July 21, 2006
Enough
Pajamas Media blogger Eugene writes amid the air raid sirens in Haifa:
A few minutes ago the sirens started again in the distance; they were so faint that we were only made aware of them by watching Haifa on TV. Like Pavlov's dogs we react to the stimuli dutifully, almost mindlessly. It's a second nature now. But this time it was different.On the way down we heard a large boom, my neighbor phoned his daughter across town as soon as the radio announced that Haifa was hit. Up until now he seemed to me the calmest person down there, but his expression changed. "It hit near you? The windows exploded?" His arm unknowingly touches the wall to support himself, "don't cry, don't cry.. Are you ok?". He hangs up and with resolve says that he's going down there, no tears but he's already changed. With shaking fingers he calls somebody else about the car...
There is something in the American psyche that resulted from never having been on the receiving end of enemy fire. Our veterans of course knew that feeling. It haunts some, and filled others with a resolve to live each day to the fullest, as they knew how fleeting and precious each and every individual minute on this earth is. On September 11, 2001, we were jolted out of the false calm we had created for ourselves in this world.
For many, if not most, that feeling of immediacy slipped away when more attacks ceased to occur, and we mentally retreated to that safe place, that false illusion, that we held before.
"It" is something that happens "over there."
A 17-year-old Israeli listening to air raid sirens and not-so-distant explosions, the war is immediate for Eugene. "Over there" is across town, as people try to kill him for simply being born who and where he is.
We have no concept of that here, not really. Try as I might, I can't relate to rockets raining in from above, death hanging in the air on a contrail, wondering if those I care about—laugh with, love—are dead or dying.
And so we expect that despite all the signs of escalation—the reservists being called up, the troops massing at the border, the intensifying bombardment—that somehow, there will be someone who finds a reason to stop, to halt the madness, to call it all off before it is Too Late.
But it is too late. It has been for quite a while.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran and their puppet Syria, have passed some sort of a breaking point not easily defined where Israelis seem to have said enough.
As so the bombardment of Lebanon continues, and the troops mass, waiting for that moment when they surge over the border. They go rifle in hand, knowing that any moment could be their last, hoping their sacrifice will buy lives back home from an enemy that wishes to drive them into the sea.
They should show no quarter, take no prisoners, but be filled with a terrible resolve that there will be no "next time."
As Onkar Gate stated Wednesday from the Ayn Rand Institute (h/t Cox & Forkum):
To achieve peace in the Middle East, as in any region, there is a necessary principle that every party must learn: the initiation of force is evil. And the indispensable means of teaching it is to ensure that the initiating side is defeated and punished. Decisive retaliatory force must be wielded against the aggressor.[snip]
If we truly seek peace, we must reverse this perverse lesson. We must proclaim the objective conditions of peace. This means declaring to Arab nations that Israel, as a free country, has a moral right to exist, that the Arabs and Palestinians are the initiators of the conflict and that aggression on their part is evil and will not be tolerated. And it means encouraging Israel not to negotiate and compromise with its current assailants, but to destroy them.
Only when the initiators of force learn that their actions lead not to world sympathy and political power, but to their own deaths, will peace be possible in the Middle East.
Eugene will never know peace a long as Hezbollah remains. Israel must crush Hezbollah, and Lebanon too, if it refuses to evict these terrorists in their midst. Many Lebanese will die in coming days, and many of them will be civilians, but only through that terrible lesson will they learn that allowing terrorism is supporting terrorism.
I simply hope that the survivors on both sides learn, so that this lesson does not have to be taught again soon.
"If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorists" Seems someone once said that, and it's still true today even if the lefties don't believe we are only a gunshot from suffering the same thing as Israel. The terrorists are here and are being harbored and protected by the lefties and the anti-american Arabs that claim to be Arab-Americans. They are all dangerous and the sooner more people figure this out the safer we will be. Arab=hate...Left wing=hate...Islam=hate.
Posted by: Scrapiron at July 21, 2006 07:57 PMGeneralizations=stupid.
People are dying. Stop with the slogans.
Posted by: Juan Manuel de Rosas at July 21, 2006 10:35 PMI'm (just) old enough to remember the fallout shelters, doing "duck and cover" drills in grade school, and the public fear during the cuban missile crisis.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at July 22, 2006 06:10 AMWow....Juan said in two words what I've been trying to say in many.
Generalizations=Stupid
I couldn't say it any better Juan.
