"The Raft of the Medusa" by Théodore Géricault 1818-19, Musée du Louvre, Paris
I want to share with you today important words of pristine clarity and reason. Furthermore, I shan't link to the source as yet, for I would like you to allow these words to live and breathe free from any association. For those of you who recognize it, please weigh in and discuss the content without mentioning the source.
Civilians in Lebanon and Israel have suffered from the current violence, and we recognize that responsibility for this suffering lies with Hezbollah. It was an unprovoked attack by Hezbollah on Israel that started this conflict. Hezbollah terrorists targeted Israeli civilians with daily rocket attacks. Hezbollah terrorists used Lebanese civilians as human shields, sacrificing the innocent in an effort to protect themselves from Israeli response.
Responsibility for the suffering of the Lebanese people also lies with Hezbollah's state sponsors, Iran and Syria. The regime in Iran provides Hezbollah with financial support, weapons, and training. Iran has made clear that it seeks the destruction of Israel. We can only imagine how much more dangerous this conflict would be if Iran had the nuclear weapon it seeks.
Syria is another state sponsor of Hezbollah. Syria allows Iranian weapons to pass through its territory into Lebanon. Syria permits Hezbollah's leaders to operate out of Damascus and gives political support to Hezbollah's cause. Syria supports Hezbollah because it wants to undermine Lebanon's democratic government and regain its position of dominance in the country. That would be a great tragedy for the Lebanese people and for the cause of peace in the Middle East.
Hezbollah and its foreign sponsors also seek to undermine the prospects for peace in the Middle East. Hezbollah terrorists kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, Hamas kidnapped another Israeli soldier for a reason. Hezbollah and Hamas reject the vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security. [...]
The conflict in Lebanon is part of a broader struggle between freedom and terror that is unfolding across the region. [...]
Forces of terror see the changes that are taking place in their midst. They understand that the advance of liberty, the freedom to worship, the freedom to dissent, and the protection of human rights would be a defeat for their hateful ideology. But they also know that young democracies are fragile and that this may be their last and best opportunity to stop freedom's advance and steer newly free nation to the path of radical extremism. So the terrorists are striking back with all of the destructive power that they can muster. It's no coincidence that two nations that are building free societies in the heart of the Middle East, Lebanon and Iraq, are also the scenes of the most violent terrorist activity. [...]
The problem in the Middle East today is not that people lack the desire for freedom. The problem is that young democracies that they have established are still vulnerable to terrorists and their sponsors. One vulnerability is that many of the new democratic governments in the region have not yet established effective control over all their territory.
In both Lebanon and Iraq, elected governments are contending with rogue armed groups that are seeking to undermine and destabilize them. In Lebanon, Hezbollah declared war on Lebanon's neighbor, Israel, without the knowledge of the elected government in Beirut. In Iraq, al Qaeda and death squads engage in brutal violence to undermine the unity government. And in both these countries, Iran is backing armed groups in the hope of stopping democracy from taking hold. [...]
The Middle East is at a pivotal moment in its history. The death and destruction we see shows how determined the extremists are to stop just and modern societies from emerging in the region. [...]
The way forward is going to be difficult. It will require more sacrifice. But we can be confident of the outcome because we know and understand the unstoppable power of freedom. In a Middle East that grows in freedom and democracy, people will have a chance to raise their families and live in peace and build a better future. In a Middle East that grows in freedom and democracy, the terrorists will lose their recruits and lose their sponsors, and lose safe havens from which to launch new attacks. In a Middle East that grows in freedom and democracy, there will be no room for tyranny and terror, and that will make America and other free nations more secure.
Which part of this isn't clear to even the most obdurate of pundits.
We do however exclude the notion that clarity and reason resonate in Lebanon at this moment in time, as Beirut now says that Hezbollah can keep their weapons -- as long as the weapons stay concealed. Fine, as long as the weapons stay in place Israel does not have to budge. Please God let stupidity reign supreme.
Israel somewhat damaged one of Iran's boxing gloves when it needed to rip the whole f-ing arm off. Maybe it tried but couldn't. Maybe it is too pc-whipped to try hard enough.
Iran, as has been noted by many, has become the de facto major power of the islamic world against the zionist infidel state. Not a bad month's work if you live in Tehran.
But I suspect the "pivotal moment" is this. Iran has come out of this as a worthy partner in mischief in the eyes of Russia and China. Don't ignore the possibility of a Warsaw Pact of the energy-rich nations, ie Russia, Iran, Venezuela + China; and then a very literal cold war against the West. Mr. Spengler speaks of going to war with Iran before the New Year. If only it were just Iran! It should be the state department's day and night job to break up this club. Fast.
