Addendum to the Day's Posting: Peace in the Middle East
Okay, seeing as everyone else is commenting on the current war (conflict/situation my ass, let's call it what it is, people) in Lebanon, here's my two cents:
They seem to have agreed on a cease fire, which appears to be fundamentally flawed as follows:
It calls for Israel to remain in S. Lebanon until the international force gets there to squash Hezbollah (apparently the spelling do jour), which is all right and good since they don't want missiles raining down on them as they're ceasing fire. Except... Hezbollah has declared that they will keep shooting as long as Israeli troops remain in S. Lebanon, and as long as Hezbollah keeps shooting, Israel will keep shooting back. So I forsee no actual ceasing of fire. Incidentally, there's been no mention of returning the two soldiers whose kidnapping started the whole thing. Major WTF-age there.
Speaking of which, yes, this whole thing is technically Hezbollah's fault. They started it. And no, the Israeli people wanting a place to live doesn't constitute "starting it." So, if they feel they got a raw deal in the "cease fire," well, too bad. Actually, the last time I checked, individual political parties (seeing as Hezbollah has seats in the Lebanese legislative body) don't get to negotiate international agreements separate from their parent countries. This would be like modifying the armistace treaty to -insert war here- to accomodate the demands of the Democrats, for example. Bottom line, they still have a lot to figure out.
So when will it all end? Well, short answer- whenever all the nutjobs that run around with guns and insist on the annihilation of the opposing factions (Muslim, Jewish, and Christian- we all have our share of nutjobs with guns) manage to kill each other off. Except there couldn't be any survivors, otherwise they'd be left to fire at will at the more moderate population, from which would emerge more nutjobs, and so on. If all the nutjobs could somehow be relocated some island somewhere and have at it without inflicting collateral damage, well, that would be nice, but it won't happen. Bear in mind that this war has been fought off and on for thousands of years, and we really have no right to expect it to end within our lifetimes. It will probably continue until the end of the world, and may bring about the end of the world, which may happen within our lifetimes. But probably not.
They seem to have agreed on a cease fire, which appears to be fundamentally flawed as follows:
It calls for Israel to remain in S. Lebanon until the international force gets there to squash Hezbollah (apparently the spelling do jour), which is all right and good since they don't want missiles raining down on them as they're ceasing fire. Except... Hezbollah has declared that they will keep shooting as long as Israeli troops remain in S. Lebanon, and as long as Hezbollah keeps shooting, Israel will keep shooting back. So I forsee no actual ceasing of fire. Incidentally, there's been no mention of returning the two soldiers whose kidnapping started the whole thing. Major WTF-age there.
Speaking of which, yes, this whole thing is technically Hezbollah's fault. They started it. And no, the Israeli people wanting a place to live doesn't constitute "starting it." So, if they feel they got a raw deal in the "cease fire," well, too bad. Actually, the last time I checked, individual political parties (seeing as Hezbollah has seats in the Lebanese legislative body) don't get to negotiate international agreements separate from their parent countries. This would be like modifying the armistace treaty to -insert war here- to accomodate the demands of the Democrats, for example. Bottom line, they still have a lot to figure out.
So when will it all end? Well, short answer- whenever all the nutjobs that run around with guns and insist on the annihilation of the opposing factions (Muslim, Jewish, and Christian- we all have our share of nutjobs with guns) manage to kill each other off. Except there couldn't be any survivors, otherwise they'd be left to fire at will at the more moderate population, from which would emerge more nutjobs, and so on. If all the nutjobs could somehow be relocated some island somewhere and have at it without inflicting collateral damage, well, that would be nice, but it won't happen. Bear in mind that this war has been fought off and on for thousands of years, and we really have no right to expect it to end within our lifetimes. It will probably continue until the end of the world, and may bring about the end of the world, which may happen within our lifetimes. But probably not.
posted by Kevin H | 4:34 PM
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