For a couple of hours now, I have been watching live feeds from the Middle East, specific emphasis on Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian areas (which are all under the control of Israel). My only reaction is...
this is absolute fucking madness!
Various people have postulated that the dimensions of the current Israeli-Palestinian/Hamas-Lebanon/Hezbolla conflict might have the potential for regional war. To them I would say this, the war, a regional one, is already engaged! Right now, it is at a slow(?) burn, but believe it... it is war already. It remains only for the engagement of other parties to determine how broadly it may spread.
Why? Well, Israel shells a beach in the Gaza Strip. A family (seven, I think) are killed. Hamas launches rockets from Gaza. Then, Hamas (supposed) conducts a cross-border operation, kills two (as I recall) IDF soldiers and kidnaps a third. So, Israel conducts a large scale bombing campaign in Gaza, destroying bridges, a critical power station, and then a large scale invasion with ground forces. Hamas continues firing rockets.
Oh, it gets better. Hezbollah conducts a cross-border operation near the Israel-Lebanon border. Two IDF soldiers are kidnapped. Israel retaliates with an incursion to locate/retrieve its soldiers. An Israeli tank is destroyed, several IDF soldiers killed. Hezbolla fires rockets into Israeli territory. Israel responds, bombing bridges, a power and a power facility in southern Lebanon. Israel calls up a reserve division, in preparation apparently for a ground invasion. Israel then bombs the principal airport in Lebanon, just south of Beirut, destroying the runways, an airport that has critical importance to the economy
for all of Lebanon. (In the process of all this bombing, and military action, I suppose it is of little consequence that in Gaza at least 60 civilians have been killed to date, and in Lebanon, more than 20 civilians, as of the present.)
Now, I don't give a rat's ass about your political affinities, or your support of the Israel, or of the Palestinians, or anything else. You are welcome to believe what you will, to have empathies with who you will, but no matter what those might be, this is absolute madness! Forget the humanitarian aspect, or any other aspect... can you agree with the prospect of an expanding regional war? If this is not stopped, nipped in the bud, the loss of civilian life, the destruction of infrastructure, the pure and sheer scope of punitive damage inflicted by the unmatched Israeli military machine is going to take a toll that is unbelievable in terms of future regional instability, civilian live, and the economic viability of the regions itself. (One might surmise that this an an Israeli purpose... to show that it is unmatched, and so show it can impose, unilaterally, disporportionate punive measures, at will.)
Israel bases its actions on a total of three kidnapped soldiers, taken during cross border raids. I ask... has Israel not done the same, itself, in the past? And on an even grander scale? How about the Hamas parliamentarians that were forcibly take from both Gaza and the West Bank? Israel is not without guilt!
Nor is Hamas or Hezbollah. I cannot condone their rockets being fired into Israel. Nor can I condone Israeli artillery and airstrikes on facilities in Gaza, the West Bank, and even Lebanon, many of which have taken place during periods of `truce'. Not to mention provocative violations of airspace, even though conveniently, Israel now refers to Lebanon as a sovereign nation. Why was its sovereignty not respected before?
Like I said, I don't care where your sympathies lie. I don't want to hear about the rockets fired into Israel. And I don't want to hear about Israel withholding tax money from the PLA. What I want to hear about is nothing short of all these damned idiots standing down, poste haste!
This has the potential, a very real and immediate potential, to spread even further. If you think there is `pain at the pump' from $74/barrel of oil, if this spreads in the region, you ain't seen nothing yet!
God, I hate this damned administration! It has done nothing to increase stability in the Middle East. In fact, all of its actions have had exactly the opposite effect. Bush, entranced with Iraq, and now Iran... and he and his minions have taken their eyes off the larger ball completely. What dolts! What hubris! What selfishness and disregard for humanity itself, not to mention the citizens of their own nation! Criminality, absolute malfeasance, absolute self-promotion, absolute incompetence... is there any other way to describe BushCo and this Congress?
The Suez Crises of 1956, the 1967 war, and the war of 1973... none have ever been so much of a powder keg waiting to be ignited with such widespread repercussions as what is now happening.
I apologize for not including links, but, surely, you know some of the story by now. Hell, even MSNBC has coverage, albeit not in very much depth.
And, if you are so disposed, flame away. But I hope you really, REALLY think about what is happening, and the dangers that extend far beyond just the limited region that is in flames at the moment.