If there's any good news here it might be that to the extent Iran is recognized by all muslims as the capital of their caliphate, Iran becomes responsible for the acts of all muslims, be they living in Lebanon or in London or New York. Terrorism can no longer hide behind statelessness. We will know where to address the return missles.
Posted by: igout | Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 04:49 PM
gringoman, nice to see you, and it is great to see gringovision slicing through the foggy ether again.
Ghost Dansing, you made my point for me. Rabin was whacked (and there is no evidence of a conspiracy, so I won't say "they") for far less than Olmert has done. I fear for his safety, and for the safety of Israel's government.
His behaviour is going to be seen by religious hardliners as treacherous. Especially those who've had their new homes blown out by Katyushas, after having been "resettled" out of Gaza. I don't know if there are any such people, but if there are, you can bet there are going to be quite a few of them who would shoot him out of sheer desparation and frustration.
Not my idea of course, I'm just agreeing with your point about the Rabin murder.
It doesn't help that Olmert's Foreign Minister is a complete loser who makes Dominic de Villepin sound convincing. This Israeli government will fall in the next few weeks, paving the way for Bibi perhaps (an unmitigated disaster for the "palestinians" by the way). When (not if) Hamas begins to launch Katyushas into Israel, I don't think Bibi is going to make the same mistake that Olmert's regime made. That is going to cost Israel bigtime, since the Arab world will not start out tacitly supporting Israel on this offensive, like they did at the start of the last one.
Unfortunately, I think Hizb'allah was much more deserving of the @$$-whipping the "palestinians" are going to get instead.
And the calculus has changed for good in the ME. A new power is rising, that of Iran as the go-to-guys for all your Islamic grievance needs. Olmert has made the world a far more dangerous place, handing Iran and Syria the ceasefire from heaven.
Let us pray Hizb'allah stuffs it up, but I think the next front is going to be based in Gaza, and will start soon.
Posted by: Crusader.NoRegrets. | Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 01:32 PM
Mac,
[grinning] Reminds me of the Texas expression that could readily be applied to Olmert: "All hat, no cattle."
I don't know if you've seen the old John Belushi movie Animal House, but there's a scene in which a horse winds up in the dean's office. On the day they were shooting that scene -- I think they shot that movie at Dartmouth, didn't they? -- anyway, they shot that scene on location. They were in the middle of the shoot when one of the actual professors wandered past. He glanced into the dean's office, saw the horse standing behind the desk, and observed calmly, without even breaking stride:
"Well, that's the first time I've ever seen an entire horse in that office."
Posted by: Kenny | Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 10:13 AM
C'mon, Gringo, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. ;-)
Posted by: Kenny | Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 09:34 AM
Alexandra,
current environs etc don't conduce to my giving this the precise thrashing it deserves. I'll just have to remark that pap, however earnest, well-meaning and do-good, remains essentially what it is. The pap- chap--I hate to think who he might be--appears deluded enough to think he can get away with pretentious platitudes like "pivotal moment in the Middle East"and equally pretentious cliches about the "march of freedom." Alexandra, the few who listen attentively have heard it all before, many, many, many times.
Unfortunately, the stale rhetoric cannot escape fundamental facts. The facile dependence on the idealism of democracy has never ever proved itself able to withstand the forces of evil, barbarism or just plain old human nature and corruption. You don't even need a doctorate in the history of Greece and Rome to see this clearly. A gringo advisory to anyone who is impressed by this "mystery man's"little speech: You may want to learn and savor the heady pleasures of pessimism. This is going to be a very useful art. As gringovision said once before, to the "democracy buffs"': your sentiments are nice, even fine (and we'll forget, for the moment, why the Founding Fathers constructed a REPUBLIC here, and NOT a democracy.) But here's something the buffs prefer to downplay, since it's much harder than spouting pleasant rhetoric about "democracy"and "free elections': IT''S THE SECURITY, STUPID, and now even the Hezbos have demonstrated that (1) you still do not understand that or (2) you understand but lack the will or (3) you understand but lack not only the will but also the cojones and cannot admit how fat and feminized you now look to everyone except yourselves, as you adjust your panties, trying to get off cheap by pushing buttons and dropping some bombs and doing the Diplomat Tango.
Alexandra, wouldn't it be better to let this guy stay anonymous, (for his sake, if nothing else)?
Posted by: gringoman | Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 12:24 AM
Kenny- I enjoyed your jokes (I'd heard the Kissinger/hippie/priest one before). As a native Texan, I'll take a bit of liberty and go off subject with these two jokes at dubya's expense.
