TIME FOR THE TOO LATE SHOW
Hezbollah is bombing Haifa. Israel is bombing the coast of Lebanon. The US is asking Israel to “exercise restraint.” So far as I can tell, nobody is trying to restrain Hezbollah. In spite of the fact that Hezbollah is violating a UN-established national boundary, the UN is doing nothing. President Bush has squandered both the credibility he would need to serve as an honest broker and the military resources he would need to intimidate Hezbollah, by his feckless behavior in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Thomas Friedman says Hezbollah has hijacked the government of Lebanon. So why isn’t somebody offering the Lebanese help in controlling them? That would actually be a nice approach for the Israelis to take, but understandably they’re too mad to bother. Syria has on occasion kept the lid on in Lebanon, but at the moment they seem to prefer letting the situation play itself out. From their point of view, it’s almost too good to be true.
In the meantime, Iran is trying to establish itself as a nuclear power, ostensibly for peaceful purposes. (Why one of the world’s great oil nations needs nuclear electricity has not yet been satisfactorily explained.) North Korea is pleading for attention like a typical juvenile delinquent, and, like most such bad boys, is unable to get it except by the ultimate in bad behavior. Then there’s the recent bombings in India. And in those regions too, the United States has been crippled both as an honest broker and as a military big-stick-wielder by the desert quagmire in Iraq.
In short, we may actually be on the verge of a World War (by my calculations, it would be Number Four. The Cold War was Number Three, though of course nobody would admit it at the time.) Those of us who have opposed Bush’s foreign and military policy from the beginning have a whole new batch of reasons for our opposition. But, at the same time, we find ourselves (or at least I do) hoping he gets away with it this time, because the alternative is too horrible to contemplate outside the realm of dystopian sci-fi. Like Jefferson, sometimes I tremble when I reflect that G-d is just.
Thomas Friedman says Hezbollah has hijacked the government of Lebanon. So why isn’t somebody offering the Lebanese help in controlling them? That would actually be a nice approach for the Israelis to take, but understandably they’re too mad to bother. Syria has on occasion kept the lid on in Lebanon, but at the moment they seem to prefer letting the situation play itself out. From their point of view, it’s almost too good to be true.
In the meantime, Iran is trying to establish itself as a nuclear power, ostensibly for peaceful purposes. (Why one of the world’s great oil nations needs nuclear electricity has not yet been satisfactorily explained.) North Korea is pleading for attention like a typical juvenile delinquent, and, like most such bad boys, is unable to get it except by the ultimate in bad behavior. Then there’s the recent bombings in India. And in those regions too, the United States has been crippled both as an honest broker and as a military big-stick-wielder by the desert quagmire in Iraq.
In short, we may actually be on the verge of a World War (by my calculations, it would be Number Four. The Cold War was Number Three, though of course nobody would admit it at the time.) Those of us who have opposed Bush’s foreign and military policy from the beginning have a whole new batch of reasons for our opposition. But, at the same time, we find ourselves (or at least I do) hoping he gets away with it this time, because the alternative is too horrible to contemplate outside the realm of dystopian sci-fi. Like Jefferson, sometimes I tremble when I reflect that G-d is just.
posted by WiredSisters at 10:29 AM
1 Comments:
'there's too much confusion here, you need to find some relief', to quote an American colleague.
When did you last visit Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, the Lebanon, or indeed any Arab country? Or when did you last actually leave the US at all? It's significant that you know that Iran has loads of oil - that's about all Bush, Blair and their cronies want to know as well......
Try to make peace, not war. Peace is the only way. A nation with so much weaponry just 'getting mad'? Madness it is. Really.
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