People have been dying in the Middle East for thousands of years (much longer than the U.S. has even existed). If it is the human suffering that is really causing the American conscious so much grief, we'd be in Darfur right now.
In my view, you have to take this situation in one of either two ways:
First, these nations are sovereign countries. Yes, they have a lot of issues and messed up people over there....There governments are different, etc....but this is their own business and the oil is rightfully their own. The conflicts are their own, and it is none of our damn business. Kudos they were born on tons of black gold. Not a realistic view of the world and how things work, but I think this is all true, and the truth can never be disputed.
Second, go over to the Middle East and stabilize the region by taking out the worst governments and dictators, support our only true partners, Israel and the Saudi Royals, and drill that black gold out of the ground until we tap that jewel out. Sound familiar? Hopefully by then...we'll have another viable source of energy to support industrial nations, and hopefully industry is wrong about global warming. Actually, I think it is industry that knows all about global warming, but an corporate entity does not care about the future or the environment. It is what it is...an institution, system, or mechanism in place, only focused on profitability and growth. Exxon Mobile's annual report, I believe states there is no viable replacement forseen by 2030. I don't have it in front of me now, but it is in my office. If global warming is worst case scenario, we won't be able to use all the oil over there, so our efforts and resources to support this business will be wasted. Environmentally, we'll be forced to take on a new source of energy, that is if we want to live. Problem is...how can we get the other biggies to comply, mainly China, Russia, India, and any other growing industrial nation whose trying to get a nut in this world? Perhaps, we've simply started something that cannot be stopped and we are in deep you know what....My only comfort in this situation is....even the George Bush's and other oil tycoons of this world have to live on the same planet and breath the same air.
I'm fitting a lot in this comment, but hopefully the message makes some sense.
To conclude, I think the U.S. needs to be over there, and support Israel, but come on....Be real about "why" we are over there....If you buy into this "spread the democracy" crap and "stop the terrorist", then you simply don't get it. We are fighting for marbles over there...nothing more, nothing less.
Your "security" from the boogie man on American soil is obviously not a priority to Bush. If it were, we'd be securing our borders. How easy would it be for one of those towel heads to pass as a Mexican? They don't even need to "pass". They can simply cross our border in the desert or Canada!
Leftists or anti-Bush people are tired of being viewed as naive. There are many liberal people who are very saavy business people and tough. Thing is....we don't like being lyed to. Just tell it like it is....Stop touting we are the freedom fighters spreading democracy across the world. I guess this is what it takes to get the rank in file in order to get it done.
Posted by: Johnny at July 22, 2006 09:33 AMIf it is the human suffering that is really causing the American conscious so much grief, we'd be in Darfur right now
Actually, we're not in Darfur because it would ignite a conflict between our forces and the French "peacekeepers" who are tacitly aiding the Janjaweed.
If it was me, I'd frankly tell the French to back off and that their oil deal isn't going to be worth a shooting war with the US military.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at July 22, 2006 11:44 AMNot trying to be a smart ass PA, but we didn't listen to the French going into Iraq, so I don't see why we'd be listening to them about Darfur. Once again, I am hearing all the arguments, but then we clearly see action that contradicts those arguments.
Posted by: Johnny at July 22, 2006 01:52 PMbut we didn't listen to the French going into Iraq, so I don't see why we'd be listening to them about Darfur.
The French are part of the reason Darfur is happening you dolt. They want the 20 year old $200B oil deal (made with the muslim govt) reinstated that John Garang disavowed before he was killed.
I should hope we wouldn't be listening to them in that regard.
Its clear to me you know nothing at all about what's going on in Darfur. For a $200B deal the French would sell their own grandmothers into slavery.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at July 22, 2006 02:41 PMI was keeping it clean PA, but anyone calling themselves "The Purple Avenger", as if they were some type of super hero, can't be all that bright.
We wouldn't dare step on the French, over a business deal. Give me a break. Do you think we give a damn about the French and an oil deal? You are obviously not a businessman by your comments. I bet you are some type of government employee who works for the state or something and likes to talk the talk. Anyway...No business arrangement should take precedence over people suffering and dying you "dolt", as you put it.
Hopefully you are a veteran to have the stones to call yourself "The Purple Avenger", I should hope. I bet your one of those dudes with a Vietnam veteran license frame, and tell 'Nam stories to anyone who would listen. Those are the types who were stationed in Hawaii and never saw action.