1) God calls St. Peter into his office. "Pete, a lot of impostors have been walking around heaven lately pretending to be notable people. I want you to tighten security at the Golden Gates, check IDs better." "Yes, my Lord, I'll get right on it," replies St. Peter.
The next day a cute little old man with a handlebar mustache and wild white hair walks up to the Golden Gates and says,"let me in, I'm Albert Einstein" in a distinctive Swiss German accent.
St. P. says, " you know, we get a lot of little old guys who look like Albert Einstein who are impostors. You're going to have to prove you're Einstein."
"No problem. Hand me a pencil and some paper," says the man. St. P. does, and the man proceeds to write out, with a flourish, the complete proofs, from memory, of the general and special theories of relativity. St. P. glances them over and says, "only one man could have done that; you're Einstein, come on in."
A bit later another little old man, this one bald and speaking with a distinctive Spanish accent, comes to the Gates and says,"let me in, I'm Pablo Picasso." St. P. repeats his admonition about impostors mucking about the Golden Gates, and that the little man will have to demonstrate proof of his identity.
"No problem; give me a canvas, burshes, and a palette of paints." The man then proceeds to paint a dynamic, richly-textured modernist-Cubist original. St. P. looks it over and says, "only one man could paint that way, with that sort of brushstroke. You're Picasso, you're in."
A little later, a befuddled-looking middle-aged man approaches the Gates and says in a distinctive North Texas drawl, "Let me in, I'm George W. Bush." St. P. repeats the admonition about requiring proof of identity.
The man says indignantly, "Why should I have to prove anything? I was president, and my father and his friends smoothed the way for everything I attained in life." St. P. replies, "But we just had Einstein and Picasso here and they had to prove their identities." The man, looking thoroughly puzzled, says, "Einstein! Picasso! Who the hell are they?" St. P. knowingly rolls his eyes and says, "yep, you're him, come on in."
2) Three elite reconstructive surgeons decide to stop to wet their whistles at the 19th hole after playing a round of golf at their country club. After the 4th or 5th round of bourbons, their Texas braggadoccio comes out. The first surgeon says, "I once worked on a case of a talented young piano-playing boy all of whose fingers were chopped off working in his dad's basement workshop with the table saw. Six months after I worked on him, he won the Van Cliburn piano competition in Ft. Worth." The second surgeon says, "that's nothing. I worked on a young man, a promising young athlete, who was working in the West Texas oil patch one summer when an explosion in the field ripped off both his arms and both his legs. A year after I worked on him, he won the gold medal in the decathlon in the Summer Olympics." The third surgeon says, "I got both you boys beat. I once knew this central Texas rancher who was riding on the perimeter of his property on his favorite horse, near where the freight train tracks ran. He and the horse got to close and a big ol' freight train hit them. All that was left was the horse's behind and the man's 10-gallon hat. I worked on the man, and now he's President of the United States!"
I'll stop before Alexandra suspends me. On a more serious note, I think Daniel Pipes on the "strange logic of the Lebanon war" (www.danielpipes.org) was dead on today. Shalom, Mac Brachman
Posted by: mac Brachman | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 09:30 PM
This article was linked awhile ago on ATB -- it is a eye-oening story from Dan Simmons, that was discussed in a different context by Scott SA; I believe that it was Liquid who provided the original link; if not, my apologies for forgetting who provided the link, but my thanks for this story; for those of us who have not had an opportunity to read it, I strongly recommend that you read it soon -- it may open your eyes to the real world; I hope it is not prophetic, but if we do not change the way we view and act towards our enemies in the near future, it may be prophetic, may the Almighty have mercy on all of us.
http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2006_04.htm
Posted by: saul davis | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 07:25 PM
Some people think their thoughts are original...you know I was thinking that I've heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord, but you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this...the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift...and in the end, the baffled King composing Hallelujah
Some here abide by a theory of what must be done. It is flawed...but at least there might be some good come of it...maybe, if pursued more creatively, and with more colors on the pallet besides gunsmoke black.
Then there are others that simply love the violence of it all. There are soldiers, and then there are those who just murder.
Yitzhak Rabin was a soldier.
He was also the fifth Prime Minister of Israel from 1974 until 1977 and again from 1992 until his assassination in 1995 by Yigal Amir, a right-wing activist who had strenuously opposed Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords. He was the first local-born Prime Minister of Israel, the only Prime Minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office (following Levi Eshkol).
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he directed Israeli operations in Jerusalem and fought the Egyptian army in the Negev.
