Israel playing by 'Hama Rules' according to Tom Friedman...

[EVDebs]

"President Assad identified the rebellion as emanating from Syria's fourth-largest city — Hama — and he literally leveled it, pounding the fundamentalist neighborhoods with artillery for days. Once the guns fell silent, he plowed up the rubble and bulldozed it flat, into vast parking lots. Amnesty International estimated that 10,000 to 25,000 Syrians, mostly civilians, were killed in the merciless crackdown. Syria has not had a Muslim extremist problem since."

If Syria doesn't take out Hezbollah, Syria --like Lebanon-- will become a Hezbollah client-state with a target on its back. Bashir is smarter than that; his father certainly was.

[wtmusic]

1. Interesting how when you "play by their rules"

the rules always get just a little looser.

[EVDebs]

4. That's because of the MSM's attention. In any event, Bashir

knows his days are numbered if he becomes Hezbollah's "protector". Like the Taliban, with client states, removal of the military threat reverts to the more powerful state sponsor.

Bashir must be looking over his shoulder, knowing that either his close friend Nasrallah could have him 'offed' or the presence of Hezbollah will eventually have him 'offed' by Israel.

If only he'd chosen his friends more wisely.

[Kagemusha]

2. I'm sorry, that is sick.

If Israel really wants to play by Hama rules, let it. But asking Syria to level Hezbollah...? I think Syria would rather make Israel flatten it instead, if it dares (remember, Syria has actual verified WMD, and a hell of a lot more pointy long things to shoot than Hezbollah). And Syria's going to have a target on its back as long as it exists, and especially as long as the Assad family is in charge, a religious minority (read: heretics) much hated by "true believers" of both Sunni and Shiite persuasion throughout the Middle East.

[Wetzelbill]

3. I read that chapter

you make an interesting point.

Bashar Assad, like his father, Hafez, is a Baathist. Which essentially means he is an anti-cleric Socialist. I wrote a paper on Assad a few years ago, regarding the U.S. Congress passing the Syrian Accountability Act. You better believe he doesn't want Hezbollah to get too big in his country, it's just not in his personal interest. It's fine if they are pestering Israel or even the U.S., but if they start focusing turmoil on his own secular dictatorship, well, if he doesn't act then he could be in some serious trouble.

[EVDebs]

5. Pre-planned apparently too. This DU post shows '06 regional war predicted

by Israel

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1783539&mesg_id=1783643

It looks like Nasrallah is now President of Syria; and if Bashir can't trust his army, like daddy could, then he's bought himself some serious problems requiring political survival skills he doesn't seem to possess.

[acmejack]

6. You mean heir to the Billion dollar fortune, Tom Friedman?

That Tom Friedman? It is important to mention that with all of this person's editorials.

edit to add link: http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2006/07/30/billionaire-scion-tom-friedman/

[EVDebs]

7. One and the same

Incredibly, his books praised Enron (The Lexus and The Olive Tree) and even pushed for outsourcing jobs to the Middle East. Mike Taibbi wrote some wonderful critiques of Friedman's globalization jags.

However, Freidman's earliest work was on reporting the Lebanese civil war (From Beirut To Jerusalem) and this gave him his current soapbox. Hama rules was a chapter from that book.

[rinsd]

8. Does Sirota write anything useful or just ad hominems?

Friendman is what he is, a staunch capitalist. Anyone reading him recognizes that immediately.

Why his personal wealth is a must disclosure is beyond me other than if he is directly benefitting from his opinions.

[KoKo]

9. Sirota is a fellow with Center for American Progress....and a person

who is vocal in the budding "Populist" movement in America. We should indeed know more about the background and affiliations of the persons who have such widespread acceptance in the Media and constantly appear on the Pundit shows unopposed by contrarian viewpoints. Not knowing is dangerous.

[rinsd]

10. Sorry, I have no love for Sirota.

One of the worst aspects of political writing is authors who are nothing but attack and smear or unwavering praise....depending on the subject of course.

Sirota is one of these writers and he's not even very good at it.