Middle East Tensions Exploding

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Yea, two trillion over 30 years is a drop in the bucket considering how the federal budget today stands at around three trillion a year, at least according to the newest issue of the Economist magazine.

2.7 trillion to be exact.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/pdf/hist.pdf

 

$2 trillion over 30 years is not what I'd classify as "a drop in the bucket". That's an average of $66.7 billion you're talking about.

 

You forget, lots of those bombs they drop say made in USA on them.

[The Robfather 0]

Kofi Anan shakes hands with Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah

 

Flasback article on Kofi Anan

[Guest BrokenWings]

It's Lebanon who are getting the shit pounded out of them, they're not really going to let Isreal away with it so easily.

 

From what I have read, they're as sick of the Hezbollah as Israel, they're simply powerless to do anything on their own. They seem to be accepting of this fact, in hopes it will be the last time this is necessary. Obviously this is only one side of the pendulum, and there will be those who are upset.

 

A large number of the civilian casualty rate stems from the fact that Hezbollah are cowardly set up and/or hiding in civilian neighborhoods. Israel dropped leaflets to stay away from Hezbollah locations in an attempt to minimize innocent death. What else are they supposed to do?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

According to many, they are just supposed to lie back and let Hezbollah kill them with rockets, until the UN would supposedly step in and ask Hezbollah to stop. Of course, that is completely unrealistic as the UN has repeatedly taken the Arab side in this conflict over the past 50 years. What do you expect, when there are 20+ Arab countries and only one Jewish state?

 

I do think the Lebanese government wants Hezbollah knocked out, but they can't do anything about it. Of course, no one wants to see Lebanese civilians killed, but it's partly a result of their own acceptance and support of Hezbollah.

[pappajacks 0]

Pat Buchanan is now chiming in....

 

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51116

 

 

Where are the Christians?

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: July 18, 2006

1:00 a.m. Eastern

 

 

© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.

 

When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert unleashed his navy and air force on Lebanon, accusing that tiny nation of an "act of war," the last pillar of Bush's Middle East policy collapsed.

 

First came capitulation on the Bush Doctrine, as Pyongyang and Tehran defied Bush's dictum: The world's worst regimes will not be allowed to acquire the world's worst weapons. Then came suspension of the democracy crusade as Islamic militants exploited free elections to advance to power and office in Egypt, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq and Iran.

 

Now, Israel's rampage against a defenseless Lebanon – smashing airport runways, fuel tanks, power plants, gas stations, lighthouses, bridges, roads and the occasional refugee convoy – has exposed Bush's folly in subcontracting U.S. policy out to Tel Aviv, thus making Israel the custodian of our reputation and interests in the Middle East.

 

The Lebanon that Israel, with Bush's blessing, is smashing up has a pro-American government, heretofore considered a shining example of his democracy crusade. Yet, asked in St. Petersburg if he would urge Israel to use restraint in its airstrikes, Bush sounded less like the leader of the Free World than some bellicose city councilman from Brooklyn Heights.

 

What Israel is up to was described by its army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, when he threatened to "turn back the clock in Lebanon 20 years."

 

Olmert seized upon Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers to unleash the IDF in a pre-planned attack to make the Lebanese people suffer until the Lebanese government disarms Hezbollah, a task the Israeli army could not accomplish in 18 years of occupation.

 

Israel is doing the same to the Palestinians. To punish these people for the crime of electing Hamas, Olmert imposed an economic blockade of Gaza and the West Bank and withheld the $50 million in monthly tax and customs receipts due the Palestinians.

 

Then, Israel instructed the United States to terminate all aid to the Palestinian Authority, though Bush himself had called for the elections and for the participation of Hamas. Our Crawford cowboy meekly complied.

 

The predictable result: Fatah and Hamas fell to fratricidal fighting, and Hamas militants began launching Qassam rockets over the fence from Gaza into Israel. Hamas then tunneled into Israel, killed two soldiers, captured one, took him back into Gaza and demanded a prisoner exchange.

 

Israel's response was to abduct half of the Palestinian cabinet and parliament and blow up a $50 million U.S.-insured power plant. That cut off electricity for half a million Palestinians. Their food spoiled, their water could not be purified, and their families sweltered in the summer heat of the Gaza desert. One family of seven was wiped out on a beach by what the IDF assures us was an errant artillery shell.

