Analysts say Israel has not seriously damaged Hizbullah

The Daily Star believes Israel is losing. Its staff writers give these quotes:

"It is undeniable that Israel is in a bind. The army has again been over-confident and underestimated its abilities to break Hizbullah," said Israeli military analyst Reuven Pedatzur.

The risk now is for Israel to invade South Lebanon. That would make its troops vulnerable to Hizbullah fighters.

For the moment at least, the specter of sliding back into the quagmire of Lebanon has put the brakes on a ground offensive. Yet Olmert has approved intensified ground operations, described by the Israeli Army as "pinpoint."

General Alon Friedman said the military was "operating to destroy Hizbullah infrastructure and underground bunkers in particular," and that enough troops were on the border to launch a large-scale operation.

"Hizbullah seems to be holding strong and its morale seems intact," said Shaul Mishal, a Tel Aviv University specialist in Islamic groups. "It's an illusion to think that with force alone we can destroy the weapons of a movement like Hizbullah, which has widespread support from Shiites in Lebanon."

Israel's Haaretz daily wrote Thursday: "Despite the media euphoria and the patriotic spin, the aerial war ... is not heading for victory. In the best case, it is heading for a limited military achievement ... The air force's hammer blows are hitting Lebanon harder than they are hitting Hizbullah ... Even in the best-case scenario, Hizbullah will rise from the rubble ... One way or the other, the illusion of a magic solution is about to burst." - Agencies

With Hezbollah’s entry into the war between Israel and Hamas, Fourth Generation war has taken another developmental step forward. For the first time, a non-state entity has gone to war with a state not by waging an insurgency against a state invader, but across an international boundary. Again we see how those who define 4GW simply as insurgency are looking at only a small part of the picture.

I think the stakes in the Israel-Hezbollah-Hamas war are significantly higher than most observers understand. If Hezbollah and Hamas win—and winning just means surviving, given that Israel’s objective is to destroy both entities—a powerful state will have suffered a new kind of defeat, again, a defeat across at least one international boundary and maybe two, depending on how one defines Gaza’s border. The balance between states and 4GW forces will be altered world-wide, and not to a trivial degree.

So far, Hezbollah is winning. As Arab states stood silent and helpless before Israel’s assault on Hamas, another non-state entity, Hezbollah, intervened to relieve the siege of Gaza by opening a second front. Its initial move, a brilliantly conducted raid that killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two for the loss of one Hezbollah fighter, showed once again that Hezbollah can take on state armed forces on even terms (the Chechens are the only other 4GW force to demonstrate that capability). In both respects, the contrast with Arab states will be clear on the street, pushing the Arab and larger Islamic worlds further away from the state. 

EL PASO, Texas - Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.

So how much is an Iraqi (or Palestinian, or Iranian or Syrian or Lebanese) life worth? About this much

That's why they hate us.  

Why just last night, a Lobby Congressman appeared on Harball trying to convince us that Israel was just doing what the PM of Lebanon wished it to do.

• Bush Sees Mideast Strife as Step to Peace

• Lebanese PM: Israeli Attacks Making Hezbollah More Popular

Imagine an America free of the Israel Lobby!

One War - One Plan - One Lobby - One Practice to Deceive

American intelligence on Hizbullah is weak. Much of it comes from Israel. Anthony Cordesman says, "I'll be perfectly blunt: Israeli intelligence is political, and you can't trust it." With this warning, US papers then explain that Israel claims Hizbullah is really a Syrian and Iranian operation and not Lebanese at all

via Josh Landis

Is it any wonder that free of an Israel Lobby

Support for US and Israel Declining Rapidly Outside of US

Guess who is coming to dinner?  

PM Maliki, Dawa Party (Hizbollah)  

United Against the U.S., Israel

Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are partners in that sense, and they are gaining clout. The Iraq war has played a key role, analysts say.

My Senator Dianne Feinstein says Israel is "crucial to Middle East stability".

More horrible, horrible pictures of the Israeli carnage against Lebanese civilians. I advise you not to click, but if you do, you are on your own. Juan Cole

Grabbing the Third Rail

Interview: Two professors respond to the backlash over their controversial paper on the Israel Lobby.

"Syria Can be a Stabilizing Force" by Uri Sagi, Ex IDF Intelligence Chief [Ha'aretz]  

Who's your daddy???

Hear O Israel, it is come to Bashar time and Syria is not a charitable organization.

