Thursday, July 27, 2006

SIGNS OF WEAKNESS When Israeli troops start killing civilians indiscriminately, including UN observers, and foreign nationals, this is a sign of weakness, of hiding vulnerabilities behind a bully front. The result is a growing opposition and also a moral decline that will destroy the system from within. Independent: "Israeli missiles had clearly pierced the very centre of the red cross on the roof of each ambulance." Guardian: "Growing evidence that the ground battle in Lebanon will be far tougher than Israel had expected emerged yesterday after firefights against Hizbullah in two border villages left Israeli troops counting their highest death toll in a single day since the conflict began. Up to 13 Israeli soldiers were killed and many more wounded yesterday in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil during the fiercest battle so far in the Middle East conflict." Zbigniew Brzezinski: "Today the Middle East is the fundamental test of American ability to lead, and at stake is precisely that. If we do not do well, we will lose our capacity to lead, and that concerns me greatly. The second axiomatic proposition that I want to share with you is that the experience of recent times - and much of the experience connected also with the existence of the state of Israel - teaches us that neither Israel nor the United States in the final analysis have the capacity to impose a unilateral solution. There may be people who deceive themselves of that. We call them neo-cons in this country and there are other equivalents in Israel as well. They may think that either the United States or Israel can impose a solution. I think what the Israelis are doing today for example in Lebanon is in effect, in effect - maybe not in intent - the killing of hostages. The killing of hostages. Because when you kill 300 people, 400 people, who have nothing to do with the provocations Hezbollah staged, but you do it in effect deliberately by being indifferent to the scale of collateral damage, you're killing hostages in the hope of intimidating those that you want to intimidate. And more likely than not you will not intimidate them. You'll simply outrage them and make them into permanent enemies with the number of such enemies increasing. The Iraq problem, look what Prime Minister al-Maliki said today - it's an indication of things to come. The notion that we're going to get a pliant, democratic, stable, pro-American, Israel-loving Iraq is a myth which is rapidly eroding and which is now being contradicted by political realities." George W. Bush is on a collision course. He wants all or nothing. And in view of his 'achievements' so far, it will be nothing. And Israel will once again stand before an exodus. Bush's Armageddon politics will end in ruin; it's madness. 10:28:26 AM

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