Israel, Lebanon and Proof of Insanity

Is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This weeks Prime Example: The Israel/Lebanon Conflict.

From former CIA Analyst Ray Close.

One of the definitions of madness is the repetition countless times of the same action, always expecting a different result. For more than half a century, the Israelis have been applying the tactic of massively disproportionate retaliation to every provocative act of resistance attempted by the Palestinians, expecting every time that this would bring peace and security to all the people of the Holy Land. Every single time they have done this this, it has backfired. Every single time.

Crossposted on Dailykos and Democratic Underground.

Close Contiued:

The national philosophy (it is really deeper and more significant that just a military tactic) that underlies this devotion to massive over-reaction, and particularly its corollary, collective punishment, is obviously and demonstrably foolish and futile. It does not intimidate or deter the Palestinians, and it never will. It hardens their determination to resist and to defy. I don't care whether you consider the Palestinians to be terrorists or common criminals or freedom fighters or national resistance heroes. If you are an intelligent and sensitive human being, you learn from your past mistakes and you make a rational decision to try something different. The Israeli leadership for all these many generations has been incapable of performing that really rather simple mental and moral exercise.

This morning Condoleeza Rice stated that the thought that our efforts in Iraq have destabalized the region is "Grotesque". From Thinkprogress:

Today on ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos pointed out that the Bush administration repeatedly promised that war in Iraq would bring peace and stability to the Middle East. But as the recent violence in the Middle East has shown, the region has actually fallen deeper into instability and unrest since the war began. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Stephanopoulos it was "grotesque" to suggest that the Iraq war contributed to that instability. Watch it:

Full transcript: expand

But basic common sense tells us that destabalization is exactly what is occuring. As America's reputation for the potential to project overwhelming military superiority has begun to fade in the wake of Iraq, so has the similar reputation of our putative ally Israel. The fear of retribution for striking out and kidnapping not just civilians, but American and Israeli Soldiers has been dulled, meanwhile the anger at our ongoing occupation of what was a formerly soveriegn country has begun to increase. Cynicism has begun to creep in as was recently shown by an exchange between President Bush and Russian President Putin this week. (Thinkprogress again)

During a press conference today at the G8 summit in Russia, President Bush told President Vladimir Putin that Americans want Russia to develop a free press and free religion "like Iraq." To laughter and applause, Putin responded: "We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly." CNN's Ed Henry called it a "tough jab." Watch it:

The exchange underscores how the war in Iraq has damaged the standing of the United States, to the point where even modest encouragement for democratic reform is met with ridicule.

Outside the protective bubble of his handlers and neo-con syncophants, Bush's Imperialistic Bullshit gets the response it deserves. Laughter.

While we continue to flounder about in Iraq - maybe we're staying, maybe we're not - Baghdad teeters on the brink of collapse.

In just 24 hours before noon yesterday, as parliament convened for another emergency session, 87 bodies were brought to Baghdad city morgue, 63 of them unidentified. Since Sunday's massacre in Jihad, more than 160 people have been killed, making a total of at least 1,600 since Iraq's Government of national unity came to power six weeks ago. Another 2,500 have been wounded.

In early June, Nouri al-Maliki, the new Prime Minister, flooded Baghdad's streets with tens of thousands of soldiers and police in an effort to restore order to the capital.

More recently, he announced a national reconciliation plan, which promised an amnesty to Sunni insurgents and the disbandment of Shia militias. Both initiatives are now in tatters.

"The country is sliding fast towards civil war," Ali Adib, a Shia MP, told the Iraqi parliament this week. "Security has deteriorated in a serious and unprecedented way," said Saadi Barzanji, a Kurdish MP.

Mr al-Maliki told parliament: "We all have a last chance to reconcile and agree among each other on avoiding conflict and blood. If we fail, God knows what the fate of Iraq will be."

Israel's efforts to break the back of the Hezbollah Militia in southern Lebanon may be very likely to suffer a fate similar to our own in Iraq. As was noted Friday on Keith Olbermann as he spoke with Newsweeks chief Whitehouse correspondant, very often the way that tyranical regimes are brought down are internally. Caesar was taken down by the Roman Senate. Nixon was taken out by his own White House Council John Dean - who remains to this day a "Goldwater Conservative" - and eventually by then RNC Chairman George H.W. Bush - who finally told Nixon "it's time to go".

