Quick Lessons!
This is a semi-random list of quick lessons I’ve learned already from observing the actions and reactions of groups and countries regarding the situation in Lebanon. I tried to keep them to 2-per-party, except in one case:From Hizbollah:
1-that there are Arabs who actually value the lives of fellow Arabs held prisoners by Israel indefinitely and are willing to go to great lengths to secure their freedom.
2-that “great lengths” here means a complete miscalculation of the Israeli response.
From Israel:
1-that Israel continues to value the lives of its soldiers who are captured by Arabs and is willing to go to great lengths to secure their release.
2-that “great lengths” here can also mean bombing Arab countries to the ground and even starting a regional war.
From KSA, Jordan and Egypt:
1-that they are more afraid of Hizbollah than they are from Israel.
2-that they are more interested in keeping an image of credibility and moderation with the West than with heir own people.
From the USA:
1-that Bush remains the most ignorant and embarrassing president in US history.
2-that the one thing he is not so ignorant about is how to please Israel and its friends.
3-(OK, this will make them 3 lessons I know, but please bear with me, the man is an academy): that he sees no apparent contradiction between considering Israel’s attack on Lebanon as self-defense and then calling the Lebanese Prime Minister to make sure he has not been weaken by Israel’s actions!
From France:
1-that President Chirac, with little hair and less political clout, still has enough decency to wonder if Israel is destroying Lebanon.
3-that Jacque is probably more popular among Arabs than most Arab leaders (and not only because of his praise for Zidane).
From the UK:
1-that Blair can still repeat the same exact lines about the urgency of peace making in the Middle East he voiced so passionately prior to the Iraq War as if time has stopped since then!
2-that oratory can hide your mistakes and failures up to a point; and then your oration becomes more laughable than less convincing (except to you of course).
More lessons and reflections on this situation to follw later...
posted by bandicoot @ 11:31 PM
3 Comments:
i agree! they all have their veiled intentions after all.
From Canada:
1 - That you can rename your party to win an election but when it comes to foreign policy the ignorant, US-brown nosing attitude of Reformers will still shine through
2 - That a short supply of doughnuts in Kandahar is more news worthy than the destruction of Lebanese infrastructure
MD, absolutely, none of them is so innocent and to that end I'm not a big fan of any of the players. But I hope this fact doesn't detract from the incredible suffering of innocent civilians. The current open campaign of bombing will only lead to a deeper cycle of violence and hatred.
Al Sinjab, yeah, that foreign policy...sometime I feel that the Egyptian Book of the Dead is much more modern and relevant to the subject than what these ass-kissers have to say (or repeat). However, on the subject of a doughnuts crisis in Kandahar I must voice my sympathy and put it in perspective; it's still way more newsworthy in my opinion than the Bush-Merkel news conference. One is yummy; one makes you want to vomit.
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