MSNBC.COM -- Maybe they'll be more selective in their targets as a ground force than from fighter jets. For all this talk of rockets raining down on Israel from Lebanon, there's not enough talk about how most of these rockets land in the water and empty fields. The response is incredibly disproportionate that it's sickening.
Try this:
Digital Journalist Photo Gallery Especially look at photos 26, 61 and 93.
I also overheard this morning on CNN or MSNBC that the Red Cross is now accusing Israel of violating the Geneva convention by preventing aid workers from reaching people in need.
Yes, two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped. But the rockets didn't go into the air until after Israel began its bombing.
Explain it to me. What will this accomplish? What is the goal? If you think of terrorists like rats, you can never ferret them all out. You will simply drive them deeper and strengthen their resolve. And in the long run, you will be worse off.
In the long run you will be worse off. This is worth repeating.
End this.
4 comments:
There you go. Seeking an explanation as to what war will accomplish. This is why you are not a world leader. That and the videotape I have of you at your bachelor party.
I doubt you have too many copies of that videotape. Not so many that my secret police squad couldn't root them out when they disappeared you.
If I were a world leader and it came to that, that is.
I know all about the line of thinking that says war solves nothing. I get that.
But you're missing the point. Not everyone thinks that way. Some people obviously believe that, otherwise there would be no war. It's to those types of people that I'm addressing this.
No matter what you think of the sanity or intelligence of people who send others off to kill or be killed, they have their reasons.
And no matter what you think of said reasons, they have them.
But when they cannot even clearly articulate them, that's what I find to be the most frustrating.
Amy's video was a good post, but it doesn't necessarily, to me, make me believe that Israel is just in what they're doing. It does say to me, however, that they screwed up. They relied too much on superior airpower to get them into at best, an orchestrated and calculated PR nightmare, and at worst, a protracted engagement that is going to take much longer to end, especially since they now have to contend with a cease fire much further away from their goal than they had planned.
It was safer for their own people, but not so for the innocents in the country being attacked. And if Amy's source alleges that they were intentionally trying to draw fire down upon civilian targets and yet they proceeded anyway, then they're pretty darn stupid and deserve the negative world press they're now getting.
I just want to see it ended. And aid allowed to get in to those who need it.
Here's my response to all your responses to all my responses to all your war-related blog posts:
The point I'm trying to express, humorously and otherwise, is that once you have committed yourself to a physical conflict with someone else you have rejected logic and reason. You have chosen to believe that nonviolent methods will not work, and you may be right in that belief, but the end result is one or more person or persons causing physical harm or death or one or more person or persons. And to what end? Will the injured or dead be convinced of your side of the argument (in other words, does right make right?)? Will the surviving families and friends of the injured or killed side with you? There is no goal other than to win. You cannot rationalize violence... you can only make excuses for it.
I have not missed your point. But you believe people actually sit in a room and decide to go to war, and that isn't how it's done anymore... if it ever was.
We went to war on 9/11/1 the moment the towers collapsed... when our hearts and minds were consumed by rage and fear. No meeting took place. No concrete evidence was presented. Blood cried out for blood.
Most if not all of us knew that a "war on terror" would lead to a complete breakdown of the stability in the Middle East, followed by Asia, then Europe and Africa, and ultimately bring the bloodshed right back to the Americas. But America was so emotionally charged that we didn't care. We wanted vengence. And that was with someone with whom we'd had very limited contact with up to that point.
The conflict between Isreal and their neighbors spans decades (some would say thousands of years, but I'll limit the discussion to the current geopolitical climate). The Isrealis aren't stupid... they're f---ing pissed off. Generations have come and gone with no resolution to the disputes between peoples. As pissed as we were on 9/11, multiply that by 50 and maybe you'll be close to their collective hightened emotional state.
In WWII we dropped two nukes and the world (ourselves included) went, "WTF?" The complete devastation awakened us to the reality of war. The war ended in that instant, because it triggered logic and reason that had been dormant for so long prior, suppressed by rage and fear. I don't know what it is going to take to end this current conflict. Certainly no UN ceasefire resolution. Certainly not a US led peacekeeping force.
Sadly, my guess is that the conflict will end when one side commits an act that in any other circumstance would be considered monstrous, but in these circumstances gets labelled merely "an act of war." And only in the reconstruction will we see any attempt at reconsiling differences in the name of humanity and compassion. Sadly, that's the way it has always been in wars.
In conclusion, stop looking for the Isrealis to offer up a logical reason for attacking their neighbors, or vice-versa. Anger and fear, coupled with history... that's the excuse. That's always the excuse.
I have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. You might be right, but I can't accept it.
On the other hand, was involved in a nasty road rage incident the other day. Fortunately the other guy liked his car and was more interested in B.S.ing. And fortunately neither of us had guns.
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