Hezbollah in Lebanon has to be taken out by the Lebonese government itself. Israel can and should aid in this transition, but to take the lead role in reorganizing someone elses country is to take responsibility for it in total. As Colin Powell once said - "You break it - you own it". Is Isreal ready to own Lebanon, as we now own Iraq? Have they even bothered to plan that far?

Today former CIA Agent Larry Johnson writes;

Israel Takes A Stupid Pill

Apparently not content to let the U.S. do a self-immolation act in the Middle East by itself, Israel decided to set itself on fire by invading Lebanon. Burn baby burn? Like George Bush, Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, never served in a combat unit and launched military operations without thinking the matter through. In fact, Olmert reportedly never even served in the military. I raise this because there is one simple question Israel cannot answer about the current operations--what is their strategic military objective. Olmert has somehow persuaded the Israeli military to ignore strategy, think tactically, and in the process become really stupid. The events in the next several weeks will expose as myth the canard that you can secure a nation by killing terrorists. No you can't.

What about Hamas and Hezbollah?

Yes, what indeed. In Palestine Hamas is now leading their Democratically Elected Government - but with the Bush Doctrine to spread Democracy through pre-emption, shouldn't the U.S. have respect for the tenents of Democracy, respect the will of the Palastinian people and at least try to work with Hamas -- or does that rule only apply when you happen to agree with the party currently in power?

If the definition of a "terrorist" is one that stages unwarranted attacks on innocents - how does George Bush escape the charge? Or better yet, how does the Republican Party? Many who like to state the George Bush is a Terrorist are missing the big picture, Bush is merely a figurehead - an enabler - for a policy that has been in the formative stages for nearly 30 years. The truth isn't the Bush is a terrorist, that being far too narrow a view, the neo-con wing of the Republican Party is a terrorist organization.

Palestine elected terrorist into their governent, and so did we.

And in some ways, so is the Government of Israel as well as the Hezbollah militia's they are currently battling in southern Lebanon. The methods employed by Bush and the current Israeli government are reckless and irresponsible. They might consider it "leaning forward" -- others, fucking insanity. They aren't winning the ideological battle, simple creating more hardened enemies.

The sillyness has even begun to find it's way onto the screens of Faux News:

This morning on Fox News Sunday, [PNAC Signatory] William Kristol argued that the Bush administration's "coddling" of Iran had "invited" the latest aggression, and that the United States should join in the current fighting. Juan Williams pushed back:

You just want war, war, war, and you want us in more war. You wanted us in Iraq. Now you want us in Iran. Now you want us to get into the Middle East. ... You're saying, why doesn't the United States take this hard, unforgiving line? Well, the hard and unforgiving line has been, we don't talk to anybody. We don't talk to Hamas. We don't talk to Hezbollah. We're not going to talk to Iran. Where has it gotten us, Bill?

Kristol threw up his hands and didn't answer. Watch it:

Well, War is good for business after all. Got to keep those military contractors profits up.

I really don't know where all this is leading us, particularly since these events in Lebanon seem to getting the Rapture Right ready for their Beginning of the Armageddon Party.

Via The Talent Show--I too am soooo excited!! I get goose bumps, literally, when I watch what's going on in the M.E.!! But, yes, it is most indeed a time to be happy and excited

And look, the new Left Behind Video Game where kids learn the tactics they'll need as Holy Christian soldiers to sweep all unbelievers from the streets of New York should be ready just in time for the increasing violence in Lebanon to finally reach our own shores.

Chip Berlet has reported on how the game fronts for, and helps to market Tim LaHaye' brand of hateful hateful ideology. In Berlet's view:

So the outcome of Tim LaHaye's "non-fiction" writing, the Left Behind series of novels, and the video game, is the training of young Christian evangelicals to rebel against the elected government of the United States when they decide government leaders are in service to the antichrist. And the task for these young Crusaders is to gun down the agents of Satan and their witting and unwitting allies among the ranks of the non-believers.

And from the Left Behind novels, we know this list is likely to include not just secularists, but also homosexuals, feminists, abortion providers, as well as Jews, Catholics, Hindus, and Muslims...especially Muslims.

Well, isn't that just Special?

Of course, we back in America need not worry right now - not with the right honorable George W. Bush in charge. No, George is just going to completely bungle and fuck-up the Middle-east and the Christian (wing-nut) Army is certain to keep thier weapons holstered until the time is right.

Sure things are pretty bad right now, the fucking nutballs are running the asylum, but just don't let a Democrat (who might actually have some solutions to the middle east issues and stuff) come into office -- that'll fuck up the wingbat's master plan and the shit will be on. Seriously.

Vyan