Until Israel decided to attack it, Beirut was the safest city in the Middle East, safer than any big American city. There had not been any real violence there since 1988, when the Israelis last bombed Beirut on their way out of town. It was the commercial center of the area, with Syria and Jordan being dependent upon the port and airport for much of their commerce.
The people of Beirut were, and are, a peaceful people. They pretty much have to be. Lebanon has no real Army, they have an "army" that supposedly has 60,000 soldiers in it, but reality is that these "soldiers" are lightly armed and serve mostly as an internal police force, spending more time on drunk drivers, and customs duty than on any kind of military duty. The only "air force" is lightly-armed helicopters used for law enforcement. The only "navy" is a few coast guard cutters used to track down smugglers. Lebanon is effectively defenseless, and for the most part always has been. A bigger military would be useless with the much-more-powerful nations of Syria and Israel on its borders, so why bother?
Now Israel has brought war once again to a city which wants nothing to do with it, destroying 18 years of progress with one big bombing raid. Rather than attack the people who attacked Israel -- Hezbollah -- Israel apparently believes attacking people who have nothing to do with violence is the best way to punish violence. It's as if the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and we bombed Montreal in retaliation. Sick. Sick sick sick.
I definitely do believe Israel has a right to self defense. But bombing a peaceful defenseless city because some guerrillas hundreds of miles away snatched a couple of Israeli soldiers -- that's just sick. If there were any justice in this world, there would be howls of outrage, and NATO fighter jets flying over Beirut threatening to shoot down any hostile aircraft that approached -- even if they were Israeli aircraft. But the world response... [crickets]. Oh sure, the French PM whined a bit, but where are the French fighter jets flying CAP (Combat Air Patrol) over Beirut? Where are the French naval vessels protecting ships coming into or exiting Beirut's harbor? Apparently the French are going to do about as much here as they did in Srebrenica or Rwanda...
And as for Dear Leader... well, remember if you object to anything Israel does, you're an anti-Semite and probably a supporter of Hitler who wants to exterminate all the Jews yada yada yada... Dear Leader's just fine with anything Israel does. After all, Israel is just killing darkies. It's like killing cockroaches. It's not as if they're killing REAL people, good European-derived white people. Killing untermenschen, unseemly mud people, for having the audacity to live hundreds of miles away from anybody who has attacked Israel, is hardly a crime, right? Right?!
- Badtux the Unsnarky Penguin
BT, this is like when your dad (well, mine did) would beat the snot out of you because your brother got caught smoking a cigarette.
ReplyDelete"Let THAT be a lesson to you, you lousy little bastard!"
Carl, that's the dumbest thing I ever heard of. My dad's response to my brother's smoking a cigarette was something along the lines of "Fine, smoke every cigarette you want, but it's an ugly disgusting habit and you'll have to go outside to do it." My brother smoked a few cigarettes outside, nothing happened, he gave'em up and found some other way to irritate my dad :-).
ReplyDeleteI just don't get it. What does bombing a peaceful city hundreds of miles away have to do with Hezbollah? The Lebanese can't do anything about Hezbollah, Hezbollah has Syrian and Iranian backing and Syria has a million-man army on their borders. The only thing that makes sense would be that the Israelis hate Arabs, and Beirut has a lot of Arabs in it, so Israel is just killing Arabs because killing untermenschen is lotsa fun. I mean, look, what is Lebanon going to do about Hezbollah? Nothing. Nothing at all. They can't. Syria has a million soldiers on their border, and all Lebanon has is a few disoriented cops wearing soldier uniforms. Israel has a million soldiers on their border, and all Lebanon has is a few disoriented cops wearing soldier uniforms. What the hell can Lebanon do about Hezbollah? Why are the Israelis bombing innocent Lebanese civilians in Beirut, hundreds of miles away from Hezbollah, instead of going after Hezbollah themselves? It just doesn't make sense. Unless you posit that Israel just wants to kill them a bunch of Arabs, and doesn't care about innocent or no. Which makes them no different than the Nazis who just wanted to kill a bunch of jews, they have become their enemy, but if you point that out, you're automatically a Nazi jew hater who wants to exterminate Jews. Reality is anti-semitic, y'know.
- Badtux the disgusted Penguin
I really can't believe how we're just standing around watching this escalation of violence...all this "Israel has a right to defend itself.." bs. It's imcomprehensible.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the region where the expression "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" originated [1], rather than "Turn the other cheek"?
ReplyDelete[1] Well, ok, so technically the
"eye for an eye" thing originated with Hamurabi.
The problem is that when you use the eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth thing, everyone eventually ends up eyeless and toothless. :-(
Dave
Well, the problem is that Israel is plucking ten eyes for every eye plucked from Israel... and they're eyes of people who've done nothing to harm Israel. So even if you believe in that old "eye for an eye" stuff, Israel is going way beyond the pale here by bombing a city that had nothing to do with attacks against Israel.
ReplyDelete-BT