In the late 1970s, when Rabin wrote his memoirs in Hebrew, Pinkas Sherut, he described an episode of the 1948 war that had troubled him ever since, the forced expulsion by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of 50,000 Arab civilians from the towns of Lod-Ramle. A cabinet committee which checks ministerial memoirs for security leaks ordered that the section be removed and indeed, against Rabin's wishes, it was.
Soldiers always have a conscience.
In 1964 he rose to the position of Chief of Staff in the Israel Defense Forces. Under his command, the IDF achieved an overwhelming victory over Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the Six-Day War in 1967. After the Old City of Jerusalem was captured by the IDF, Rabin was among the first to visit the old city, and then delivered a famous speech on the top of Mount Scopus at the Hebrew University. During the buildup to the war Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown, caused by mounting pressure over his inability to prevent it, and was incapacitated for 48 hours. His incapacitation was not disclosed to the public, and he resumed full command over the IDF.
Following his retirement from the IDF, he became a diplomat, serving as ambassador to the United States beginning in 1968. In 1973, he was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Labor Party, and was appointed Minister of Labor.
On June 2, 1974, he was elected Party leader and succeeded Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel.
This term in office was most famous for Operation Entebbe, in which, on his orders, the IDF rescued passengers of a plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Rabin resigned from office after two crises hit him: the arrival of four F-15 jets on Shabbat led to the breaking up of his coalition; and the exposure of a US dollar bank account held by his wife Leah Rabin, an act forbidden at that time by Israeli currency regulators. Rabin took responsibility for his wife's account and resigned from office. Rabin was later hailed by many commentators for his resignation, who said that his resignation was a sign of integrity and responsibility.
Following Rabin's resignation, Likud's Menachem Begin was elected in 1977. Until 1984 Rabin was a member of Knesset and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. These were difficult years for Yitzhak Rabin.
During the years 1984 to 1990 Rabin was a Minister of Defense in several unity governments under prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres. During these years the image of Rabin as "Mister Security" (Mar Bitachon) was strengthened on and beyond the Six Day War and Entebbe Operation.
In 1992 Rabin was elected as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party. In the elections that same year his party, strongly focusing on the popularity of its leader, managed to win a clear victory over the Likud of incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. However the Left bloc in the Knesset won an overall narrow majority, facilitated by the disqualification of small nationalist parties that did not manage to pass the electoral threshold. Rabin formed the first Labor led government in fifteen years, supported by a coalition of left wing parties and Shas, a Jewish orthodox religious party.
Rabin played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority and granted it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Prior to the signing of the accords, Rabin received a letter from PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel, and on the same day Rabin sent Arafat a letter officially recognizing the PLO on September 9, 1993. (See: Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization letters of recognition.) During this term of office, Rabin also oversaw the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace (1994).
For his role in the creation of the Oslo Accords, Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres. The Accords greatly polarized his image in Israeli society, some seeing him as a hero for advancing the cause of peace and some seeing him as a traitor for giving away land they saw as rightfully belonging to Israel. Also, Rabin's government was kept in office with the tacit support of Arab-Israeli parties in the Knesset.
On November 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing radical who had strenuously opposed Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords, after attending a rally promoting the Oslo process at Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square (which was renamed Yitzhak Rabin Square after his death). Rabin died of massive blood loss and a punctured lung on the operating table at the nearby Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Yigel Amir is a murderer.
Amir is currently serving a life sentence for murder plus 14 years for conspiracy to murder Yitzhak Rabin on different occasions and for injuring Rabin's bodyguard.
Amir was caught at the scene. Upon hearing Yitzhak Rabin died due to his assassination, Amir told the police he was "satisfied". Amir was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 6 additional years in prison for injuring Rubin. In the verdict, the judges wrote:
Every murder is an abominable act, but the act before us is more abominable seven-fold, because not only has the accused not expressed regret or sorrow, but he also seeks to show that he is at peace with himself over the act that he perpetrated. He who so calmly cuts short another's life, only proves the depth of wretchedness to which [his] values have fallen, and thus he does not merit any regard whatsoever, except pity, because he has lost his humanity.
מגן ולא יראה
Posted by: Ghost Dansing | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 07:03 PM
Okay, in fairness to the wounded pride of Alexandra's Arab readers over the Israeli jokes, here are three of my favorite American President jokes, after which I promise I'll cut it out.
---
President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are having breakfast at a little mom'n'pop cafe in Crawford. The waitress -- a cute, pretty little girl-next-door of about nineteen -- walks bashfully up to the table and asks, "Are you gentlemen ready to order?"