 

Let it be said: Israel has a right to defend herself, a right to counter-attack against Hezbollah and Hamas, a right to clean out bases from which Katyusha or Qassam rockets are being fired and a right to occupy land from which attacks are mounted on her people.

But what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests. It is un-American and un-Christian.

But where are the Christians? Why is Pope Benedict virtually alone among Christian leaders to have spoken out against what is being done to Lebanese Christians and Muslims?

 

When al-Qaida captured two U.S. soldiers and barbarically butchered them, the U.S. Army did not smash power plants across the Sunni Triangle. Why then is Bush not only silent but openly supportive when Israelis do this?

 

Democrats attack Bush for crimes of which he is not guilty, including Haditha and Abu Ghraib. Why are they, too, silent when Israel pursues a conscious policy of collective punishment of innocent peoples?

 

Britain's diplomatic goal in two world wars was to bring the naive cousins in, to "pull their chestnuts out of the fire." Israel and her paid and pro-bono agents here appear determined to expand the Iraq war into Syria and Iran, and have America fight and finish all of Israel's enemies.

 

That Tel Aviv is maneuvering us to fight its wars is understandable. That Americans are ignorant of, or complicit in this, is deplorable.

Already, Bush is ranting about Syria being behind the Hezbollah capture of the Israeli soldiers. But where is the proof?

 

Who is whispering in his ear? The same people who told him Iraq was maybe months away from an atom bomb, that an invasion would be a "cakewalk," that he would be Churchill, that U.S. troops would be greeted with candy and flowers, that democracy would break out across the region, that Palestinians and Israelis would then sit down and make peace?

 

How much must America pay for the education of this man?

[2GOLD 0]

Question:

Why CAN'T Lebanon do anything about it? I've been hearing this for awhile now, but why exactly can't they? If it's fear of backlash from Iran and Syria, I'm pretty sure they could work it out with Israel to have some help to hold them off.

 

Hell, the two sides finally working together to do SOMETHING might work out great for both for a change. Maybe all they need is to fight alongside one another for a change instead of constantly trying to kick each other's ass.

[pappajacks 0]

Question:

Why CAN'T Lebanon do anything about it? I've been hearing this for awhile now, but why exactly can't they? If it's fear of backlash from Iran and Syria, I'm pretty sure they could work it out with Israel to have some help to hold them off.

 

Hell, the two sides finally working together to do SOMETHING might work out great for both for a change. Maybe all they need is to fight alongside one another for a change instead of constantly trying to kick each other's ass.

 

 

1) the lebanese army has been broken down from 2 decades of civil war. it's a weak army.

2) the US has 130,000 of its armed forces in Irak and yet they can't stop the destruction done by the insurgents. What do you expect the lebanese army to do against a well organized group financed by Iran and syria.

3) confronting hizbollah with israel would plunge lebanon in another war....just after it finished with 25 years of civil war. when you start rebuilding and trying to put your economy back on track...the last thing you want is to start another round of violence.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

2) the US has 130,000 of its armed forces in Irak and yet they can't stop the destruction done by the insurgents. What do you expect the lebanese army to do against a well organized group financed by Iran and syria.

 

That's a good point.

 

Trying to root out Hezbollah in Lebanon, I would wager, would make the Iraqi insurgency look like a stroll through the park.

[2GOLD 0]

It's better than the option B that Israel might be considering heavily and WILL go through with if the soldiers end up found dead. It may be next to impossible for Lebanon to route them out but they might want to start trying to put up a good front otherwise Israel will come in and they won't leave.

 

Israel and Lebanon have a common problem and if the two sides don't want to keep fighting each other and have been looking for a way for the two countries to work together for a change, they have their opening. It's not exactly the best of openings, but it's better than the other options everyone is going to be given.

[pappajacks 0]

It's better than the option B that Israel might be considering heavily and WILL go through with if the soldiers end up found dead. It may be next to impossible for Lebanon to route them out but they might want to start trying to put up a good front otherwise Israel will come in and they won't leave.

 

Israel and Lebanon have a common problem and if the two sides don't want to keep fighting each other and have been looking for a way for the two countries to work together for a change, they have their opening. It's not exactly the best of openings, but it's better than the other options everyone is going to be given.

 

lebanon hoped for the option where hizbollah and israel negotiate terms for an exchange of prisoners. hizbollah captured the soldiers in order to trade with israel for those in israeli prisons.

