Meanwhile, Israel is still bombing the shit out of Lebanon

[cali]

They're bombing the southern suburbs of Beirut and they're bombing Southern Lebanon today. How many more dead civilians will it take before the U.S. finally pushes for a ceasefire? The silence from the administration and Congress is deafening. And it won't stop until the U.S. forcefully tells Israel, in no uncertain terms, that it has to stop.

[malaise]

1. Make that the US and Britain

I noticed on BBC that they are now making the Security Council the scapegoat because Bush and Blair refuse to budge. Word is that France insists on an immediate cease fire before agreeing to provide troops.

[Lerkfish]

2. The PNAC has no desire to stop, the entire plan is working well

in their minds.
By completely destroying the country of lebanon, they hope to draw in Syria and Iran, justifying their attack on Iran.
The attack on Iran has been planned for over a year now, and its why they are warehousing the troops in baghdad, behind protective walls, gearing up for the invasion.

Once Syria and Iran are drawn in, mission accomplished.

What's taking so long is both Syria and Iran realize this, and are holding out as long as possible.


This has been your lesson in sneaky underhanded politics 101. Please use a number two pencil.

[ShortnFiery]

5. It won't work ... the patience for the Iraqi Quagmire is running out

AND there's NO desire on the American Populace's part for ANY CONFLICT with IRAN. Those bastards better have plenty of Mercs, otherwise all they will be able to do is Aerial Bombing of Iran.

They're certifiably insane if they believe that ANY manipulations - even another (Heaven Forbid) Terror Attack here - would motivate Americans to sacrifice their children to the Middle East.

It's close to the end game ... their war profiteering and LIES have played out to granting the Neo-Cons ZERO Credibility with both The World Community AND The American Populace.

[Lerkfish]

6. foolhardiness of their plans has yet to stop them

unfortunately.

[ShortnFiery]

7. The People will stop THEM. Of that I'm sure. :-)

[leftchick]

11. they have given the go ahead to Israel for a Syria attack...

rational thought oand logical consequences have not stopped them yet.....

<snip>

The IDF was also concerned about a possible Syrian attack in response to the ongoing IDF operations in Lebanon. It was also known that Syria had increased its alert out of fear in Damascus that Israel might attack.

Defense officials told the Post last week that they were receiving indications from the US that America would be interested in seeing Israel attack Syria.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=115329203296...

[ShortnFiery]

27. Then the Neo-Cons are going to be Rudely awakened at the

lack of recruits to fill in the ranks.

Americans will NOT go over to the Middle East for a NEW war.

The Will of The People will stop The War Machine, AGAIN.

It was not ever our blessed representatives, democratic or republican that stopped these contrived wars of aggression ... it stops only when the people stop sending their Children to fight and die. It will NOT work because The People will NOT fight for a lie that they NOW fully realize.

[bluedog]

8. 3 weeks* still hasn't called Israels' PM

hows that for leadership? and this just shows that * supports the murders of children in Lebanon......sick SOB.....

[cali]

10. That's to be expected, but

Congress? So far out of all 500+ members, only four have called for a ceasefire; Hagel, Kucinich, Leahy and Murtha.

[Virginia Dare]

12. Oh, he'll get around to it...

maybe after his 9 day vacation.

[earth mom]

33. But first he must eat cake and strum a guitar and oh yeah, cut brush.

[leftchick]

3. Southern Beruit

bomb the shit out of is right....



Destruction caused by Israeli air strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israel has launched fresh air strikes on Beirut after a lull of several days in its onslaught which Lebanese officials say has killed more than 900 nationals and wounded over 3,000 others in three weeks.(AFP/Patrick Baz)

[Eurobabe]

4. Too busy, either going on vacay or getting ready for it

WTF?? This is unbelievable.

