Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt have now come out and called for a cease fire. Sec. of State Rice is said to be looking for a durable solution. The sad truth is, she is just stalling for time.
She want to give Israel as much time as possible for do as much damage as they can to Hezbollah. The US has clearly telegraphed that they are in no hurry to stop the violence, and see it as a positive development.
Once Israel has occupied the parts of Lebanon it wants to, the US will get busy formulating a solution that will have western armys moving into south Lebanon to play referee between the various Lebanese groups and Israel.
The US and NATO may well be asked to serve as a mercenary force protecting Israel.
I guess this means we will be official abandoning our roll as an honest broker in the middle east.
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Lebanon Israel
5 comments:
And I thought our reputation couldn't get much worse after Iraq- way to go Bush administration.
US has been supporting Israel for quite some time, and squashing down everyone else in the region (except you know who) so I don't think "honest broker" is the term to be used.
Lebanon wants a powerful force there with full authority to shoot and kill anybody who violates the peace -- whether Israeli or Lebanese.
Frankly, any military force there which does not have the dual role of protecting Lebanon from the Israelis as well as protecting the Israelis from Hezbullah is going to be seen as merely a tool of Israel, and is going to get the full Iraq treatment. Except Hezbullah isn't a bunch of wankers like the Iraqi guerillas. Hezbullah fought the second-most-powerful military in the world to a standstill the last time Israel invaded Lebanon, and it's unlikely that any force not acceptable to Hezbullah is going to be able to take up position in southern Lebanon without itself being turned into mincemeat.
Frankly, I'm no fan of Americans dying to defend Israel. Israel has the second-most-powerful military in the world, including the world's best regional air force (they do not have the global projection capability of the U.S. B-52 and B-1 bombers and U.S. aircraft carriers, but if the USAF went against the IAF and tried to bomb Israel, they'd get their asses handed to them by the IAF). If the Israelis want someone to die in southern Lebanon to defend Israel, let it be Israelis who die there.
Yes, Bush wants to get the US army in overthere because he's afraid they're missing all the action.We've already destroyed Iraq, why can't we take part in destroying Lebanon too?
They could kill every member of Hezbullah and it would not solve the problem. How do you kill an idea?
When one people dominate another people, resentment builds. Anger and rage finally explode and reason flies out the window. I'm always reminded of Frederick Douglass's observation that you can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
I don't know what the answer is but war isn't it.
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