Random Pensées

I'm afraid that the country of Lebanon astounds me, the more I read the more confused I am. How can a country rely on a terrorist group to defend itself against a neighbour? And they are a political party?

Fears of civil war have left a society scared of pissing off the terrorists in the case of starting another war. Terrorists are civilians, some civilians are terrorists, and their friends the Hezbollah use them as meat shields when fighting Israel.

I don't really think I support either side, I hate terrorists and people who kill the innocent for a cause. I also don't like the approach Israel is going at this either, massive bombings of cities where civilians reside and then later dropping letter bombs warning them to leave.

In brief, I think the cartoon you post pretty well sums up the situation in the Mideast. Andrew Sullivan posts a letter from a Lebanese Shiite who describes what happened when Hezbollah moved into town:

Received as successful resistance fighters and armed to the teeth, they stored rockets in bunkers in our town as well. The social work of the Party of God consisted in building a school and a residence over these bunkers! A local sheikh explained to me laughing that the Jews would lose in any event because the rockets would either be fired at them or if they attacked the rockets depots, they would be condemned by world opinion on account of the dead civilians. These people do not care about the Lebanese population, they use them as shields, and, once dead, as propaganda. As long as they continue existing there, there will be no tranquility and peace.

Indeed, photos have been published of Hezbollah militants in civilian clothes manning a rocket launcher in a residential neighborhood.

The state of affairs seems, at least to me, pretty plain. It would seem to me that it should be plain to anyone. So why is it not plain to so many people -- including some in my family, not to mention the media, the UN Diplomatic Corps, and other shapers of world opinion?

PJ O'Rourke was on the mark calling the Holy Land "God's Monkey House." But are the sides of Good and Evil really so difficult to discern here?

Maybe I'm blinded by my own prejudices and preconceptions. And certainly people of good will can and do disagree. But I would ask those who hold Israel culpable, who hold Israel to blame: Do you believe Israel has a right to defend itself? Do you believe Israel even has a right to exist?

Please realize that Lebanese are not Arabs. They are in fact Phoenicians and were among the very first Christians. Due to the Palestinian refugees and the Syrian invasion, Lebanese are now a minority in our own country. In due time they will cease to exist in the Middle East, and eventually, everywhere. They are a people who have been effectively annihilated. Hezbollah are NOT Lebanese, regardless of where they live or what passports they carry.

Mind you, this is not Israel's fault and the current conflict will not make things better or worse for Lebanese. However, it does get tiresome when the press in the US does not make the distinction.

You owe it to your cousin to prevent him and his idiot girlfriend from making babies. Furthermore, you owe it to your kin to have him understand that however good the sex and cooking and companionship are, they are not good enough to overcome the sort of dangerously foolish concepts as his idiot girlfriend has expressed.

If he continues along his pubic-blinded path toward destruction, you owe it to him to change his name and dis-own him. Do it now, before it's too late.

Dan Patterson
Arrogant Infidel

"Where...do you come out on this"

I think you know! I have idiot relatives as well!

I submitted an article on tis site entitled "LIVE from Beirut" to Mary Mitchell from the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
please let me know if it is on your data base for publication.

Regards,

Gus Choueiri
5 Oct. 2006

Sir, I deleted your comment entirely. You simply re-posted an entire copy-righted article. I do not permit such actions on my comment boards. My blog, my rules.