^Hosea

⁷For they sow the wind,
   and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads,
   it shall yield no meal;
if it were to yield,
   foreigners would devour it.
⁸Israel is swallowed up;
   now they are among the nations
   as a useless vessel.
⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,
   a wild ass wandering alone;

What explains the indifference of the Bush administration to the slaughter of civilians in Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza? 

A Handful of Neocons Are Instigating a Wider War Will Americans join Iraqis, Lebanese, and Palestinians as neocon victims?

by Paul Craig Roberts

Twenty-five years ago I stared into the eyes of Michael Berman, chief operative for his congressman-brother, Howard Berman. I was a neophyte running for the California Assembly in a district that the Bermans claimed belonged to them.
“I represent the Israeli defense forces,” Michael said. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Michael seemed to imagine himself the gatekeeper protecting Los Angeles’ Westside for Israel’s political interests, and those of the famous Berman-Waxman machine. Since Jews represented one-third of the Democratic district’s primary voters, Berman held a balance of power.

Prayers are with Ryan and the people of Lebanon.

I hope you will wake up to the nightmare you have dragged us into. I hope you will want to have fire ceased as soon as possible. I hope you will deem our humanity as valuable as your own.

Letter from Rasha in Beirut; and the Israeli Siege Notes

Letter from a Young Lebanese-American Woman

 Hospitality or the Abyss

Patrick McGreevy writes from Beirut:

And what of those who are raining bombs on Lebanon? Today a water-drilling truck in the Christian Achrafieh neighborhood, another truck transporting medicine, civilians dying everywhere. The targeting strategy errs on the side of overkill—the tactic of terror. But what does it yield? What does the Warsaw Ghetto tell us? Both Hezbollah and the Israeli leaders, despite the asymmetry of their power, assume this is a macho game about dignity, about facing down one’s enemy. Look in the mirror habibi. Look into the abyss.

Bush: Love Attack on Merkel!" 



 

One German tabloid, Bild-Zeitung, which posted the link to the video and headlined it: "Bush: Love Attack on Merkel!"

(www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/aktuell/2006/07/18/merkel-bush-liebes-attacke/merkel-bush-liebes-attacke.html)

And Dialog International, a Web site that specializes in German-American politics and culture, said Bush's behavior raised questions about the American president and his profile abroad.

"When he is away from his script and his handlers, his true lack of intelligence and emotional maturity surfaces for all to see. The dangerous situation in Lebanon ... requires true leadership. Don't look for it from the world's uberpower."


SF Chron Front Page today

• In Iraq, Civil War All but Declared
  
• Dazed Refugees Flood Beirut -
•  In Break With Bush, Iraqi Leader Assails Israel 

 Pat Buchanan asks How much must America pay for the education of this man?

*Practice to Deceive
Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario--it's their plan.
by Joshua Micah Marshall

Syria expert Josh Landis of the Univesity of Oklahoma provides this comment from a former US ambassador to an Arab country revealing how pitifully weak the Bush-Lobby-War Party line is

First, the US is in a weaker position to influence the outcome of this crisis than any time in the last three decades. Our influence in the region couldn't be lower.

Second, I do not see how Hezbullah can be defeated, much less dismantled.

I fear that our policy has become so misguided that we will end up only making matters worse. We don't know what the situation will look like in a month, but it is liable to be very bad for Arab moderates and for the US

The US/Israel - A Troubling "Aliance"

⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it.

⁸Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations as a useless vessel.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass wandering alone

That the world is foursquare behind their mounting attrocities and war crimes. Who are you going to believe - George Bush or you lying eyes???

Lebanon demands compensation from Israel AP

Rift between U.S., EU emerges on Israel AP

[for all the good it will do - the Lobby having "kidnapped" our democracy 

An historical analogy, the blank check, that I have made several times in these pages, is picked up (not surprisingly he loves the subject) by William S. Lind, one of our country's foremost experts on Fourth Generation Warfare.  With the Lobby guaranteeing it, the blank check is, for the forseaable future, the only future there is.

The Summer of 1914

by William S. Lind

With Hezbollah's entry into the war between Israel and Hamas, Fourth Generation war has taken another developmental step forward. For the first time, a non-state entity has gone to war with a state not by waging an insurgency against a state invader, but across an international boundary. Again we see how those who define 4GW simply as insurgency are looking at only a small part of the picture. I think the stakes in the Israel-Hezbollah-Hamas war are significantly higher than most observers understand. If Hezbollah and Hamas win – and winning just means surviving, given that Israel's objective is to destroy both entities – a powerful state will have suffered a new kind of defeat, again, a defeat across at least one international boundary and maybe two, depending on how one defines Gaza's border. The balance between states and 4GW forces will be altered worldwide, and not to a trivial degree. So far, Hezbollah is winning.... Unfortunately, Israel is to America what Serbia was to Russia in 1914. That may be the most disturbing aspect of the "summer of 1914" analogy.

