a berlin blog
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a berlin blog |
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Friday, July 21, 2006 What, Me Worry?Here are two good but opposing columns on the new war in Lebanon. One from Richard Brookhiser at the New York Observer, who asks a tough question -- "Would we be better off coming to this pass with Saddam Hussein still in his palaces, with his oil revenues flowing to terrorists?" -- and the other from William Pfaff, who for my money is the only person to put his finger on what was really wrong with Bush's open-mic chat with Blair (though Pfaff gets the city wrong):This was the implication of George W. Bush’s fatuous 4-minute overheard conversation in Moscow with Tony Blair, where he demanded that Kofi Annan “get on the phone with [Syria’s Bashar al-Assad] and make something happen. See, the irony is that what they have to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it’s over.”Discuss, please. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 9:11 AM
Comments:
I have to admit, I didn't find Dubya's "shit" statement all that disturbing; not nearly as much as the backrub he gave your chancellor.
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It's hard for me to think about what's going on in Lebanon--truthfully, my heart is breaking too much. When I was growing up, we had friends who had left Beirut after the first time it was destroyed. I am sensitive both ways--to Israel's fear of annihilation (although that seems unlikely these days) and to the innocent people of Lebanon who are caught between Israel and Hezbollah. It's like Israel's gone mad--"pinpoint strikes"? Hundreds of Lebanese civilians dead is surgical in what way, exactly? Or the assertion that Iran is behind Hezbollah on this, to distract the world from their nuclear program. While that's certainly possible, doesn't that mean that Israel has played directly into Iran's hands? Meanwhile, Hezbollah gains sympathy and adherents in Beirut. Just as al-Qaeda is in Iraq. Is Israel learning nothing from our quagmire? Don't make martyrs. It almost doesn't matter if there's money if there are willing bodies. I'm not sure how much of a difference Hussein's presence would make. Although I have to admit too that it's been hard to see him as having been so effective a murderer for so long, considering how absurd he's seemed while on trial. | |
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