 Nations are always more, than
those who say they lead them are. Yet the population of each nation is
frequently held hostage by figureheads that have seized control, over what
turns out to be millions. Millions that may violently disagree with the
policies of their self-absorbed governments. This is one of the major
changes that contributes to the flames that now engulf the
"NEW" Middle East. Fake "leaders" always say
they come to bring Victory over whatever threatens us-and yet all we have
when they are done-is more death, far more destruction and a set-back for
humanity that is measured in hundreds of years. The relationship between
Victory and Defeat needs to be reexamined, if the world is going to come
away from this trip to the edge of oblivion, before it's too late.
Armed force has always been a
factor in the reputation of any nation, but so is moral authority and the
integrity of all those that attempt to lead any nation. When the Bush
Cabal took the White House the United States embarked on a course that set
the USA against the world. After 911, what began as a belligerent and
arrogant posture turned into a global campaign of hatred and terror-by any
means necessary! The policy was outlined in the Bush Doctrine of 2002, but
it was just words-on-paper, until the lies therein began to be exposed.
The LIE of 911 is still being
used as the primary justification for the continuing crimes that came
after that! Afghanistan was the first stop. Now we know that Afghanistan
had nothing whatever to do with "Defeating Terror" and
everything to do with pipelines. 911 was just the excuse that enabled the
USA PATRIOT Act and the presidential order to spy on all
Americans-secretly! This is quite possibly the reason why "finding and
killing Osama" was never a priority, and yet our troops are still dying in
Afghanistan as well as in Iraq.
In Iraq ten thousand people have
died in the last six months, and this continues at the rate of a hundred
more each day. There is no way that any part of our invasion of that
country can be counted as anything but a major disaster: yet Bush &
his thugs still REFUSE to alter course, regardless of the facts on the
ground or the number of Americans that his "policies" have put directly in
harm's
way.
The Middle East is a regional
problem. It cannot be split up into fiefdoms that can be treated
separately from other nations in that region - yet that is exactly how US
policy was designed. It is as if whatever happens in any one country will
not spill over into other nations-which is totally false. Before we
attacked Iraq, the threat that the world faced from those who resisted our
aggressions was small. Supposedly we went into Iraq to eradicate whatever
threat there might have been to the United States-even though there was
none at the time. What Cheney-Bush & Rumsfeld succeeded in doing, was
to thoroughly destroy a key element of life in the Middle-East along with
an 8,000 year old human-history-of-the-world that Iraq held in its museums
for the rest of us. In addition, our battalions of crusaders have since
managed to create the kind of fear and hatred that can only be excised by
the hundreds of years it will take, to wipe away the stain of our crimes
against the people of Iraq. In fact in every area of that war we have only
succeeded in losing ground to those we came to kill: while we have united
all who are opposed to US policies everywhere! Perhaps this is why Victory
has turned her back on everything that can be seen today, as an American
adventure...
There is nothing that the Bush
administration can point to, in any area of the world today that is not
worse now, than before we laid hands or weapons on those most directly
affected by our policies. From those Americans who endured Katrina, to
every nation that we have coerced into our "Coalitions of the Willing" - the same tales of corruption, of theft, of unnecessary death,
of disfigurement, and of permanent and painful displacement - have
followed wherever the secrecy of the Bush Dynasty has chosen to go.
The United Nations is once-again
being used, just as it was in the run-up to Iraq-this time as a buffer for
justifying a Middle-East policy that is monstrous on its face. The game
began back in May of 2000 when the Israeli government began planning this
operation in detail. (1) This had nothing whatever to do with the taking
of the two Israeli hostages that were supposedly the reason for the rape
and near obliteration of the entire nation of Lebanon. At that time, the
scale of the resistance that Hezbollah might have mounted was not
considered to be anything like what the Zionist state has now encountered.
It's been more than three weeks and the rockets are still pouring into
northern Israel. What happened to all those American Patriot missiles that
were supposed to shoot them down?
Israel has declared Victory, even as the
rockets continue to fall and Israeli's continue to die. Yet despite the
fact that the entire world was demanding an immediate Cease-Fire -- by the
end of the second week -- Israel and the US adamantly refused all
entreaties. This snubbing of the world (and the UN) is possible because
the US blocked all calls for a halt to the fighting. Israel needed to be
allowed to finish destroying Lebanon before anything as extreme as an
immediate Cease-Fire could be allowed to be called for.
The world watched while the
United States went through such convoluted excuses that it made Americans
cringe to think that we could have stooped that low - just to appease our
out-of-control but sometime Masters in the region. This situation
continued until Lebanon became a completely unviable place, without roads
or fuel, without bridges, without communications, food or resources - and
then Rice stepped forward to announce something right out of Condi-in-Wonderland.
She told the world this morning that Syria and Iran shall have no say in
this matter, and we shall not talk to them, furthermore it has been
decided by She & Bush and the French that Hezbollah must agree to stop
firing missiles, and agree to be disarmed. Israel for its part needs to be
protected from Hezbollah, but can be allowed to stay inside Lebanon, with
a UN force to protect Israel from Hezbollah. Does that sound like a
victorious nation that has just "completely vanquished" their
decades old enemy?
So the UN proposal that Condi
drew up, with French assistance, was Dead-On-Arrival because Hezbollah
will not disarm, and will not stop fighting until Israel withdraws its
troops from all of Lebanon. And Israel is opposed to the Cease-Fire
proposal because they will not stop fighting until the hostages are
returned and Hezbollah has been disarmed. Rice is saying that reality
doesn't matter, all that matters is what Bush & Olmert have decided
"must happen," and in that process neither Syria, nor Iran nor
Hezbollah can be invited to discuss anything. Without diplomacy, nothing
can be accomplished: and for diplomacy to work, conversations must take
place. Yet neither of these stepping stones will be needed because there
is no leadership anywhere in this death-watch, over what used to be the
life that the world knew as Lebanon.
 How much longer will the world
continue to wait upon the arrogant dictates of the one country in the
world that has ignored all UN resolutions except for the one that
ostensibly created that tiny state! The pre-history of Israel holds clues
as to why this attitude has become their standard of behavior. (2) This is
of particular importance since Olmert's Israel is citing UN Resolution
1559 that long ago demanded the disarming of Hezbollah. Israel has not
defeated Hezbollah, and no other nation wants to place their troops into
Lebanon to accomplish what no one to this point has been able to do -
namely to disarm those who are fighting in the name of Hezbollah. Reality
must be served especially inside war zones.
Doublespeak will not work here.
The nation of Lebanon has been thoroughly destroyed again, by Israel - and
there must be consequences for this criminal invasion and for the deaths
of so many innocent people. The lives of two Israeli soldiers is not worth
the price extracted for this war that was planned back in May of 2000.
Just as the continuing war and brutalization of the Palestinians is not
justified by the capture of one Israeli soldier. The disproportionality in
these two wars, upon mostly civilian populations, flies in the face of
decent people everywhere and all of the norms of civilized behavior!
What Defeat and Victory have in
common is that neither has a face. Victory, because if she is captured in
war then she cannot last: Defeat has no face, because no one will claim
what's left of that effort. So each outcome will bring scars that will
last until the warring parties find a way to compromise - to that place
where neither of these grim symbols are needed; for all factions to begin
to live in a world that values justice, and peace, and the bounty of life
on all sides.
Jim Kirwan
NOTES:
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