[2GOLD 0]

That plan had less than zero percent chance of success and Lebanon should have known that.

[pappajacks 0]

That plan had less than zero percent chance of success and Lebanon should have known that.

 

well the other option is war and a 100% chance of destruction of your infrastructures and hundreds of civilians dead...and a decade to rebuild everything again.

[pappajacks 0]

not to mention that allying yourself with israel against hizbollah would anger iran and syria (2 neighbouring countries) with armies 100 times stronger than lebanon's.

 

there is no easy answer...it's not black or white.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

That does bring up an interesting point. Hezbollah is not a rag tag band of scrubby men in dirty nightshirts toting AK-47s...they're basically a professional, highly equipped army. Defeating them isn't going to be easy either way.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

i almost feel dirty for somewhat agreeing with pat buchanan. *shudders*

[Art Sandusky 0]

I dunno guys, even Michael Savage was wondering why Beirut was being blown the fuck up. Were I magically in charge of Israel, I would have sent an invasion/occupation force into the southern part of Lebanon to take care of most Hezbollah forces and then stick around for a while as a real buffer zone is created.

 

I think what makes this Middle East stuff even more incomprehensible is that we live in such a big country. These nations are fighting over amounts of land that some private citizens in the United States own themselves. I know when I was a little kid I always wondered why the tiny countries were fighting so much for so little.

[Red Baron 0]

Just over 250 Canadians leave Lebanon, and people are still complaining about it. At least they are free and not having to pay for a ride back home.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Which was a ridiculous argument in the media anyway. $1000 for an international flight is pretty common. Isn't your life worth that much money, or would you rather be where the bombs are still dropping?

[Dogbert 0]

Half the Canadians we're evacuating don't even live here. They live in Lebanon, but have dual citizenship.

 

As far as I'm concerned, those people should sit down, shut up and be damned grateful we didn't leave them to be blown to smithereens.

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

Pat Buchanan is now chiming in....

 

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51116

 

 

Where are the Christians?

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: July 18, 2006

1:00 a.m. Eastern

 

 

© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.

 

When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert unleashed his navy and air force on Lebanon, accusing that tiny nation of an "act of war," the last pillar of Bush's Middle East policy collapsed.

 

First came capitulation on the Bush Doctrine, as Pyongyang and Tehran defied Bush's dictum: The world's worst regimes will not be allowed to acquire the world's worst weapons. Then came suspension of the democracy crusade as Islamic militants exploited free elections to advance to power and office in Egypt, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq and Iran.

 

Now, Israel's rampage against a defenseless Lebanon – smashing airport runways, fuel tanks, power plants, gas stations, lighthouses, bridges, roads and the occasional refugee convoy – has exposed Bush's folly in subcontracting U.S. policy out to Tel Aviv, thus making Israel the custodian of our reputation and interests in the Middle East.

 

The Lebanon that Israel, with Bush's blessing, is smashing up has a pro-American government, heretofore considered a shining example of his democracy crusade. Yet, asked in St. Petersburg if he would urge Israel to use restraint in its airstrikes, Bush sounded less like the leader of the Free World than some bellicose city councilman from Brooklyn Heights.

 

What Israel is up to was described by its army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, when he threatened to "turn back the clock in Lebanon 20 years."

 

Olmert seized upon Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers to unleash the IDF in a pre-planned attack to make the Lebanese people suffer until the Lebanese government disarms Hezbollah, a task the Israeli army could not accomplish in 18 years of occupation.

 

Israel is doing the same to the Palestinians. To punish these people for the crime of electing Hamas, Olmert imposed an economic blockade of Gaza and the West Bank and withheld the $50 million in monthly tax and customs receipts due the Palestinians.

 

Then, Israel instructed the United States to terminate all aid to the Palestinian Authority, though Bush himself had called for the elections and for the participation of Hamas. Our Crawford cowboy meekly complied.

 

The predictable result: Fatah and Hamas fell to fratricidal fighting, and Hamas militants began launching Qassam rockets over the fence from Gaza into Israel. Hamas then tunneled into Israel, killed two soldiers, captured one, took him back into Gaza and demanded a prisoner exchange.

 

Israel's response was to abduct half of the Palestinian cabinet and parliament and blow up a $50 million U.S.-insured power plant. That cut off electricity for half a million Palestinians. Their food spoiled, their water could not be purified, and their families sweltered in the summer heat of the Gaza desert. One family of seven was wiped out on a beach by what the IDF assures us was an errant artillery shell.