Cheney says decisively, "I'll have the Sunshine Sampler breakfast, with the eggs over easy and the toast unbuttered. And make my coffee black, with just a touch of Bushmills in lieu of sugar."
The girl writes this down dutifully and then turns to Bush. "What will you have, Mr. President?" she asks respectfully.
Dubya thinks it over for a moment, then looks at her with a smile and drawls, "How about a quickie?"
THWACK! President or no President, when you're in Texas you don't insult self-respecting young ladies with impunity. Before the Secret Service can react, the waitress is marching away in high dudgeon, leaving a bright red handprint on the President's face and a very confused look in his eyes.
Vice-President Cheney leans over toward Dubya and says quietly, "Um, Mr. President...I believe that's pronounced 'quiche.'"
--
From the early Seventies:
Nixon, Kissinger, a priest and a hippie are all on a plane when the intercom clicks on. "This is your pilot speaking. I regret to inform you that all our engines have just died and the plane is in the process of crashing. Furthermore, due to an oversight it appears that we are one parachute short. The co-pilot and I are taking ours. We would suggest that you work out who gets the other parachutes as quickly as possible. Good luck and good-bye."
Nixon looks around the cabin and announces, "Well, since I am the leader of the free world, I believe it is my patriotic duty to take one of these parachutes." Suiting the action to the word, he seizes a parachute and leaps out of the plane.
Kissinger stands up. "In light of the fact that I possess the most powerful intellect of my time, it seem only rational that I too should have a parachute." And out he goes.
The priest looks at the hippie. "My son, you may take the last parachute. I am prepared to meet my Maker."
The hippie claps him on the shoulder, "No, don't worry about it, man, there's no problem -- the smartest man in the world just jumped out of this plane wearing my backpack."
---
And finally, from just a few years further back, one of special interest to myself, seeing as how my children used to attend Lyndon B. Johnson public schools in Johnson City, Texas, in the heart of Lyndon B. Johnson Country -- though that is not where I heard this joke.
A Massachusettes college student has heard so much about Lyndon B. Johnson Country from the media (which did love to play the Texas bit with LBJ) that he decides he wants to see LBJ Country for himself. So he hops in his car and takes off, and as soon as he hits Texarkana he pops into the first service station on the Texas side of the state line and asks, "Excuse me, but how do I get to Lyndon B. Johnson Country?"
The attendant regards him silently for a moment or two, then spits in his paper cup, sets the cup back down and finally drawls, "Well, stranger, I tell you what. If you want to get t' Lyndon Johnson country, you just get in that there car o' yores, and you start drivin' west and a li'l bit south, an' ev'ry couple o' hours you find yoreself a bar, and you walk into that bar an' you say nice 'n' loud, 'Lyndon B. Johnson is a horse's ass!' An' when you get to Lyndon Johnson country...[he smiles encouragingly, but with a certain gleam in his eye]...you'll know yo're thair."
So the Yankee does that. Every hundred miles or so he pops into a bar: "Lyndon B. Johnson is a horse's ass!" And sure enough, about the third honkey-tonk he marches into, when he delivers his line this cowboy rises off a barstool to his full six foot six and just lays the Yankee out with a piledriving right hook.
The cowbody sits back down and the locals return to the contemplation of their beer and their cue sticks. After a couple of minutes the Yankee sits slowly up, then gets to his knees and finally pulls himself to his feet with a hand on the beer-stained bar. Still shaking the cobwebs out of his head, he says out loud, "Well, I suppose I must be in Lyndon B. Johnson Country."
The bartender shakes his head firmly. "No, sir, stranger. This here ain't Lyndon Johnson Country. This here's horse country."
--
And now I really will stop before Alexandra temporarily bans me.
Posted by: Kenny | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 06:55 PM
Ghost,
I note with pleasure our complete agreement on the folly of the "realists" in giving massive amounts of foreign aid to dictators who oppressed their own people. It's not enough that we support Israel -- no, we have to support Mubarak, too...
By the way, there is a flourishing genre of jokes in the Arab world analogous to America's blonde jokes, only, instead of the targets being stupid and slutty, they are stupid and violent. The target? Arab leaders. Which tells you how much good all of our foreign aid to "the Arab world" (meaning, these stupid, violent dictators) has done our image among everyday Arabs.
An example of the genre:
The Americans, the Russians and the leaders of the Arab League decide to have a contest over which of the three is the best at dealing with the rigors of the Empty Quarter. The rules of the contest are simple: for each team, a rabbit will be released somewhere in the Empty Quarter, and they will be timed on how long it takes to find the rabbit.