Via Juan Cole 

Only for those with really strong stomachs. This is what some of the hundreds of civilians killed by the Israeli military in Lebanon look like. Very graphic and disturbing. I disavow the labeling in the site. But this is a war, and this is what war looks like, and I think it is necessary to stare it right in the face: here and, if it is back up (their server was overloaded) here.

 

Larry Johnson wrote that Israel had swallowed a "stupid pill". The Bush Administration needed no such pill and they've a nastier one to swallow.

The contrast between the Bush UnderSecty of State and Brzezinski/Kissinger this evening on NewsHour could not have been more striking.

On the one hand, Bush continues to enable the Israeli aggression apparently believing that international pressure (ie everyone but the US) can bring Syria, Iran and Hizbollah to heel. In short, the stupid pill people are delusional. They want the US supported autocrats in Saudi and Jordan to commit hara kiri for Israel and somehow pressure Israel's antagonists to give up.

Amazing isn't it???

B/K have a different plan.{ Brzezinski, Kissinger Debate U.S. Role in Mideast Crisis} This is not going to stop until Bush negotiates directly with Hizbollah, Syria and Iran.  WOW. That's just what Josh Landis has been saying

If Washington and Israel do have to settle this by going to Damascus, then Bashar will have sent his message loud and clear: I am here. I demand respect. Cut out all the silliness about isolation and the blind eye doctor. Syria is an important player. Anyone who wants to do business in the region will have to address me politely and be ready to trade in kind. Syria is not a charitable organization.

I just received an email from Bill Powers of the National Journal on an entirely different subject. "Come to Jesus Time" is a favorite of his and one I hadn't heard in years - not since my political daze in the South.

It is Come To Jesus Time for Israel and their NeoCon allies in Washington

Cole follows

Israel Targets Milk, Medicine Factories
Hizbullah Kills One in Nahariyah

Israeli troops invaded Lebanon again early Wednesday morning, on what Israeli spokesmen called a limited search and destroy mission.

Hizbullah sent more rockets on northern Israel, killing one person at Nahariyah.

The death toll late Tuesday stood at 235 people killed in Lebanon and 25 in Israeli. About half of the Israeli deaths were military personnel. Only a handful of the Lebanese deaths have been military, and only a fraction of those have been Hizbullah fighters. In fact, have even ten Hizbullah guerrillas been killed by the Israelis since this fight began? They say it is a fight with Hizbullah. But then they bomb Greek Orthodox churches and milk factories far from Shiite areas. Hmmmm.

Israeli air strikes killed 30 more civilians on Tuesday:

The Israeli attacks were mainly concentrated on the Bekaa district, as Israeli warplanes launched missiles at the towns of Zahle, Baalbek, Rachaya al-Fokhar and others. The St. Gregorius Church in Rachaya al-Fokhar suffered a direct hit, as did the Lake Qaraoun Dam and the ambulance donated by the Emirates in Dahr al-Baydar. Dozens of civilians were killed and wounded in the attacks. Over 30 civilians were killed in Israeli air strikes against Lebanon on Tuesday. Ten civilians who had taken refuge inside the Greek Orthodox Church in Rachaya al-Fokhar were wounded in an attack. Lebanese security sources said Israel had used phosphorous missiles in the attack, an internationally banned weapon.

Some people just don't like their neighbors to have nice things. The Israelis hit Lebanese privately owned factories on Tuesday, including a dairy farm! These targets had absolutely nothing to do with Hizbullah, and were not military targets. These strikes are war crimes and part of a continuing Israeli campaign to ensure that Lebanon is economically poor and weak for decades to come:

Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure. The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors - including the country's largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant - have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come.

Lebanese lawyers are lodging a complaint against Israel charging it with crimes against humanity.

Robert Blecher on conflating Hizbullah and Hamas at the invaluable Middle East Report.

It turns out that the more Arab students listen to Radio Sawa and watch al-Hurra Television, the US government's main media effort at winning hearts and minds, the more they disliked US policies. Turns out it isn't how the policies are packaged on the airwaves that matters. It is the policies. The students mostly think they stink.

