Office of the Independent Blogger

I’m not sure what George W. Bush’s problem is, but he sure seems to love “the stupid comment,” as he showed this weekend at the G8 when he told Vladimir Putin that his country needed to imitate Iraq’s free press and religion, to be countered by Putin saying, “We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.” First of all, I think it’s poor diplomacy to try and embarrass Russia in their own country by shining the light on their mistakes; Russia is imperfect, but it isn’t a slave state like it used to be, and so the time was not at the G8 to knead them. But, at least, Bush gave Putin a large target to club.

And now, to discuss the direction that the Middle East is heading in. Hamas and Hezbollah are working side by side, united in tactics if not exactly, and Syria is mobilizing its Army to prepare for War, Iran is the flame boiling the pot, and the Israelis show no signs of halting their assault on Lebanon.

This is what happens when the United States refuses to have diplomatic relations with countries. If we had any sort of relationship with Iran — if we had, at the least, a phone line between us — we could call them and discuss, and try to calm the rage within. As it stands, we are currently incapable of talking to Syria or Iran about relaxing, and, while we can talk Israel down, we refuse to do that, too because the Administration’s looney toons believe that a “showing of strength” by Israel is in the best interest of everyone. How anyone can defend a President who has idly allowed this sort of violence to flare up and then refuses to lift a finger to stop it is beyond me.

What we’re seeing is the most dramatic unraveling of Peace in thirty years, and maybe the worst since the first World War came on so suddenly. It’s no stretch to say that, unless someone somewhere in Israel, America, Syria or Iran makes a fateful phone call, extends a genuine Olive Branch, we’re going to have some problems.

A friend of mine wisely put it this way after noting that Israel is mistakenly fighting a non-state entity as if it were a State: “Israel is destroying one of the most liberal states in the mid-east and a nascent democracy and basically acheiving nothing because Hezbollah fights guerilla warfare and doesn’t have big camps and headquarters. They are attacking an unregulated militia by destroying neighborhoods in suburban Beirut. They are attacking an unregulated militia by destroying the transportation infrastructure in Lebanon. They are attacking an unregulated militia by literally destroying the Lebanese government. And sadly it won’t end soon - even though nothing but pain will come of this. Because neither hezbollah or the state of Israel is willing to have peace yet. Israel because its acting out of anger and political necessity, Hezbollah because it has nothing to lose.”

Sad, isn’t it? It disgusts me deeply to see what Israel is doing in Lebanon, and even their view on it is obscene (from here).

Nevertheless, Israel says the massive destruction of vital Lebanese infrastructure is intended to show Lebanon’s people the price they will pay for Nasrallah’s decision to instigate a war. “You know that we are doing the right thing, and that if we succeed, Lebanon would be the beneficiary,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman told Lebanon’s envoy as they appeared before the Security Council last week.

Machiavelli, anyone?

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 16th, 2006 at 9:24 am and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).