The Americans go first. The rabbit is released at dawn, the satellites go into action, and by lunchtime the rabbit is securely in American custody.
The next day it is the Soviets' turn. (You can tell this is an old joke.) The rabiit is released at dawn, and just as the sun is setting a cheer goes up from the Russian camp: the rabbit has been found and captured.
The next day it is the Arab leaders' time to shine. The rabbit is released at dawn, and the Arab forces disappear into the desert. Night falls. The Americans and Russians gaze at the spectacular desert stars until the dawn. Still no Arab rabbit-hunters. The day crawls by to another fiery sunset, and another peaceful night goes by. The next morning...still no Arab hunters. The sun begins to climb again, and by lunchtime the Americans and the Soviets are getting worried. "Guess we'd better go find them," the American general tells his Soviet counterpart, and the comrade general replies a hearty, "Da, soglasno." And sure enough, just before sundown they track down the Arab leaders...in the farthest corner of the Empty Quarter...where they have captured a jackass and are torturing him to try to get him to admit that he's really the rabbit.
----
And then there's the bitter joke Egyptians used to tell to express their opinion of the military incompetence of Nasser & Company:
Several days into the Six-Day War, Nasser gets a call from his buddies in Russia. "What are you doing?" they ask. He replies brightly, "But gentlemen, we have the Zionists right where we want them. They have fallen into our trap and will never leave the Sinai alive."
"What trap do you mean?"
"Why, we are applying the lessons of the great Russian general Kutusov: we have fallen back and are waiting for our enemies to freeze to death in the winter."
(I think that joke has also been told about the Syrians. Furthermore, it was also popular in the Soviet Union. And probably in Israel as well. But I heard it from a Lebanese girl.)
----
Under the special conditions of Lebanon, Syrian border guards were long a favorite target.
A Lebanese dude in a Volkswagen Beetle approaches a Syrian roadblock, and the Syrian guard demands that he get out and open the boot. Obediently the Lebanese guy gets out and starts to walk around to the front of the bug; but the Syrian roars at him: "No, you b******, I said the boot!"
"But..." the Lebanese guy starts to explain, but the Syrian's AK-47 is now pointed at his chest. So he shuffles around to the back and opens the hood.
"Ha!" sneers the Syrian in triumph. "You fool, you thought you could get by me, but you've been caught!"
"Caught? Doing what?" asks the Lebanese in bewilderment.
"You b******, you've stolen an engine!" replies the Syrian. "And furthermore, you must have only just now stolen it, because it's still running..."
---
Oh well, in for a penny...guess I'll tell a couple of the classic Israeli warrior jokes -- which after the Olmert debacle should be much safer to tell since they're not nearly so close to the truth as they once were.
Israeli recruitment poster: "Join the Army. See the Pyramids." (Those were the days, eh, Ehud?)
--
There's a stir in the kibbutz when fifty Arab soldiers come marching through on their way to the local IDF garrison, their hands on their heads in surrender. Behind them walks a single Israeli soldier, who, upon arriving at the garrison, apologizes to the C.O.: "I'm sorry sir; there were a hundred of them but I'm afraid I let fifty get away. I would've gotten them all, but I didn't have my husband with me..."
---
I know lots more but I'm sure that Alexandra's Arab readers don't find them funny, being personally involved and all; so I'll be merciful and stop...oh, well, just one more.
It is the day before the Six-Day War, and a Syrian commander has his troops massed at the border awaiting the order to invade. Suddenly, from behind a ridge just across the border, an Israeli soldier pops up and proceeds to say a number of highly intemperate and slanderous things about the dear mother of the Syrian commander. Well, that certainly is not to be tolerated; so the commander points at a squad of his men and says, "Go get him."
The squad charges the hill. The Israeli's eyes widen and he ducks down behind the ridgeline. Over the hill and out of sight charge the Syrians, and then there is a burst of gunshot, two screams, several dull thuds, and then an ominous silence.
And then back up pops the Israeli, to resume his uncultured diatribe.
The Syrian commander growls deep in his throat. His eyes seek out the young officer in charge of the nearest platoon. "Bring me that Zionist!" the commander orders the youngster. He snaps off a salute, and then he and his platoon fix bayonets and charge the hill. Again the Israeli ducks out of sight; again the Syrians rush over the ridgeline and disappear behind it; again there are gunshots and a grenade or two and screams and moans. And then the silence.
And then again the Israeli pops up.