Only for those with really strong stomachs. This is what some of the hundreds of civilians killed by the Israeli military in Lebanon look like. Very graphic and disturbing. I disavow the labeling in the site. But this is a war, and this is what war looks like, and I think it is necessary to stare it right in the face.

America meet your "ally"

• Military Leaders Foresee Iraq Exit in 2016
• Turkey signals it's prepared to enter Iraq
• Suicide Bomber in Iraq's Shi'ite Kufa Kills 59
• Afghan Officials: Taliban Have Control of Towns in South
• Attacks Kill 235 in Lebanon, 25 in Israel
• Gonzales: Bush Blocked Eavesdropping Probe
• Energized Neocons: Israel's Fight Is Washington's

KSG Faculty Research Working Paper Series : The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

Richard Perle, American Enterprise Institute, Study Group Leader James Colbert, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Johns Hopkins University/SAIS Douglas Feith, Feith and Zell Associates Robert Loewenberg, President, Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies Jonathan Torop, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy David Wurmser, Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies Meyrav Wurmser, Johns Hopkins University

The plan now unfolding in Iraq and in the wanton destruction of Gaza and Lebanon is in fact the plan whose partisans  George Will excoriates in the Washington Post today.

It is one plan of a piece with Kristol's defense of Israeli murder in Gaza and Lebanon; his call for more War on Iran and Syria and the war he and the Israel Lobby so vigorously championed in 2001-2003 - the War in Iraq which we are now told will last until 2016.

Ah what surprises Kristol and the Cabal have in store for us - beyond Olmert's gift wrapped Election Year Surprise!

But were they surprises???

Josh Marshall began to "get it" in May 2003 with his Practice to Deceive in the Washington Monthly.

But long before that, many of us "got it" and none better than Anatol Lieven, whose Ocotober 2002 article in the London Review of Books concludes presciently

Twice now in the past decade, the overwhelming military and economic dominance of the US has given it the chance to lead the rest of the world by example and consensus. It could have adopted (and to a very limited degree under Clinton did adopt) a strategy in which this dominance would be softened and legitimised by economic and ecological generosity and responsibility, by geopolitical restraint, and by 'a decent respect to the opinion of mankind', as the US Declaration of Independence has it. The first occasion was the collapse of the Soviet superpower enemy and of Communism as an ideology. The second was the threat displayed by al-Qaida. Both chances have been lost - the first in part, the second it seems conclusively. What we see now is the tragedy of a great country, with noble impulses, successful institutions, magnificent historical achievements and immense energies, which has become a menace to itself and to mankind.

The Push for War Anatol Lieven considers what the US Administration hopes to gain

Now these fighting words may offend some around here.

Frankly I do not give a damn, and neither should anyone else.

Practice to Deceive
Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario--it's their plan.
by Joshua Micah Marshall

• Rice: Cease-Fire Won't Help
• Military Leaders Foresee Iraq Exit in 2016

If not now, when?  Of course, the poltroons of the Democratic party are either MIA or foursquare in the Lobby with the War Party. 

The time for fighting words is NOW. Deny the War Party your vote this year. It ain't much. But it is all you have.

The  Israeli offensive against Iran – until now, purely polemical – morphed into military action the moment the IDF crossed the border into Lebanon and took on Hezbollah. As our regular readers know, this turn of events was predicted in this space two months ago:

"War with Iran will probably not begin with a frontal assault by the U.S. and/or Israel on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons facilities, or even a skirmish along the Iraq-Iran border. Look to Lebanon and Syria for the first battlegrounds of this developing regional war. The Israelis know perfectly well that Iran's nuclear ambitions, if they ever materialize, are not an immediate threat: their real concern is their volatile northern border, where their deadly enemies – Hezbollah – are an effective obstacle to Israeli influence. The Israelis are also looking to exploit growing opportunities to make trouble in Syria, where the restive Kurds are their reliable allies, and the brittleness of the Ba'athist dictatorship is an invitation to regime change."

The suggestion, by Professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, in their now famous "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," that the Iraq war was fought for Israel's sake, and against our own interests in the region, was received in many quarters with outright horror, and not only from the Amen Corner. Noam Chomsky and Stephen Zunes both objected to this thesis of an Israel-centric foreign policy: Israel, they insist, is the "junior partner" of the American hegemon, and is only acting at the behest and under the de facto control of its masters in Washington.

