However, Dunkel makes a good point that deserves to be reiterated: political rhetoric to disguise what's really going on, especially when it comes to war, is intolerable.
In Vietnam, 50,000 Americans died in search of “Peace with Honor.” In one of the many, ever changing justifications for the Iraq War, we were told it would bring “freedom and democracy and, with that, peace to the entire region.” Now we are being told that we should not pursue an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon because we are searching instead for a “lasting Peace.”
Like the jingoistic names of military campaigns (Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Together Forward, etc.), jingoistic phrases about the type of peace for which war is waged end up in a scrap heap of political rhetoric, while real people, innocent non-combatants, are being slaughtered and the infrastructure of an entire society is being decimated. And the stated reason, to “eliminate Hezbollah forever,” is proving to be the same old delusional hyperbole.
Condi went on national television to explain to America that she wants a ceasefire, but only a "sustainable" ceasefire. Sounds good, right? But, how does one define what will be a lasting peace? If countries don't even try sitting on the table to discuss just what's wrong, how can anyone know it won't be lasting? It's not as if there can be a dialogue in place when thousands of troops from one country are invading the supposed partner in dialogue.
What Condi really did was give permission for umilitaryililtarybecause becuase, let's get serious, when in the past decades has there been perfect peace in the Middle East? We can't even manage that in the streets of Boston. Would Condi be okay with bombing Dorchester to route out the gangs and look the other way when neighborhood groups urged a temporary ceasefire for peace talks?
I don't see many people calling for cops to go after the gangs and shoot them all down. Why? It's a stupid policy. Dunkelbarger's right about Israel-Lebanon and he's right about Iraq (though Steven Lynch seems things seem just peachy in Baghdad). War has already had its chance, it's time we give peace a try.
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Hey Ryan -- thanks for the post and link. Was reading today about the Hizbullah rockets landing near the West Bank, and the Israeli raiding of a hospital. This thing is just spiralling out of control. I cannot tell what Condi believes, but I sure hope the *sustainable ceasefire* isn't the one where everyone dies. The idea that you can shoot and ask questions later never works; and in this case, where the perps have a whole heckuva lotta guns (you can can interchange cops and robbers here) -- welcome to Mideast Quagmire v2.0. You cannot even point fingers, since Hamas' and Hizbullah's supposed triggering events (kidnapped Israeli soldiers) were in response to the Israeli *reditioning* of several Palestinians.
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Seems so easy to find excuses to shoot; so freakin hard to find an excuse to stop. Where are the progressive voices in Washington?
Progressive voices in Washington? Rare sight, that's for sure.
Operation PSP? Is that something I can get at Best Buy or Circuit City =p ?
Getting out of the middle east can only serve to help America. Neo-conservatism is a failed foreign policy.
Yeah, we drop like 4 millon PSP's and games on the entire middle east and stop the terrorists from recruiting people because everyone's addicted to video games...kinda like with what happend to the US and Japan.
"I can't go jihad...I'm on the boss level!!"
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