Lebanon: Victim or Accomplice?

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE. An excerpt:

...As Lebanon is being used as a shield for Hezbollah, both politically and literally, some Lebanese have cried for help in the fight against Hezbollah's presence in their country.

But some Lebanese officials have been more conciliatory toward Hezbollah. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has expressed sympathy with Hezbollah claims against Israel. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud formally thanked Iran for its support during the Israeli attacks, knowing that Hezbollah is using missiles made in Iran. And though its been reported that the Lebanese army is too weak to take on Hezbollah, this report says the Lebanese army may join forces with the "Party of God" to take on Israel...

(bold emphasis is mine) I have no sympathy for Lebanon. They have played and continue to play their part in this, now let them take the consequences. The Lebanese Army wants to join forces with Hezbollah? Fine, let them die with them too.




Related Links:

Israel Poised to Invade Lebanon

Hooyah! The New York Post has all the details, plus additional updates. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I think with Secretary Rice leaving for Israel Sunday any invasion will happen after that meeting. It's difficult to believe that our Secretary of State would arrive in a nation which has just launched an invasion of another country. Not because we don't support it, just because everyone would be rather, uh, busy.

It would also be sweet for the invasion to occur just after she leaves once again illustrating to the Islamist savages and the rest of the world that we like what Israel is doing and we support it...

Out of Disproportion

...The Lebanese have been sheltering Hezbollah killers who have been rocketing and bombing Israel for ten years almost every day. The Lebanese have admitted the terrorists into dominant positions in their government. In every way, Lebanon has made itself a haven for terrorists bombing civilians day in and day out in Israel. Is Israel finally standing up and saying enough "disproportionate"? Yes, if you think Israel and Jews should be permanent victims who suffer, bleed, and die in silence the way the Nazis preferred. No, if you believe Jews have the same rights as other people to defend themselves...

...By any historic measure, Israel's response to a decade of torment is extremely restrained -- maybe too restrained. And it can stop any time the Hezbollah says they will use peaceful means to get their aims. I don't hear them saying that. What I hear is a thousand Hezbollah rockets falling on exclusively civilian targets in Eretz Israel. There's your answer about whether Israel's response is disproportionate...

Ceasefire now?

... The New York Times editorial page, showcasing its almost unbroken record of obtuseness, demanded that the international community enforce a ceasefire as soon as possible, arguing that a "wider war" would benefit only "Iran, Syria, and the armed Islamic radical groups that they support throughout the region."

The exact opposite is true. If a premature ceasefire were imposed, the parties named by the Times would be the clear winners. Only if Israel is able to punish Hizbollah severely will those aggressors be thwarted. A ceasefire stops the guns for a week. A victory can stop them for years...

The United States and its allies gave Iran a deadline to respond to an ultimatum regarding its nuclear program... The deadline for a response was July.

Just then, Iran launched its proxy war against Israel through Hizbollah. Not only does this take nuclear talks off the front page, it potentially complicates the U.S. position in Iraq. Hizbollah notoriously makes war on Israeli and Lebanese civilians simultaneously. It shoots its rockets into Israeli cities and farms from patios and school playgrounds in Lebanon. Israeli retaliation is bound to kill innocent civilians, who are then paraded on television to generate world condemnation of Israel...

Pacifists versus Peace

One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from reality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts.

"Peace" movements are among those who take advantage of this widespread inability to see beyond rhetoric to realities. Few people even seem interested in the actual track record of so-called "peace" movements -- that is, whether such movements actually produce peace or war.

Take the Middle East. People are calling for a cease-fire in the interests of peace. But there have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than anywhere else. If cease-fires actually promoted peace, the Middle East would be the most peaceful region on the face of the earth instead of the most violent.

Was World War II ended by cease-fires or by annihilating much of Germany and Japan? Make no mistake about it, innocent civilians died in the process. Indeed, American prisoners of war died when we bombed Germany.

There is a reason why General Sherman said "war is hell" more than a century ago...