The Syrian commander has had it. Orders or no orders, he is not going to sit there and take this. He turns to tell the entire company to charge. And then, at the last moment, one lone, mortally wounded Syrian manages to drag himself to the ridgeline unnoticed by the Israeli.
"Don't come!" he screams desperately. "Don't come! It's an ambush!...There's another Israeli!"
Posted by: Kenny | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 06:24 PM
Did you just lift that verbatim? Damn, I thought you were becoming eloquent, but alas, Al is up to his usual tricks.
GD, have you ever actually had an original thought?
As usual, you urge the US and its allies to "stop digging", and when people ask you how to accomplish that, you deflect, deny and obfuscate. I have become convinced that people like you are actually undermining the war effort, GD.
Posted by: Crusader.NoRegrets. | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 05:53 PM
Achieving moral clarity often requires hiding certain realities.
The neocons grand plan differs depending on whom you speak to, but the basic outline runs like this: The United States establishes a reasonably democratic, pro-Western government in Iraq--assume it falls somewhere between Turkey and Jordan on the spectrum of democracy and the rule of law.
Not perfect, representative democracy, certainly, but a system infinitely preferable to Saddam's. The example of a democratic Iraq will radically change the political dynamics of the Middle East.
When Palestinians see average Iraqis beginning to enjoy real freedom and economic opportunity, they'll want the same themselves. With that happy prospect on one hand and implacable United States will on the other, they'll demand that the Palestinian Authority reform politically and negotiate with Israel.
That in turn will lead to a real peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.
A democratic Iraq will also hasten the fall of the fundamentalist Shi'a mullahs in Iran, whose citizens are gradually adopting anti-fanatic, pro-Western sympathies.
A democratized Iran would create a string of democratic, pro-Western governments (Turkey, Iraq, and Iran) stretching across the historical heartland of Islam.
Without a hostile Iraq towering over it, Jordan's pro-Western Hashemite monarchy would likely come into full bloom. Syria would be no more than a pale reminder of the bad old days. (If they made trouble, a U.S. invasion would take care of them, too.)
And to the tiny Gulf emirates making hesitant steps toward democratization, the corrupt regimes of Saudi Arabia and Egypt would no longer look like examples of stability and strength in a benighted region, but holdouts against the democratic tide.
Once the dust settles, we could decide whether to ignore them as harmless throwbacks to the bad old days or deal with them, too. We'd be in a much stronger position to do so since we'd no longer require their friendship to help us manage ugly regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
It is like the "domino theory" in reverse...or is it just the domino theory?
Sure, the neocon's vision could come to pass. But there are at least half a dozen equally plausible alternative scenarios that would be disastrous for us.
To begin with, this whole endeavor is supposed to be about reducing the long-term threat of terrorism, particularly terrorism that employs weapons of mass destruction.
But, to date, every time a Western or non-Muslim country has put troops into Arab lands to stamp out violence and terror, it has awakened entire new terrorist organizations and a generation of recruits.
Placing U.S. troops in Riyadh after the Gulf War (to protect Saudi Arabia and its oilfields from Saddam) gave Osama bin Laden a cause around which he built al Qaeda.
Israel took the West Bank in a war of self-defense, but once there its occupation helped give rise to Hamas.
Israel's incursion into southern Lebanon (justified at the time, but transformed into a permanent occupation) led to the rise of Hezbollah.
Why do we imagine that our invasion and occupation of Iraq, or whatever countries come next, will turn out any differently?
Cavalier calls for regime change, however, runs into a rather obvious problem. When the communist regimes of Eastern and Central Europe fell after 1989, the people of those nations felt grateful to the United States because we helped liberate them from their Russian colonial masters.
They went on to create pro-Western democracies. The same is unlikely to happen, however, if we help "liberate" Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The tyrannies in these countries are home grown, and the U.S. government has supported them, rightly or wrongly, for decades, even as we've ignored (in the eyes of Arabs) the plight of the Palestinians. Consequently, the citizens of these countries generally hate the United States, and show strong sympathy for Islamic radicals.
If free elections were held in Saudi Arabia today, Osama bin Laden would probably win more votes than Crown Prince Abdullah. Topple the pro-Western autocracies in these countries, in other words, and you won't get pro-Western democracies but anti-Western tyrannies.
Ending Saddam Hussein's regime and replacing it with something stable and democratic was always going to be a difficult task, even with the most able leadership and the broadest coalition. But doing it as the Bush administration now intends is something like going outside and giving a few good whacks to a hornets' nest because you want to get them out in the open and have it out with them once and for all. Ridding the world of Islamic terrorism by rooting out its ultimate sources--Muslim fundamentalism and the Arab world's endemic despotism, corruption, and poverty--might work. But the costs will be immense. Whether the danger is sufficient and the costs worth incurring would make for an interesting public debate. The problem is that once it's just us and the hornets, we really won't have any choice.