The war's aftermath, however, tells a different story. Examined in light of Israel's postwar actions – the unilateral "withdrawal" from Gaza, the absorption of more territory and the building of more settlements on the West Bank, the war against Hamas, and now the re-invasion of Lebanon – the chief (and only) beneficiary of the new regional balance of power is clear enough. The American invasion and occupation of the Mesopotamian heartland has empowered the Israelis as never before – and now they are on the offensive, carving out a greatly expanded sphere of influence extending into Kurdistan as well as Lebanon, bringing closer to fulfillment the old Zionist vision of an empire stretching "from the Nile to the Euphrates."

The U.S., on the other hand, has considerably reduced leverage in the region. Our troops in Iraq are exposed, vulnerable to the Iranians – and stalemated by the Iraqi insurgency, which shows troubling signs of extending into Shi'ite areas. As the Israelis advance, with American support, Sunni and Shi'ite factions in Iraq – including those in the governing Shi'ite coalition – are radicalized, and turn their fire on the Americans.

Yet the U.S. is still shilling for the Israelis, blaming Syria and Iran for acts that occurred well outside the purview of the mullahs and the increasingly isolated regime of Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, in the UN, we are bringing the issue of Iran's nuclear power program to the Security Council, pressing for a confrontation that can only end in $200-per-barrel oil.

In 1996, a group of pro-Israeli Americans – including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser – prepared a policy statement for then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that proposed a strategy of regime change as the only solution for Israel's growing encirclement and isolation. The main problem, they averred in "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," was Syria, and the troublesome border with Lebanon:

"Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one with which American can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon."

But this could occur only if Iraq was taken out first:

"Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions."

With Saddam out of the way, the second phase of the "Clean Break" scenario is unfolding before our eyes. And the propaganda war is going just as well as the military aspect of the campaign: the Israelis are no fools. They realize they can't proceed without the tacit complicity of the U.S. and the Europeans, who must be made to look the other way as the IDF commits war crimes on the ground. Under the pretext of avenging the "kidnapping" of one of their soldiers – and, more recently, two more – they have unleashed a military assault planned well in advance of the allegedly precipitating incidents.

This is surely one of the most threadbare excuses for a war ever uttered.

Israel Crosses the Line
And you read it here first…

US/Israelite Destruction of Lebanon Continues [Juan Cole's Informed Comment

These attrocities are the work of desperate criminals whose time is running out. Unfortunately, the wounded tiger is the most deadly ..Israel is running out of time both for its 60 year ethnic cleansing campaign and most critically on its blank check from its puppet Bush...

Billy Kristol at the Weekly Standard is now certifiable calling for another two wars - Iran and Syria and for this, receives a righteous shellacking from George Will in the WaPo today.Transformations Toll

7For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it. 8Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations as a useless vessel 

Hosea 8

 

What I am watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage By Robert Fisk in Mdeirej, Central Lebanon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/16/AR2006071600797.html

 Mariam el-Selgawi, a neighbor who fled her home with her eight children and elderly in-laws, said she knows why the Israelis are back. "Because of the rockets, everyone is launching rockets," from the agricultural areas inside the Gaza Strip over the border at Israeli towns, she said. "Days before, there was a group trying to shoot a rocket, and they were hit by a missile from a drone, and all of them died."

 "All the time I get in fights with them when they come. They know it will bring Israel back to the area," she complained of the Palestinians firing the projectiles. "The last time I said: 'The Israelis are going to come and kill us. Aren't you afraid you're going to make us orphans?' And one of them said: 'We will launch the rockets from your house. You deserve it,'" and they fired it from outside her fence, she said.

Her father-in-law, Ali el-Selgawi, 76, sat forlornly on the linoleum schoolroom floor that is the family's latest bed, sipping juice and shaking his head. "You can't talk to them, or they just hit you," he said.

The Cowboy may be All Hat/No Cattle but...

The Wars By Slogans Continue - and no one listens any more

As journalist Warren Strobel summed up the regional situation: "Virtually every president faces a plethora of global crises, sometimes simultaneously. What's new is that the United States' ability to influence events has shrunk, largely because U.S. troops and treasure remain mired in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Iraq war has diminished foreign confidence in American leadership, according to foreign policy experts and some U.S. officials." Former Israeli cabinet minister Yossi Beilin made a similar point to Haaretz. "The worsening conflict in the Middle East is a blatant reflection of the weakness of the American partner,"

Everywhere this administration is being less attended to. Everywhere, others are sharpening their knives, loading their weapons, and preparing to smite their enemies, inspired by the American example, liberated by its failure.

The Force is Not With Them

 

A theme, a pet of mine, that Frank Rich developed masterfully in the Sunday NyT....