[Violet_Crumble]

9. It's been such a resoundingly successful tactic...

The only thing Israel's been successful with is causing the deaths of so many Lebanese civilians. When it comes to military aims, I noticed this morning that they've downgraded from 'destroying Hezbollah' to 'disarming Hezbollah'. And fast on the claim from the Israeli govt that they'd gotten the best of Hezbollah, over 200 rockets were fired into Israel. If there weren't Israeli and Lebanese civilians bearing the brunt of this, it'd almost be laughable. Israel tried to destroy Hezbollah around ten years ago and you'd think they'd have learnt after that time that bombing the shit out of things just doesn't achieve anything but the needless deaths of innocent civilians and quite understandable international anger....

[cali]

13. Hasn't it been,

Nearly a thousand dead, and the mideast in more of a crisis than it's been in years. Olmert's doing a bang up job.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Olmert's a huge disappointment...

I had been hoping when he was elected that he'd be okay, but now I'm thinking it's a case of a lack-lustre political personality trying to fill the huge shoes left by Sharon (as much as I detested Sharon, he did have great charisma) by doing what he figures will get him auto-hero status. He's gotten to trot out a few almost Churchillian speeches, but doesn't seem to be aware (or if he is, he isn't admitting it) that Israel's actions are causing the opposite of what he wants. Hezbollah now enjoys hero-like status across the Arab states, Nasrallah is a household name, and central Israel has now been shown not to be beyond the reach of rockets. And that latter fact feeds into the existential fears of the Israeli population and just makes them more insecure and scared than they already were. He's got a lot to answer for, as have Hezbollah and the US...

[stray cat]

14. Isn't a cease fire available if the soldiers are returned

and firing missles at civilians in Israel is stopped? It looks to me like the only people who want a ceasefire are the lebanese civilians while Hezbollah and Israel are intent on finishing their job. Israel wants to wipe out the threat from Hezbollah and Hezbollah wants to destroy Israel - meanwhile its the civilians who suffer.

[cali]

17. It's simple.

There are too many civilians dying, and it has to stop. Lebanon is being destroyed, and that takes precedence over anything else.

[BillZBubb]

21. No, a cease fire isn't available because Israel said NO!

The conditions you suggest were brought up and rejected totally by Olmert and Israel. Either you know that, have forgotten it, or don't have the facts. Hezbollah had earlier agreed to a cease fire along those lines. They offered to negotiate.

When asked about those very conditions for a ceasefire, Olmert said Israel will not stop until "Hezbollah has been eliminated".

[mom cat]

32. Actually, Hezbolla does not want this to continue and agreed to the EU

Peace Plan last Saturday. Israel and the US have said NO!

[Jacobin]

15. Why do you hate Israel, err, Murka?

[cali]

18. Actually, it's kind of funny

I've been called an apologist for Israel on several occasions.

[BillZBubb]

22. By me at least once! I confess.

I'm starting to reconsider. Either you've seen the light or I caught you in one unenlightened moment.

[cali]

23. Actually,

I've been consistent in my opinions for a long time. I've posted in I/P for quite a while. You might consider, at least for a moment, that you're the one who may have some unenlightened ideas.

[BillZBubb]

24. No, my ideas are always enlightened.

That is not a problem.

[GreenArrow]

19. "nits make lice"

[cali]

20. Frankly,

I see statements such as yours, as adding nothing to the debate but fuel for flame wars.

[GreenArrow]

30. ah yes, "flame wars"....

because "the debate" is so productive of...of...of...what, exactly?

Nits make lice. The players are different, the play is the same.

http://community.livejournal.com/unitarian_jihad/98322....

<Haditha, Atrocity and a Poem

The other day one of the apparently dozens of readers of this blog asked me why I had not written about the war for a while. More particularly he was concerned that I had not said anything about the atrocity apparently committed by Marines in Haditha. Of course, in confronting the reality of the current regime (in America, I mean) there are so many daily outrages that it is hard to maintain that laser like focus on Iraq. It is easy to be distracted.

But you cannot keep your head turned forever. The screaming and anguish will eventually penetrate any other preoccupation and demand attention.

So it is with Haditha. An atrocity. Again.