Why don't you try writing your own comments, instead of copying and pasting mine for a change.
Posted by: Johnny at July 22, 2006 04:46 PM"Purple Avenger" has nothing to do with the military, although I did serve. Its an inside joke I had with an ex-NYPD detective who was a dear friend (now deceased).
Do you think we give a damn about the French and an oil deal?
Nope. I think we give damn about getting into a shooting war with them (via proxys) over it though. They've already used their "peacekeepers in the region" to militarily threatened AU troops attempting to actually keep the peace.
The PRC is involved in the oil deals too, but you already knew that of course...right?
And of course you already knew Harvard has moved to divest itself of PetroChina investments over the Darfur kerfluffle...right?
And of course you already knew the French actually oppose UN sanctions against Sudan for what's going on there...right?
Posted by: Purple Avenger at July 22, 2006 05:18 PMQuote snips in emails/usenet groups and blog comments have traditionally been provided as a courtesy to other readers. It gives them context without having to scroll back and forth and reading through pages of turgid drivel to find what someone is remarking on.
But net courtesy doesn't appear part of your stock and trade so I don't expect you'd care about that now would you? Cueless net noobs with a Circuit City computer have changed the face of things in the past 10 years haven't they?
Posted by: Purple Avenger at July 22, 2006 05:34 PMPA,
It is worthless to read Johhny's posts, let alone debate him. He spouts only the things he reads in WaPo, NYT, LAT, or Newsweak. He has a horrible sense of current events and almost no knowledge of history. He believes in isolationism - don't try to help the world - just ignore it all and blame it on someone else. Over the years I have found that there are leftists that actually can hold a conversation/debate on an intellectual basis. Johnny is not one of them. Mindless.
Posted by: Specter at July 22, 2006 09:34 PM"Cueless net noobs with a Circuit City computer have changed the face of things in the past 10 years haven't they?
Posted by: Purple Avenger"
You can say that again!
Posted by: Warren at July 22, 2006 09:39 PMWhat were we talking about again?
Posted by: Juan Manuel de Rosas at July 23, 2006 02:01 AMOh Johnny, you are aware of course that France continued to sell Saddam weapons systems as recently as 2002 right? Good, I thought so.
You're of course also aware that France was Saddam's #2 weapons supplier, #1 being the Russians. But you already knew that right?
And you already knew that the US's weapons sales to Iraq only lasted for a few years and only then during the Iran/Iraq war near its end, and came to only $300M or so total. For comparason, Brazil, those wild and crazy south American dudes, sold Saddam more weapons than the US did.
But you already knew all this stuff.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at July 23, 2006 08:00 AMPurple Avenger, I already know the French are bad, all the more reason (as I was saying) to go into Darfur. Tell me and our readers something we don't already know. Use some more spicey words to make us all think you are an intellectual will you? 'Bout time for you to go back to yet another one of your government jobs and waste some more of my taxpayer money while I take care of business.
Posted by: Johnny at July 23, 2006 09:18 AMThis conversation is digressing (obviously). I can't stop laughing though....I am talking about Iraq, making a making a comparison that references Darfur. The rightwingnuts argument as to our lack of attention to the human crisis is "the French". That is rich. I gotta go! Next topic please. Hahahahahahh.....
Posted by: Johnny at July 23, 2006 09:34 AMall the more reason (as I was saying) to go into Darfur
Cool - so what's your plan? Sketch it out in broad strokes for us. Logistics, order of battle, transit agreements with neighboring countries, stuff like that.
For starters, you might want to research the number of viable heavy lift capable airfields in the area since there are well...no seaports in the region. I can tell you right now, the number is single digits since I did research it a while ago.
Gas stations are similarly scarce. Modern armies run on oil. Gonna have to get the go-juice to the blackhawks and hummers somehow...and since we'll be queering a $200B French oil deal, its unlikely they'll let us tank up on their juice.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at July 23, 2006 06:26 PM"Gonna have to get the go-juice".....ahhhhh you hit the nail on the head, hence the reason we are so concerned about the people suffering in the Middle East.
So now what I am hearing is we wouldn't go into Darfur to help those people because:
a) We don't want to step on the French. That would be rude.
b) Our boys in uniform can't get it done in Darfur, or....it would be too dificult for them to be worth the trouble.
Next topic please.
Posted by: Johnny at July 23, 2006 09:26 PM