Only if we remember that the core values of this White House are marketing and political expediency, not principle and substance, can we fully grasp its past errors and, more important, decipher the endgame to come.

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations

March of Folly By PAUL KRUGMAN


Since those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it — and since the cast of characters making pronouncements on the crisis in the Middle East is very much the same as it was three or four years ago — it seems like a good idea to travel down memory lane. Here’s what they said and when they said it:

“The greatest thing to come out of [invading Iraq] for the world economy … would be $20 a barrel for oil.” Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation (which owns Fox News), February 2003

“Peacekeeping requirements in Iraq might be much lower than historical experience in the Balkans suggests. There’s been none of the record in Iraq of ethnic militias fighting one another that produced so much bloodshed and permanent scars in Bosnia.” Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and now president of the World Bank, Feb. 27, 2003

“Earlier this week, I traveled to Baghdad to visit the capital of a free and democratic Iraq.” President Bush, June 17, 2006

“People are doing the same as [in] Saddam’s time and worse. … These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.” Ayad Allawi, Mr. Bush’s choice as Iraq’s first post-Saddam prime minister, November 2005

 

Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
 

Sometimes, it is better to have the courage of conviction, the courage to use "fighting words". Sometimes, discretion is not only not the better part of valor, sometimes discretion is just plain cowardly.

Hosea 8: 1-8

Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord, because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law. ²Israel cries to me, “My God, we—Israel—know you!” ³Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. ⁴They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. ⁵Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? ⁶For it is from Israel, an artisan made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. ⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it.

⁸Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations as a useless vessel.

 

Vatican condemns Israel for attacks on Lebanon 

Juan Cole

Bush: Lean on Syria

I cobbled the Bush-Blair exchange on Israel and Lebanon, accidentally caught at the G8 on mike, together fromWaPo and ABC News.

BUSH to Blair: "I think Condi is going to go (to the Middle East) pretty soon."

BLAIR: "Right, that's all that matters, it will take some time to get that together . . . See, if she goes out she's got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk."

BUSH: "See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."

BLAIR: "Who, Syria?"

BUSH: "Right . . . What about Kofi? That seems odd. I don't like the sequence of it. His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything else happens."

BLAIR: "I think the thing that is really difficult is you can't stop this unless you get this international presence agreed." . . .

BUSH: "I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen. We're not blaming Israel. We're not blaming the Lebanese government."

So, the whole blow-up is Syria's fault, for putting Hizbullah up to making mischief. No reference to Israeli actions in Gaza. No reference to, like, the wholesale destruction of Lebanon by the Israeli air force. And no blame for the Lebanese government of Fouad Siniora. And Bush thinks that Nasrullah of Hizbullah takes direct orders from Damascus. And he thinks that if Bashar al-Asad orders Hizbullah to stop firing its little katyushas and give back the two Israeli soldiers, everything will suddenly settle down.

It is an astonishingly simple-minded view of the situation, painted in black and white and making assumptions about who is who's puppet and what the Israeli motivations are. Israel doesn't appear as a protagonist. It is purely reactive. Stop provoking it, and it suddenly stops its war.

Since Israel is just being provoked and has no ambitions of its own, in this reading, it is useless to begin with a ceasefire. That treats the two sides as both provoking one another. Here, only Hizbullah matters, so you lean on Syria to lean on it, and, presto, peace breaks out.

It is a little window into the superficial, one-sided mind of the man, who has for six years been way out of his depth.

I come away from it shaken and trembling.

does this mean you want me to cancel your account?

On Jul 17, 2006, at 12:49 PM, john mccutchen wrote:

and Josh, I am not going to take  this anymore

We're going netroot on this ..beginning with AntiWar.com

let the debate begin. (Kenneth Baer)

Go debate with someone else. I don't agree with everything in the Walt-Mearsheimer piece; but I'll discuss it elsewhere. When you "question their motives," I stop listening. I'm not reading any more garbage about anti-semitism at the TPM site.

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Not rated1: Unproductive2: Marginal3: Good4: Excellent

On July 17, 2006 - 10:27am jexster said:

Israel Lobby Watch

So inconvenient...it got deleted!

We'll try again.

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On July 17, 2006 - 11:26am jexster said:

Israel Lobby Watch

Inconvenient Truth Baer Doesn't Want You to Know

Evangelical "Christians" are part of the propaganda show. Three thousand of them, under the lead of the Rev. John C. Hagee, are heading to Washington for a "Washington/Israel summit" to demand, needlessly, that the neocon Bush regime show "stronger support for Israel."