Excerpts from: Joshua Micah Marshall, Washington Monthly, April 2003
I substituted "hawks" for "neocons", because they don't deserve the moniker "hawks".
Posted by: Ghost Dansing | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 04:30 PM
I have a suggestion for your mystery speaker, Alexandra. He should simply resign, and call an election. Oh, wait, he can't. Darn.
Posted by: Crusader.NoRegrets. | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 02:05 PM
[grinning] I don't think your source's identity is much of a secret, my dear Baroness.
Posted by: Kenny | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 01:38 PM
I just pray that "this source" will be willing to back up these words with action if necessary.
Anyway, here is another source that sheds light on the current situation.
BTW---Should Israel determine and risk it's future on the hopeful results and dependancy of other's actions of promise that they cannot seem to provide? Will the support come in more than mere words? Will what is written on paper walk off the page into something else?
DEBKA
Posted by: liquid | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 12:57 PM
Oh, it's clear enough. But is it wishful thinking? This is a question only those on the right can ask. The left abdicated seriousness years ago.
Posted by: igout | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 12:54 PM
I'm feeling particularly stupid today.....The MSM is telling me that Hezbollah is both the victor and the victim. My little mind is having trouble wraping itself around that concept. I am a victim of my own ignorance but it is everyone else's fault...ah hell where did I leave my Kalashnikov.
Posted by: Dave | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 11:57 AM
It is the context of these comments, rather than the content, that speaks most loudly. The speaker has vitiated the truth embedded in his own remarks by failing to encourage Irsrael to pursue the battle to victory and instead proclaiming (falsely) that the cease fire is a defeat for Hezzbollah.
The simple fact is that only a brutal, crushing defeat will set the true followers of Islam back on their heels enough to win some respite from the savagry that is Islam, seen most clearly in the behavior of its true disciples in Al-qaesa and Hezzbollah, and their state sponsors, Syria, Iran and (only very slightly under the table) Saudi Arabia.
Three things alone will provide relief from the mad religion of The Butcher of Medina:
Crushing, brutal, MASSIVE destruction of those who sponsor terrorism
Complete independence for any first World country from Middle East oil
Lather, rinse, repeat.
We have the means to do these things, NOW, but not the will.
And our children and grandchildren (when awakened from the mind-numbing slumber induced by public schooling—AKA "prisons for kids"—and mass media) will curse us for lacking the will to do what is necessary.
I used to be a firm supporter of the man who spoke the words quoted above, words that, ignoring the full context, have the ring of truth. But as I said, that truth is undermined by the failure to act as needed.
And so it goes. Political animals spout either words that make no sense and then act on them OR words that make perect sense and then fail to follow through to make the truth of their words a reality.
In this case, stating the truth that Hezzbollah is almost completely at fault in recent events is made of no effect, because absent the destruction of Hezzbollah in southern Lebanon, no one will really care that they are at fault.
Israel must bear some blame for forgetting Machiavelli—never merely wound an enemy—and for making more enemies unecessarily--unecessarily, because they DID NOT COMPLETE THE JOB.
*sigh*
Oh. Well. I'm sure it will all look much brighter when I've had some coffee...
Posted by: David | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 11:51 AM
"There's a vast and strange inconsistancies at work."
Wow. No more commenting before coffee.
Posted by: Josh Koenig | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 11:47 AM
There's a vast and strange inconsistancies at work. This is rhetoric and nothing else. It's nice rhetoric (he does have some of the better writers in the business), but it seems abundantly clear at this point that this is a fantasy.
Posted by: Josh Koenig | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 11:46 AM
Alexandra,
Doing my best to ignore the source...[grinning] Obviously I agree with the sentiments expressed in these excerpts.
Sorry not to give you more of a comment, but I've shot my bolt this morning on the older threads, and the test I was waiting on just finished so I have to get back to work...
Posted by: Kenny | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 11:13 AM
Why is this person still incapable of naming the enemy? To be sure terrorism is the preferred method of the enemy, but the enemy himself is not his tactics.
[Sigh], I guess we went to war in 1939 to win a great victory over "blitzkrieg". I guess we fought the Cold War to win a great victory over "rural insurgency".
Alexandra, I used to like the one who said these things, but he has shrunk in stature, and become timid and unworthy of these times. He is becoming a coward.
Posted by: Crusader.NoRegrets. | Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 10:50 AM