7/27 I don't know if you guys are aware of this. Traditionally, there
is an ideological war waged within the Islamic Middle East: Shiite
preaching backed by Iran, and Sunni by Saudi Arabia. Traditionally,
Saudi is very wary of Iran's intention and don't support activities
of Hezbollah. But thanks to Israel's dispropotionate response and
US' silence on this matter, we have effectively rallied Sunnis behind
Hezbollah: http://tinyurl.com/ljmkr --hussein@soda
\_ The Sunnis and Shiites have always been able to get together on
the subject of destroying Isreal.
\_ Israel should just evacuate for 5 years, then come back and
move back into the (decimated but) depopulated wasteland that
would remain.
\_ They did that. It allowed Hezbollah to build up stronger
than ever before and made them bold enough to attack over
the boarder, kill a bunch of Israeli soldiers and kidnap
a few others.
\_ Hehe. You misunderstand. I mean evauate Israel. Imagine
the battle over that one.
\_ Yes, I misread. Cute.
\_ They've never "been able to get together", even for this goal.
They've independently pursued the same aim. -John
\_ I love the phrase "disproportionate response". Which is just a
way of saying, "Israel shouldn't defend her people or attack her
enemies. Israel should put up with attacks that no other nation
in the world would even consider putting up with. Israel should
die. I hate Jews."
\_ Your dictionary needs revising. Disproportionate response implies
the existence of a proportionate response, i.e., targeting
Hezbollah missile crews or even the possibility of creating a
a DMZ in southern Lebanon. Bombing Beirut into dust, OTOH, is
overkill. Btw, I wholeheartedly support Israel's right to defend
itself, so drop the accusation of anti-Semitism. It's not
relevant to this conversation.
\_ Ok, the last part was a cheap shot. I take that back. As to
the rest: Beirut is not being carpet bombed. Hezbollah is
mixed in with the general population. How do you propose
they kill Hezbollah thugs without harming the civilians they
hide among? And you want the DMZ back? No one including
Israel wanted the DMZ in the first place. The DMZ was
Hezbollah's (and other's) excuse for six years to attack
Israel. They called it 'occupation' which was an accurate
description. And with missile ranges getting longer and
longer DMZs no longer make sense in such tiny places. Soon
all of Lebananon will have to be a DMZ which is just silly.
Why did the UN broker a fake peace in 2000 which was supposed
to have Israel leave southern Lebanon *AND* disarm Hezbollah
and then do nothing to make sure Hezbollah was disarmed?
Quite the opposite, the UN betrayed Israel and stood by
'observing' while Hezbollah spent the last 6 years becoming
stronger than ever while doing and saying nothing about it
and now Khofi whines when his unarmed and missionless
observers get killed because they allow themselves to be used
as human shields. At least finally today they pulled those
guys out and sent them to hang out with "lightly armed UN
peace keeping forces" elsewhere in the region. So here's the
theoretical: you're King of Israel for the day/week/month/etc,
and you can have the country do anything you'd like for that
time period. What's your plan?
\_ Step one: Stop bombing Beirut.
Step two: Mumble mumble.
Step three: Profit?
The point has been made, the punishment has been inflicted,
the international community is now ready to step in and
act. Let them. Then reevaluate.
\_ Where do you see the international community being
willing to do anything? Link?
willing to do anything? What do you expect
them to do? Link?
\_ I expect them to put UN Peacekeeping Troops on the
ground with explicit orders to shoot Israels or
Hezbollah or anyone who brandishes a weapon or fires
a missile. Sure, I'm optimistic, but I think they
deserve a chance.
\_ Ok, I don't exactly disagree, but I'm pretty
sure Hezbollah could still fire rockets
whenever they wanted under those conditions.
\_ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5225358.stm
\_ Who is going to donate troops?
\_ are you blind or something. Ever since Israel pull out
of Southern Lebanon, Lebanon has made tremedous progress.
It got a centeral government for the first time, each
of ethnic fractions has stopped killing each other. Roads,
hospitals, schools, power plants were being build, economy
were humming at 3-5%. Politically, Lebanon slow gaining
is autonomy and finally kicked out Syrian troops;
Hezbollah is finally being integrated into Lebanon's
political progress. Rocket attacks and border incursion
has dropped to virtually zero. Hezbollah was under
tremedous pressure to either be incorporated into
Lebanonese Army or completely disarmed... now, 15 years
of work, completely went down to the drain. Do you think
Lebanonese is going to disarm Hezbollah now? No. In
fact, I bet many of them is going to either join Hezbollah
or going to fight along with them.