It is difficult to see how Bush could show any stronger support without using the U.S. military to assist Israel in its attacks, which is, of course, what the "Christian" Rev. Hagee intends when he declares: "There's a new Hitler in the Middle East [he doesn't mean Bush or Olmert]. The only way he will be stopped will be by a preemptive military strike in Iran."

Present at Rev. Hagee's "Washington/Israel Summit" will be Israel's former Minister of Defense, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, Republican Senators Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Gary Bauer.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful lobby in Washington, expressed its thanks to Rev. Hagee for demonstrating "the depth and breadth of American support" for Israel. Recently, AIPAC has been under investigation as a suspected nest for Israeli spies.

David Brog, former chief of staff for Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, has gone to work for Rev. Hagee. Brog, who is Jewish, says he works for Hagee's evangelical enterprise because "we're bringing into a pro-Israel camp millions of Christians who love Israel and giving them a political voice. Israel's enemies are our enemies, and this group instinctively understands that." Brog goes on to say that Hagee's evangelicals understand that they are not supposed to talk about Jesus, only about saving Israel: "Christians who work with Jews in supporting Israel realize how sensitive we are in talking about Jesus. They realize it will interfere with what they are trying to do."

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On July 17, 2006 - 11:41am jexster said:

Israel Lobby Watch

More Inconvenient Truths

Your lyin eyes can't find three of my comments...and counting.I have had three posts deleted from Ken Baer's timely trash job of Mearsheimer Walt.  Each and every part thereof were highly germane.

Someone around here can't handle the truth.  But I am keeping track I have submitted two abuse reports ..we lawyers call this  "making a record". For the record, Ken Baer is part of the Marty Peretz wing of the War Party.

<!--startclickprintexclude--><!--endclickprintexclude-->

Listening to Newt Gingrich bloviate on Meet the Press, advocating U.S. intervention on Israel's behalf against Syria and Iran – and the pathetic Joe "Me Too" Biden effectively agreeing with him – one can only wonder how or why anybody listens to these crazies. As Newt, the megalomaniacal has-been, gleefully declares that "World War III" is in progress, and weaves a conspiracy theory linking Iran, Syria, North Korea, Hezbollah, and – believe it or not! – Venezuela, old Joe just sits there nodding out. Given a chance to reply, his only objection to Gingrich's vision of war on all fronts is that, yes, we need to go to war, but we have to do it with the support of our allies. "Fighting Joe" Biden is no weenie: his voice hardens as he avers we should tell the North Koreans that we have the capacity to "annihilate" them. Gingrich smiles.

He has good reason to smile. Aside from his fondness for the concept of annihilation, he knows that the War Party's "liberal" Democratic wing is falling into line. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon – which many predict will include the de facto annexation of a southern "buffer zone" – has the fulsome support of both parties. When the Israelis tell the Americans to jump, the only question Biden and the Democratic party leadership have is: How high?

What Israel wants is what they have always wanted: to use American power, American tax dollars, and American lives to advance their own expansionist agenda.

Israel Says Jump....Ken Baer deletes criticism.

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On July 17, 2006 - 11:53am jexster said:

Israel Lobby Watch

Let not your lying eyes lose sight of this quote from Dianne Feinstein, who claimed in response to a recent email from me on the criminal collective punishments in Gaza...

Relations between the United States and Israel are crucial to stability in the Middle East, where the road to peace and prosperity continues to be fraught with many obstacles.  In this regard, Congress has placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship with Israel. Sen. Dianne Feinstein  7/11/06

I asked Sen Feinstein to explain for me just how these relations were "crucial to stability" and why Congress placed "considerable importance" on them.

While I am waiting for her answer, maybe Ken Baer would like to take a shot. After all, that is the linchpin of the M/W thesis...the strategic interests of the US

Or delete and prove my case that way.

Your petard..my hoist

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On July 17, 2006 - 12:28pm jexster said:

Israel Lobby Watch

Discussion v. Deletion

Who "hates our values", Baer, Bush, Peretz, Cheney, Hagee, Pipes, Horowitz et al

or

Osama Bin Laden

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Rated 1 by one user.

[new]

On July 17, 2006 - 12:43pm jexster said:

Israel Lobby Watch

By their deletions you shall know them

Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

John McCutchen, Esq

700 Laguna #104

San Francisco, CA  94102

For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.

Martin van Creveld

I have had three posts deleted from Ken Baer's timely trash job of Mearsheimer Walt.  Each and every part thereof were highly germane.

