Israel and the Middle East
I hate to say this again (moreso, I hate the fact that I have to say this again), it's time for everyone to stop being stupid.
To the left, stop acting like there's no reason for Israel to be in this conflict. It's stupid. Although on face value this conflict is ridiculous, you can never adress any conflict involving Israel in and of itself. Hezbollah wants to eliminate Israel, and futhermore wouldn't mind killing off all of the jews. Yes, they're killing civilians, but if they allow hiding behind civilians to be an infallible form of defense, then they have no way of stopping Hezbollah.
To the right, stop acting like Israel's completely justified. In this conflict Hezbollah has killed maybe 6 Israeli civilians, something like that. There is no way that Hezbollah poses enough of a threat to justify the killing of hundreds of innocent Lebanese civilians. This conflict, just like every other conflict over the last several thousand years, will just make things worse.
And to the truly retarded, there are reasons that the Lebanese support Hezbollah. What have they seen from Israel? First they saw fellow Arabs run out of their homes, followed by them killing countless Arabs, and they see attacks on Israel as being, although pre-emptive, still defensive in nature. They see Hezbollah as a group fighting to protect them, and Israel has given them no reason to think otherwise.
People are not adharently different from region to region. Thus we must accept that there are reasons why the Palestinians elected Hamas, and why Hezbollah holds many seats in the Lebanese government, just as we must accept that there are reasons that people in the middle east hate us and want us dead. There is no way that we are perfect, and everyone in that region are just blood thirsty maniacs, and until we accept that and internalize that, we're fucked, because there's no fucking way we're gonna get anywhere close to solving these problems.
The only way to ever solve problems is to correctly identify them first, which is impossible until we cut through all of the bullshit rhetoric, and start accepting our role, and Israel's role in motivating this conflict. That being said, we must not let ourselves fall into the trap of thinking it's our fault, or it's Israel's fault. It's everyone's fault.
It's our fault that we've alienated an entire region, and responded to an act of terrorism which was, although devastating to us, not that huge of a deal when you take into account that shit like that happens every day throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands died in genocides in Africa and we didn't do shit, but when 3,000 of us die, it's time to blow up the entire fucking middle east. It's Israel's fault that they drove all of the Palestinians from their homes, and have responded to every threat with the grace and nuance of a blind hyena hopped up on PCP. It's the various governments in the middle east's fault for perpetuating this conflict to distract their people from their horrible living conditions and the horrible amounts of corruption, and it's the people in the middle easts fault for falling for it.
I'm not a dove, and there are most certainly times when force is neccisary, and if we shy away from force at those times we are fucking ourselves and the rest of the world. But military force should only be used when it is the BEST thing we can do, and short of a full out war, it is just about never justifiable to use force without any tandem acts of diplomacy and sanctions.
That being said, there is 3 groups that are 100% in the wrong in this conflict, Hezbollah, the Iranian government, and the Syrian government. There are no justifications, there are no excuses, they are causing the deaths of hundreds to try to distract the world from preventing them from killing millions, and there are absolutely no redeeming features to what they're doing.
So here's what needs to happen. The whole world needs to stop being stupid, the Syrians and Iranians need to rise up and cast out their governments, the rest of the world needs to make it so they can transition out of these governments and into new ones with relatively little friction and damage to their infrastructures, and then we all need to root out the Hezbollah's and Al Quedas of this world. In our attempts to do the last part we have also been very stupid. We've been stupid because we're only adressing one side of it. We're killing those who join, but we're making NO effort to make it so new people don't want to join.
To a degree, getting rid of current members, and preventing the recruitment of new members are contradictory missions. This is because great acts of violence are neccisary in getting rid of the current members, and these acts of violence will seem to many as cause to join these groups. But there's a lot we can do. Providing infrastructure, respecting and supporting nationalism, even when it's inconvinient to us, making the quality of life all and all better in the middle east, THAT'S what we can do to prevent terrorism. Hezbollah wouldn't have shit for support in Lebanon if there was someone else stepping in and providing them with basic infrastructure. While we're busy drafting pointless UN resolutions, they're off feeding, educating, and taking care of medically the Lebanese people, and it's ridiculous that we're not right there providing better food, better education, and better medicine, and helping them set up a system in which they can provide this for themselves, with no other hopes than to leave Lebanon better than when we entered. Haven't you ever wondered why there are just about no terrorists from the United Arab Emerites, or Kuwait? It's because life is good there, and people who have something to lose don't become terrorists. Well, some of them do, but not many. Terrorists certainly wouldn't be picking up as many votes as they are across the region.
So stop being stupid, adress the situation for what it is, and then work for a solution that respects the complexity that is the Israel/Middle East conflicts. We're all adults here, so let's fucking act like it.
