7.30.2006
I really do. Every night the heart and soul is getting ripped out of the middle east. Last night raises the horrors of past atrocities in Lebanon. We are seeing dangerous willingness to use massive, devastating force against civilians. Innocent women children and men. I refuse to accept that their proximity geographically to Hezbollah makes them in some way complicit. That was the same argument that the black and tans used to terrorise this countryside.
I, like others, want to link to the pictures of children being carried out of their homes, their beds. The last image of a life that has been snuffed out. I cant do it. Their deaths stand as testimony to the worst excesses of war. The complete destruction of the human spirit which occurs in both the victims and the soldiers. Human nature is completely deformed by violence.
Its madness, its criminal and it has to stop.
That we need more violence to ensure a "lasting peace" is both an abuse of logic, morality and language. You need peace to have lasting peace.
I was kindly quoted earlier for a point I want to reiterate over and over;
I think the following from the Beirut Daily Star should be borne in mind by everyone who is watching in horror the unfolding attacks on the civilians in Lebanon.
Lebanese civilians, who have absolutely no control over the events that are unfolding, and who once again find themselves in the eye of the storm, are now bracing for the very worst. Their darkest fear is that as they helplessly repeat the act of watching history unfold on their land, this time the promise of Lebanon’s resurrection will itself become history.
The soldiers have been taken by Hamas and Hizbollah. Now it is the citizens of both countries that are paying the price. Collective punishment is illegal under Geneva Conventions. In refusing to accept the premise that by simply being lebanese or palestinian one is a terrorist, we must accept that the path to peace lies nowhere near the escalation of violence.
Categories: Lebanon, Israel, Hezbollah, Qana
So where in your post does it say how all this happens?
There is a crucial difference between the approaches - there's the Europeans who say "Ceasefire now, solution later" but the Israelis say that's what happened in 2000 under UNSCR 1559, they pulled out of S Leb, the UN signed off that they had, and it just brought Hezbollah missiles right down to the border.
Then there's the Israeli "solution first, ceasefire then" but the Lebanese would have to actually force Hezbollah out of south Leb and enforce the peace themselves - and the Leb Army won't do it because Hezbollah won't go quietly.
Meanwhile the US, Canadians and Europeans think a UN peace-enforcement mission would be a great idea as long as none of them have to send troops there - the US remembers the airlift out of Beirut in 82, the Canadians are fully committed in Afghanistan and politically are trapped between the sizable Leb and Jewish communities, and the Europeans don't want to touch it.
So what's your plan to make this work?
I ask this sincerely, because I think it's easy to condemn - we saw that in NI for long enough - but what was lacking was the courage to make political sacrifices. It took 70 years in NI and if that holds we'll be waiting to 2047 and the killing won't stop. The Israelis seem to think that in pulling out of Gaza and S Leb that it has made their situation worse by emboldening the opposition to them.
I also ask you to cite a case where the old IRA used non-IRA people and their houses as cover for operations. The Tans burned for punishment but Hezbollah's siting of missiles and mortars in civilian areas is itself a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
There is also the fact that the State of Lebanon refuses to assert control over this militant group - unlike Palestine they are an internationally recognised country and are free to request assistance for other Arab/Muslim states to help them stabilise the country now the Syrian occupation has ended. Instead the Leb PM has endorsed the leader of Hezbollah, having two members of Hezb in the cabinet!
Is Israel to simply permit those missiles, filled with antipersonnel warheads of ballbearings in the style of claymore mines to be launched with impunity? What becomes of their UN Charter Article 51 rights then?
Are the people of Lebanon to remain trapped as proxies - first of the Christian and Syrian militias, then of Syria post-civil war and now of Iran-Hezbollah?
I also ask you to cite a case where the old IRA used non-IRA people and their houses as cover for operations.
Mortar bomb attacks? The fact that the IRA (of course) live in among their own community? Or if that doesn't float your boat, how about the British army setting up OP's in the middle of Crossmaglen or on top of the Divis Flats?
None of the excuses advanced so far get Israel off the hook for (allegedly) being a fully-democratic tate, and hence subject to the laws of war. Hezbollah on the other hand, are a gurilla group who frequently resort to terrorism. There is a difference, onerous though it apparently is to the IDF not to be able to kill non-Israelis at whim without fear of consequences.
"guerilla"
Making it happen is a function of mix and match. chicken or egg logic (fight for peace or peace now) will not help
the fact is that both sides must be sat down and the madness stop. As Paige so correctly noted- a peace deal involves the west talking to terrorists no matter what. It wil also require input from iran and syria. That truth cannot be bombed away.
I love the way that these situations have a tendancy to get more and more complex by the minute!
But the problems and solution are generally very simple. The only reason why there is no resolution is down to the fact that there is no political will on behalf of the US to resolve this!
I believe it to be the US foreign policy to keep this region in a state of fear and terror.
The more turmoil the better for the US interests.
Oil interest continue to get wealthier from instability in Oil prices.
Weapons manufactures ramp up production to feed the killing machine!
Appease the powerful Jewish community/loby by giving Isreal unconditional support.
Finally, the old adage of divide and conquer is extremely apt. This encourages the religious facts to hack at each other. Thus never progressing or developing as a modern developed society.
It is about time that we in Europe stood up and told the US that we don't agree. We should cut the apron strings that attach us to the US and flex our political/economic/social muscle! This is on our back door and hundreds of innocent civilians are dying on a daily basis in Lebannon and Iraq due to our indifference!
Irish neutrality is a joke, our politicans are a joke. There is ways of voicing an opinion without going head to head with the US or UK.
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