Saturday, July 22, 2006

Christopher Allbritton : Why, oh, why do people with access to really big bombs continue to think they can change people’s loyalties by dropping those big bombs on their homes and families?

That is the question.

Meanwhile, sensible commentary from Chet Richards.

3 comments:

John Powers said...

I do appreciate your links and thoughtful remarks about war.

The criticism of online news is often made of the Internet as echo chamber. Generally my views are and have always been: the less war the better. Even as a kid playing "war" I wanted to play "medic." I probably would have avoided the play entirely, except I liked making "forts." But I was never involved in a protest against war until the run-up to the Iraq invasion. The point is I'm disinclined temperamentally to read about wars and war, but I do on the Internet. On this topic at least the "echo chamber" critique doesn't fit.

OTOH my talking about the subject is difficult. I suspect the difficulty is fairly common and shouldn't be mistaken as a general lack of interest about the tragic violence ripping the world today. So thanks for posting the links you do.

Via Larry Johnson at TPMC a link to Col. Partrick Lang's blog on the topic: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/
sic_semper_tyrannis/2006/07/
lebanon_the_nex.html

"The Israelis seem to be even more egregious fantasists operating on the basis of imitation of the kid we all remember from the school yard who announced to you that he was going to beat you (Lebanon) up until you you became his friend. In this case there is a further refinement in that the bully (Israel) insists that you have to beat your cousin (Hizballah ) up as proof of your sincerity."

zby said...

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/18/image_of_the_day_chi.html

Composing said...

Kaunda. I wish people didn't have to think about wars. Wish I didn't. Wish people didn't have to be involved in them :-(

I agree with Lang. The Israeli position on the Lebanese government is absurd. Lebanon has come out of 30 years of civil war and occupation by Israel and Syria.

It's finally trying to reconstruct a peaceful, functioning society. Is it any wonder they didn't feel inclined to restart the civil war in an attempt to drive Hezbollah out of the south?

So now Israel (and supporters) are spinning this as complicity by the Lebanese government in the actions of Hezbollah and an excuse to attack them.

I truly can't understand the thinking behind this. The most likely outcome is a Lebanon plunged back into civil war. (OK , that's a prediction, so I've submitted it to the strategy page market and I'll buy shares in it.)