 

Let it be said: Israel has a right to defend herself, a right to counter-attack against Hezbollah and Hamas, a right to clean out bases from which Katyusha or Qassam rockets are being fired and a right to occupy land from which attacks are mounted on her people.

But what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests. It is un-American and un-Christian.

But where are the Christians? Why is Pope Benedict virtually alone among Christian leaders to have spoken out against what is being done to Lebanese Christians and Muslims?

 

When al-Qaida captured two U.S. soldiers and barbarically butchered them, the U.S. Army did not smash power plants across the Sunni Triangle. Why then is Bush not only silent but openly supportive when Israelis do this?

 

Democrats attack Bush for crimes of which he is not guilty, including Haditha and Abu Ghraib. Why are they, too, silent when Israel pursues a conscious policy of collective punishment of innocent peoples?

 

Britain's diplomatic goal in two world wars was to bring the naive cousins in, to "pull their chestnuts out of the fire." Israel and her paid and pro-bono agents here appear determined to expand the Iraq war into Syria and Iran, and have America fight and finish all of Israel's enemies.

 

That Tel Aviv is maneuvering us to fight its wars is understandable. That Americans are ignorant of, or complicit in this, is deplorable.

Already, Bush is ranting about Syria being behind the Hezbollah capture of the Israeli soldiers. But where is the proof?

 

Who is whispering in his ear? The same people who told him Iraq was maybe months away from an atom bomb, that an invasion would be a "cakewalk," that he would be Churchill, that U.S. troops would be greeted with candy and flowers, that democracy would break out across the region, that Palestinians and Israelis would then sit down and make peace?

 

How much must America pay for the education of this man?

 

I think my computer's busted. IT says Pat Buchanan wrote this? Even when I clicked on the link, I saw

a picture of Pat Buchanan. To quote Randy Jackson: what is going on in the world?

[Guest BrokenWings]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/21/...houd/index.html

 

Lebanon president: We will fight invaders

 

He's not willing to use their army in an attempt to disarm Hezbollah in fear of not being able to defeat them, but is willing to risk it all to come and protect them from a much stronger enemy, who would stop if they were disarmed. Yeah, that makes sense. If Lebanon turns down a theoretical offer from the UN to help disarm Hezbollah, I'll have very little sympathy for them.

[Vyce 0]

Pat Buchanan is now chiming in....

 

Where are the Christians?

 

They're apparently more concerned with queers getting the right to marry other queers, because as we all know that's just SO much more important than WW3 or the war on terror.

 

I'm not surprised that Buchanan feels this way, as he's pretty much an isolationist.

[Vampiro69 0]

Hell even a blind chipmunk finds an acorn once in awhile.

[megaadvice 0]

The bias of the Fox News coverage of this war is nothing short of disgracful.

 

How can America let a major news channel get away with such rubbish.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Rupert Murdoch isn't an American, and he's rich. There you go.

[Guest JustPassinBy]

Pat Buchanan is such a tool.

I'm so happy my party basically cast him out of our mainstream.

 

Hey Pat, innocent people die in war. Thats just the way it is.

These terrorists use civillians as human shields. If anyone is to blame for civillians being killeds, its the terrorists that hide behind them and within them.

 

God Bless America!

[Dobbs 3K 0]

The thing about Fox News though...yeah, their coverage tends to be pro-Bush, etc. But, look at all the other news organizations (CNN, MSNBC, etc)...they tend to be anti-Bush. Couldn't one argue that it balances out in the end?

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

Cnn and MSNBC still handle Bush and co. with kidgloves. All of American media is filtered.

[Vampiro69 0]

From watching all the 24 hr news stations I think that the ideologies fall like this

 

FoxNews: Conservative

CNN: Liberal

MSNBC: more middle of the road

 

If want want to watch the news with the American slant watch the BBC world news, it is less entertainment style and more straight news.

[Vyce 0]

Pat Buchanan is such a tool.

I'm so happy my party basically cast him out of our mainstream.

 

Hey Pat, innocent people die in war. Thats just the way it is.

These terrorists use civillians as human shields. If anyone is to blame for civillians being killeds, its the terrorists that hide behind them and within them.

 

God Bless America!

 

Eh, it's nothing really that surprising from him. He's always been a bit of an anti-Semite.