\_ Nice way to completely ignore why Israel is currently
attacking. If their kidnapped soliders were returned
they would stop attacking and leave Lebanon. How about
you blame the victims? Oh wait, you already are.
Hezbollah isn't under any pressure to do anything.
They run the country and there is zero pressure to
disarm them. Your evaluation of the situation is a
complete fabrication.
\_ you really think this bombing of Lebanonese
infrastructure is about these two captured
soldiers?
\_ yes. you really think that israel attacked just
because they wanted to destroy lebanese
infrastructure? no. there had been peace for
6 long years which is a near miracle in that area
until the cross border attack by hezbollah.
\_ So they would show their true stripes, I say.
\_ i don't know. do you blame them for it? at the
time their population was 2+ million, over 18000
civilians were killed by Israelis. Israeli-backed
Christian group were killing every Muslim they can
find. Fastfoward to today, close to 10% of the
population is now being displaced by Israelis. IDF's
tactic is almost constitute as a terror campaign
as fleeting convoys, IFRC relief trucks are bombed
on daily basis. If your family and 4 of your
child brother sister died of IDF bombing as they
were trying to flee, what would you do? say
"ohh well, shit happens?" and blaming Hezebollah
for it?
\_ Again, you ignore history, write your own
version and blame the victim. The IDF invaded
in 1982 because... Jews are mean? They invaded
again in 2006 because... Jews are mean? You
make it sound like there is no reason for
Israeli actions, as if they operate in a
vaccuum. If you'd like to post something that
makes sense, please do, but enough of the
bizarre historical reconstructions. There has
been peace on the border since the Israeli
pull out in 2000 which was supposed to include
a UN mandated disarming of Hezbollah. In 2006
after 6 years of build up and no response from
the UN but to 'observe' the build up, Israel
was attacked over the border, soliders killed
and others kidnapped. Come back when you'd like
to have a reality based discussion.
\_ There is a differences between Hezbollah's
attack of soldiers versus IDF's indiscriminate
attack of Lebanonese civilians and civilian
infrastructures. Israel knows Lebanon can't
control Hezbollah, yet holding entire
4 million Lebanon civilians accountable for
it.
\_ I love how you try to reframe the debate
by choosing inflamatory words but you
avoid facts, context and history. It's
such a cheap rhetorical tactic but I'll
briefly correct you once again even though
I know you're just trolling now. I'm
posting because I think the truth is
important, not because your troll comment
deserves a reply: Hezbollah shouldn't
even exist today. Their very existence is
a violation of the 2000 UN brokered peace
agreement. They attacked a sovereign
state across a peaceful border, killed
some soldiers, kidnapped others who they
won't return and now fire hundreds of
rockets every day into civilian areas in
Israel with the intent of killing and
terrorising civilians. Hezbollah *is* the
Lebanese government and have the support
of the Lebanese people, directly or
indirectly. The cross border attack is an
act of war of one nation against another.
Unfortunately for the civilians in
Lebanon, their government uses them as
shields, storing weapons and firing
weapons from within apartment buildings
and other normally purely civilian areas.
If the Lebanese people can't or won't
change their government to something civil
and can't or won't clean Hezbollah out
then Israel is going to do it for them and
some of them are going to die. Civilians
always get the most hurt in war. What
would you have Israel do to defend itself?
Nothing. You would have Israel cease to
exist or the Israeli population fall under
daily rocket attack with no response.
Stop supporting terrorist states so the
people in those states can have normal
lives. Why are you so opposed to the
Lebanese having a real life without
Hezbollah? I'd like to see everyone in
the region have a long happy prosperous
life. That can't happen when terrorists
are running around armed to the teeth
functioning as proxy armies for Syria and
Iran.
\_ With implicit UN support, no less.
\_ Bombing and killing Muslims is always a good idea...Faster,
please.
\_ Then the Orthodox Jews, then the Fundies, hurray!
\_ Will all religious fanatics worldwide please report
to the martyrdom booths? Paradise is waiting!
\_ and/or rapture |