Fools rush in to another quagmire

[spindrifter]

Lebanon Daily Star
Saturday, August 05, 2006


Editorial


Already the siege of Lebanon, which has been billed as another battle in the "war on terrorism," seems reminiscent of the war on Iraq, where a foreign army marched in with no concrete plan to restore peace and stability. Instead of having a basis in careful planning, the war on Lebanon seems to be built upon the grandiose schemes outlined in 1996 by a group of US foreign policy hawks in a paper titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm." That strategy paper advocated the abandonment of the Arab-Israeli peace process and overthrowing regional regimes, including that of Saddam Hussein. Following this line of thinking, the current war-mongering US administration has made a clean break from the honorable American tradition of promoting peace and has openly embraced the path of destruction.

Yet this path, which has led to a horrendous situation in Iraq, in no way serves American or Israeli interests, nor can it achieve peace and stability. After 23 days of war, the Israeli Army has not gained much ground or reduced the capabilities of Hizbullah to launch attacks on the Jewish state. And even if Israel manages to hurt Hizbullah, there is no forseeable way of defeating them. Much like the anti-occupation insurgents in Iraq, all that Hizbullah needs to do is survive - potentially for decades - and keep inflicting pain on their Israeli occupiers until they are forced to leave in humiliation.

Israel's attacks on Lebanon satisfy nothing other than an insatiable appetite for destruction - that of neoconservatives and militants alike. Each day of the war propels moderates to the extreme and pushes possible solutions further and further out of reach. And far from crushing any enemies, the war is quickly turning the entire Middle East into a cauldron of anti-American and anti-Israeli militancy.

Every rational person's objective ought to be securing a lasting peace - a goal that cannot be achieved through warfare. Peace must be pursued on the basis of international law and the implementation of all UN resolutions, not on the basis of wanton destruction. The Israelis cannot afford another humiliating defeat in Lebanon, and they ought to be looking for a quick way out of the quagmire they have entered. Their best exit strategy, given that a total victory is unachievable, is to pursue the path of international law. Only then will the logic of peace and stability triumph over that of war and terror.


http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=74502&categ_id=17

[AlamoDemoc]

1. Here's what bothers me when I read major news media...this quote

"....Yet this path, which has led to a horrendous situation in Iraq, in no way serves American or Israeli interests, nor can it achieve peace and stability."

This quote is rather cancer. Many journalists use this type of language when they want to report Palestine, or now in Lebanon...they want to report the atrocities taken place, yet they want to appear neutral. Man! Retorting in ww2 or Indochina never appeared as such. When bombs fall, you report what is taken place on the ground goddammit.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. But this is an editorial in a Lebanese newspaper

They are just pointing out that Israeli and American tactics are even serving their own countries. The Daiy Star is fully reporting what is happening in Lebanon.

[SeaBob]

2. Fools

This editorial demonstrates that greed and stupidity and fascism are not limited to the American Republican Party or the Current administration in power.

[scarletwoman]

3. "Every rational person's objective ought to be securing a lasting peace"

Unfortunately, we do not have rational persons as leaders, nor are rational persons in the majority in either of the heavily propagandized populations of the U.S. and Israel.

It must also be said, that there appear to be few rational persons among the leaders and populace in the Muslim world -- but for them, at least, this is in part a product of having been driven mad by their history of colonial exploitation. It's also, in its way, a rather natural response to finding yourself unable to control your own fate while rampaging militarists are vowing to "re-make" your world.

sw