 Someone around here can't handle the truth.  Who you gonna believe Ken Baer or your lying eyes (which can't find my comments)?

 So we're gonna discuss Ken Baer

Inconvenient Truth Baer Doesn't Want You to Know

We're Being Set Up: Paul Craig Roberts

Evangelical "Christians" are part of the propaganda show. Three thousand of them, under the lead of the Rev. John C. Hagee, are heading to Washington for a "Washington/Israel summit" to demand, needlessly, that the neocon Bush regime show "stronger support for Israel."

It is difficult to see how Bush could show any stronger support without using the U.S. military to assist Israel in its attacks, which is, of course, what the "Christian" Rev. Hagee intends when he declares: "There's a new Hitler in the Middle East [he doesn't mean Bush or Olmert]. The only way he will be stopped will be by a preemptive military strike in Iran."

Present at Rev. Hagee's "Washington/Israel Summit" will be Israel's former Minister of Defense, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, Republican Senators Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Gary Bauer.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful lobby in Washington, expressed its thanks to Rev. Hagee for demonstrating "the depth and breadth of American support" for Israel. Recently, AIPAC has been under investigation as a suspected nest for Israeli spies.

David Brog, former chief of staff for Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, has gone to work for Rev. Hagee. Brog, who is Jewish, says he works for Hagee's evangelical enterprise because "we're bringing into a pro-Israel camp millions of Christians who love Israel and giving them a political voice. Israel's enemies are our enemies, and this group instinctively understands that." Brog goes on to say that Hagee's evangelicals understand that they are not supposed to talk about Jesus, only about saving Israel: "Christians who work with Jews in supporting Israel realize how sensitive we are in talking about Jesus. They realize it will interfere with what they are trying to do."

Israel struck at large numbers of targets on Sunday, and early Monday morning, that had nothing to do with Hezbollah. The far north of Lebanon is Sunni, as is the port of Tripoli, where the Israelis killed a Catholic Lebanese soldier. They also hit factories in north Beirut, not a Shiite area. They bombed a village near Zahle, a notorious center of Greek Orthodox, killing 3 civilians. The Israelis are either not very good shots, since they have murdered 140 civilians since Wednesday and only managed to kill about 17 Lebanese military personnel. Or they just don't give a damn.

Aljazeera reports that Israeli air strikes on the civilian areas of southern Beirut have resumed. Hezbollah has offices in that area, and is widely supported there, but it is a heavily populated civilian area.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conveyed to Lebanon through Italian PM Romano Prodi his conditions for ceasing hostilities against Lebanon. As also reported on CNN they are:

1. The return of two captured Israeli soldiers held by Hizbullah

2. A withdrawal of Hizbullah to the Litani River, 30 mi. or so north of the Israeli border deeper into Lebanon.

3. Cessation of rocket attacks on Israel

It is worth noting that if this is what Israel wants, two of the three could have been gotten without reducing the entire country of Lebanon to rubble. They could have traded 3 Hizbullah members in their custody for the 2 Israeli soldiers. And, if they hadn't gone wild bombing everything in sight it is unlikely Hizbullah would have shelled them on this scale in the first place.

As for the demand that Hizbullah withdraw (presumably this means its paramilitary fighters) to the Litani, that talking point will inspire the profoundest fear in the Lebanese that Israel is essentially attempting to move its border north and make the Litany the new border, thus staking a clear claim on the waters of the river, which Israelis have coveted since 1948. It is a non-starter politically, though whether it can be attained with violence is yet to be seen.
Juan Cole

"Relations between the United States and Israel are crucial to stability in the Middle East, where the road to peace and prosperity continues to be fraught with many obstacles.  In this regard, Congress has placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship with Israel. " Sen. Dianne Feinstein  7/11/06

Israel Lobby Watch
EI's Israel Lobby Watch section offers news about the tactics of pro-Israel lobby organisations around the world, analysis of attempts to rewrite history with an Israeli narrative, international reactions to pressure, and the effect of the lobby's work on domestic political life.

Israel's Monstrous Legacy Brings Tumult a Step Closer
by David Hirst

Email just sent to MSNBC. I hope none of you have had to endure their weekend coverage.

Who is the airhead, racist bimbo that I have endured for the last time on your live coverage?

{paraphrase]

Today; "Lebanon an "ostensible democracy"

Yesterday "What kind of people would freely elect Hizbollah and Hamas?"

Sand niggers or dune coons?

You people should have your license pulled..and that woman should be sent to the Jerusalem Post