War itself, even when it can be justified on some level of self defense or noble sacrifice to higher ideals, is always an ongoing atrocity. The purpose of war is to kill, maim and destroy, to sap the will of the enemy to resist in any way. Even if conducted by the set-piece rules and traditions that respect civilian and non-combatants it is a brutal business. Modern warfare hardly pretends there is a distinction.

Some historians trace the modern trend to the British when they loosed the Royal Navy to bombard Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars simply because they had the power to do so and the Danes would not side with them. But of course in North America the Red Coats had used Indian allies and axillaries to depopulate French colonies and later the American frontier. But that was far away and the nobles of the court and the Commons need hardly to acknowledge the bloody business. <snip>

"Somewhere in Africa a small boy lies,

his mother’s reedy arm stretches over him

the perfect picture of sweet repose

until a closer look reveals his spilling brains

and is mother’s head, half severed,

stares backward at her crumpled feet.

The horror of that dead child shakes us,

taps well springs of pity

and of blank incomprehension

at alien ferocity.



Yet…



“Nits make lice,” the old hero said

when some irksome scribe inquired

about the latest massacre on the plains—

about the private parts of mere squaws

cut out and stretched over trooper’s pommels,

about limp and tattered ragbag babes

tossed from saber tip to saber tip

in a macabre game of polo.



Nits make lice.



And in the relentless logic of war,

it is utter and irrefutable truth

that today’s laughing toddler may,

in fifteen years or so, draw a bead

upon your own beloved child.



Nits make lice.



Better, after all, much better

to kill him now to save lives later,

to cast off foolish sentiment,

that useless relic of Victorian ladies

swooning with the vapors

over the lost innocence of youth.



Nits make lice.



And so our resolve firms

and our method, honed by enlightened science

far out-strips the stumbling, drunken troopers’

wild careen against a sleeping village

until whole cities of breeding, pestilential vermin

may efficiently be incinerated.



Nits make lice.



Yet…



Something in us stirs still at that

dead Hutu child, yearning to save his life,

or failing that, to end the carnage

before the play of others is macheteed away.



Nits make lice.



Impossible, impossible to save that child alone—

the mother, too, aunts and grandmas,

brothers, cousins, fathers—

even the wild-eyed ones who first

wet their knives on Tutsi babes

and opened Pandora’ Box of sweet revenge—

all, all must be as valued as the boy,

to save one all must be saved.



Nits make lice.



To save the nit,

we must even love the louse."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. It's for their own good. Birth pangs. Collateral damage. Regrettable.

Such things happen.
Sad.
We do everything possible to prevent civilian casualties.
It will be investigated.
Tragic accidents happen.
Tsk, tsk.
You must look at the bigger picture.
What else could we do?
We have a right to defend ouselves.
War is hell.
They should have left after being warned.
We had to destroy the village in order to save it.
We received fire from the village.
They brought it upon themselves.
They did it first.

The murderers always have justifications for their murders.

[theHandpuppet]

26. Was listening to An Aussie news correspondent...

... who said the whole of South Beirut now looks like something you'd see in a grainy, B&W photo from WWII. People are so afraid to go near bombed out areas of Tyre they won't even try to retrieve the bodies of their dead, so the stench of rotting corpses is everywhere. Who knows the true death count in this bloody dance of madness?

The Israeli govt are fools if they think the slaughter if Lebanon will make them safer. They have only fanned the fires of hatred and created new generations of terrorists around the Arab world.

[ShortnFiery]

28. And our Dear Leader is heading off to Crawford later today for

his Summer V A C A TION!

Could this Neo-Con ghoul Executive Branch behave any more ANTI-DIPLOMATIC? No! Don't answer that.

[Beelzebud]

29. The Neo-Conservatives don't want that.

Weather they be Republican Neo-Cons, or Democratic Neo-Cons.

[bigtree]

31. how many more is the question

how many more Lebanese lives? this notion of overwhelming force conquering all has been demonstrated false more than once in history. Besides, the Israelis aren't hitting their stated target with their airstrikes as much as they are slaughtering innocents. There has to be some accounting of their assaults.