To the left, stop acting like there's no reason for Israel to be in this conflict. It's stupid. Although on face value this conflict is ridiculous, you can never adress any conflict involving Israel in and of itself. Hezbollah wants to eliminate Israel, and futhermore wouldn't mind killing off all of the jews. Yes, they're killing civilians, but if they allow hiding behind civilians to be an infallible form of defense, then they have no way of stopping Hezbollah.
To the right, stop acting like Israel's completely justified. In this conflict Hezbollah has killed maybe 6 Israeli civilians, something like that. There is no way that Hezbollah poses enough of a threat to justify the killing of hundreds of innocent Lebanese civilians. This conflict, just like every other conflict over the last several thousand years, will just make things worse.
And to the truly retarded, there are reasons that the Lebanese support Hezbollah. What have they seen from Israel? First they saw fellow Arabs run out of their homes, followed by them killing countless Arabs, and they see attacks on Israel as being, although pre-emptive, still defensive in nature. They see Hezbollah as a group fighting to protect them, and Israel has given them no reason to think otherwise.
People are not adharently different from region to region. Thus we must accept that there are reasons why the Palestinians elected Hamas, and why Hezbollah holds many seats in the Lebanese government, just as we must accept that there are reasons that people in the middle east hate us and want us dead. There is no way that we are perfect, and everyone in that region are just blood thirsty maniacs, and until we accept that and internalize that, we're fucked, because there's no fucking way we're gonna get anywhere close to solving these problems.
The only way to ever solve problems is to correctly identify them first, which is impossible until we cut through all of the bullshit rhetoric, and start accepting our role, and Israel's role in motivating this conflict. That being said, we must not let ourselves fall into the trap of thinking it's our fault, or it's Israel's fault. It's everyone's fault.
It's our fault that we've alienated an entire region, and responded to an act of terrorism which was, although devastating to us, not that huge of a deal when you take into account that shit like that happens every day throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands died in genocides in Africa and we didn't do shit, but when 3,000 of us die, it's time to blow up the entire fucking middle east. It's Israel's fault that they drove all of the Palestinians from their homes, and have responded to every threat with the grace and nuance of a blind hyena hopped up on PCP. It's the various governments in the middle east's fault for perpetuating this conflict to distract their people from their horrible living conditions and the horrible amounts of corruption, and it's the people in the middle easts fault for falling for it.
I'm not a dove, and there are most certainly times when force is neccisary, and if we shy away from force at those times we are fucking ourselves and the rest of the world. But military force should only be used when it is the BEST thing we can do, and short of a full out war, it is just about never justifiable to use force without any tandem acts of diplomacy and sanctions.
That being said, there is 3 groups that are 100% in the wrong in this conflict, Hezbollah, the Iranian government, and the Syrian government. There are no justifications, there are no excuses, they are causing the deaths of hundreds to try to distract the world from preventing them from killing millions, and there are absolutely no redeeming features to what they're doing.
So here's what needs to happen. The whole world needs to stop being stupid, the Syrians and Iranians need to rise up and cast out their governments, the rest of the world needs to make it so they can transition out of these governments and into new ones with relatively little friction and damage to their infrastructures, and then we all need to root out the Hezbollah's and Al Quedas of this world. In our attempts to do the last part we have also been very stupid. We've been stupid because we're only adressing one side of it. We're killing those who join, but we're making NO effort to make it so new people don't want to join.
To a degree, getting rid of current members, and preventing the recruitment of new members are contradictory missions. This is because great acts of violence are neccisary in getting rid of the current members, and these acts of violence will seem to many as cause to join these groups. But there's a lot we can do. Providing infrastructure, respecting and supporting nationalism, even when it's inconvinient to us, making the quality of life all and all better in the middle east, THAT'S what we can do to prevent terrorism. Hezbollah wouldn't have shit for support in Lebanon if there was someone else stepping in and providing them with basic infrastructure. While we're busy drafting pointless UN resolutions, they're off feeding, educating, and taking care of medically the Lebanese people, and it's ridiculous that we're not right there providing better food, better education, and better medicine, and helping them set up a system in which they can provide this for themselves, with no other hopes than to leave Lebanon better than when we entered. Haven't you ever wondered why there are just about no terrorists from the United Arab Emerites, or Kuwait? It's because life is good there, and people who have something to lose don't become terrorists. Well, some of them do, but not many. Terrorists certainly wouldn't be picking up as many votes as they are across the region.
So stop being stupid, adress the situation for what it is, and then work for a solution that respects the complexity that is the Israel/Middle East conflicts. We're all adults here, so let's fucking act like it.
posted by Galen at 12:09 AM
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