 2006.
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