For pity's sake

mommamia · 07-16-2006, 07:12 PM

Man, I just don't get it.....The news coverage is really getting to me. Here is Palestine saying yes, Hezbollah is a problem that we've been needing to solve, we need help but not our country blown up. Why are we treating this whole country like terrorists? Why are we supporting this action??? Palestine as a country hasn't done anything but basically ask for help to preserve the lives of their people. Why is it that the news only wants to report how many people may not get out but if any Palestinian officials want to talk about assisting them in rooting out Hezbollah instead of bombing them the reporter say, and I quote "Let's not turn this into a political discusssion" WTH???

What if a US cult had done this to a Mexican or Canadian miliatry personnel? I'd hope that they'd give the government a chance to react and assist before they started invading and bombing. This is bad and wrong.

Someone should be supporting the Palestininan goverment in their efforts here instead of asking them to talk about something other than politics. If something isn't done the government of Palestine could be destablized and the Hammas or another one of these nutso groups could get control. Then all #### will break lose in the ME. The scales could be tipped for the mutual respect of power and then people with no tolerance for others will get their talons in deeper in the minds of new generations and be able to arm them better.

ruby1988 · 07-16-2006, 07:29 PM

this has been going on forever--and i hope the us stays out of it. i wouldn't cross isreal for anything--they don't play.

mommamia · 07-16-2006, 07:44 PM

I think the US should be talking people off the ledges instead of just saying do what cha gotta do....I'd rather us not cross anyone.

bennis_mama · 07-16-2006, 08:02 PM

I don't forsee the US going in there anytime soon. They treated Iran more curtly than they are addressing the Hezbollah. Their warning "Put down your weapons," If only it were that simple.

Although, now that Iran has been identified in the aide of launching the missles toward the Israeli ship - it may just cause uproar in the countries. I would hope that Lebannon will deploy it's own troops to S. Lebannon to show Hezbollah that they are serious in their fight against the gurella group.

The situation is rather confusing, still reading a lot on it because it sounds like an internal battle within the two countries. Yet other countries are involved now too. It will only get worse. Death tolls are climbing steadily.

kemtee · 07-16-2006, 09:29 PM

I wish y'all could get my local morning radio talk show. He had a great discussion on this whole topic Friday morning, and it really cleared a lot of issues up for me.

Lebanon will not do anything for itself, unfortunately. I wish they would, just to undercut the internal support for Hezbollah, but I don't see it happening. My understanding is that the native Lebanese government has been effectively neutered by decades of strong-arm interference from Syria. In other words, Syria has controlled Lebanon for decades and is the direct source of funding, weapons, and instigative activity for decades (does anyone besides me remember two hundred American soldiers dead in Beirut in 1982? Anyone?). Hezbollah would not be able to operate as freely and as brazenly as it does were it not for Syria.

Yet I have yet to see the world's leading nations -- including the US -- doing a whole #### of a lot to Syria for it. Or for an active hand in creating the Palestinian situation in the first place. (You don't exactly see them welcoming them into their country, do you?)

That Iran can be traced now as a source of the same is unsurprising to me. That the madman in charge of that country is sabre-rattling and saying "an attack against [fill in the blank] will be considered an attack against the Arab world" is not surprising, either. But it's tantamount to him saying, "if you ride your bike over that rickety bridge, I will too." Especially since the cooler heads in the Arab world have already come right out and said "nothing doing; we're not getting involved in this one." (Specifically, Saudi Arabia has in fact issued this statement.) There's also the ironic fact that Iran is not Arabic, but Persian, but that's beside the point.

Iran is the source of a lot of long-term problems, and this is the problem that the world needs to focus on. I was listening to a program Saturday afternoon, and it alarmed me that I agreed with the hosts, as I don't usually. But they questioned the timing of the Hezbollah attack and it coincidence with the G8 summit, where the focus was supposed to be on the Iranian problems. Lo and behold, Israel is attacked and retaliates, as it is perfectly within its rights to do. Now the major world powers are consumed with their attention here, and any action to be taken on the Iran problem effectively gets back-burnered. Coincidence? I don't think so. And it took me a while to pick up the stitches I dropped while pondering this one.

Israel reacted in self-defense, and yet Israel gets the world's censure. THAT's what I don't get.

Oh, and by the way, though we make no secret of being Israel's most reliable ally, there is no mutual-protection agreement between the US and Israel. Meaning that if she is attacked, we do not have to respond military by right of treaty agreement. (Unlike NATO.) Not that this still can't blow up in a way that will affect us (especially since US ships regularly use the port of Haifa), but for now this is a diplomatic mess only.

The news media is, as usual, not helping. I about choked on my salad Saturday night when the MSNBC infobabe was talking about the region being "on the brink of civil war." Duh, chick, where the #### have you been for the last sixty years… I wish they took the time to be better informed before they went live with this half-witted copy they're droning through.

kemtee · 07-17-2006, 08:30 AM

BTW: Some interesting reading on the blog/opinion circuit on this topic. Check it out.

http://www.conceptwizard.com/n-israel.html

http://zioncon.blogspot.com/2006/07/...katyushas.html

Zib also furnishes these links, as well as many other good ones. See the column on the lower right: "Reads"

pa_wife · 07-17-2006, 04:08 PM

I know everyone is entitled to their opinions about how our country is run--or how our country handles other countries, but sometimes the government and the military do things that nobody ever finds out about. That's the way it should be, it is safer for the servicemen that are involved. That is just the opinion of an Army wife(for 19 years).

mommamia · 07-17-2006, 04:17 PM

Thank You ladies, you truly give me food for thought....life isn't black and white, it's a myriad of colors, Right now it seems to be tie-dyed.

maoftwinboys · 07-18-2006, 05:39 AM

Thanks Kemtee for the links. I find agreement with this statement:
Q: Isn't Israel overreacting?

A: No. Israel is acting to defend its sovereignty. We pulled out of the Gaza Strip (yes, unilaterally, but we withdrew our occupying forces) and we are now being attacked from there. We pulled out of Lebanon, in complete accordance with the UN resolution, and are now being attacked from there. We don't really have a viable alternative. We can't negotiate with terrorists who are making unreasonable demands in exchange for the safe return of our soldiers, otherwise we (and the rest of the free world) will be an easy target for blackmail for ever!

I agree - you cannot negotiate with terrorists - and that is excatly what Hezbollah is. The EU and International community are wringing their hands when they need to be condeming these people for being the terrorists that they are.