Spin Cycle
July 22nd, 2006Israel’s still going at it, ripping Lebanon apart and invading with tanks, occupying villages and blasting away at a country whose government and general public had nothing to do with the kidnapping of two soldiers. Our government continues to back Needless Warfare, and it’s getting harder and harder to predict when the conflict will end. Fortunately, says Israel, the incursion will be limited in scope! And if you believe that, I’ve got a one-week window to push you through, as I’ve learned that all matters of War and Peace have been in a sort of spinning cycle during Bush’s term; in the Middle East, especially. I can say that I believed the report earlier in the week that said Israel would have a one-week window for further conflict; I’m not so sure anymore. This isn’t an Administration that values deadlines, or that sticks to its word. Its guns, sure, but not its words.
For further on the spin cycle, how many times have we “secured” Baghdad only to have to retake it later? However many times it’s been, add another to it, as the Military says that it will redivert resources to meeting the goal of securing Baghdad. Pretty hard to “turn the corner” in a country when you can’t “hold the capital.” Add a President who refuses to take diplomacy seriously, and we’ve got a Groundhog Day Foreign Policy.
July 30th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
“…I am myself amazed, and troubled, by how many Israeli officials continue to speak as if the goal [in the conflict with Hezbollah] were a trade-off with Israel’s mortal enemies. But the thing about mortal enemies is, there’s nothing to trade but your head. Here is my horrible thought: If “liberalism” can survive under such intense conditions, as those to which Israel has been exposed for nearly sixty years, it can survive until the West is extinct.”
from David Warren, at :
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/israel_must_make_them_know_the_1.html