Text 21601, 49 rader
Skriven 2006-08-03 18:21:08 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ALAN HESS
Ärende: Response?
=================
Comments from JCZ, Portland, OR as seen at:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/  (Page down)

The blog of Eric Alterman for 08-03-06.

1. If Lebanon doesn't control Hezbollah, is it really appropriate to wage
war on them?  Would you also support an invasion of Mexico as part of the
'war on drugs'?

2. Perhaps Hezbollah doesn't want peace, but by immediately breaking their
own suspension of bombing, it doesn't look like Israel wants peace very
much either.  Both sides have extremists, be they terrorists or settlers.

3. Even if Israel has no choice in whether to do battle with Hezbollah, it
has options when it comes to tactics.  Bombing campaigns are horribly
destructive to civilians and infrastructure, but not necessarily good at
stopping mobile rocket launchers.  Plus, this sort of disproportionate
response is exactly what Hezbollah was hoping for. Perhaps supporting
Israel should mean discouraging tactics that provide exactly what their
enemies want.

4. Dead is dead. To say that Israel doesn't deliberately target civilians
is meaningless, because they know people will die when they drop bombs. You
aren't innocent of murder if you fired with your eyes closed. And I'm sick
of hearing that the civilians can just leave. That's not remotely true when
all of the roads and bridges have been destroyed.

5. Israel withdrew from Gaza... sort of.  It's not like the Palestinian
authority was ever given the sort of freedom needed to keep their crazies
under control.

6. I think you're too quick to dismiss that "right of return".  Not only
does it seem fair to me- for one thing, how is it really a Palestinian
State if they don't get to decide who can come live there?  My
understanding is that Arafat gave up just about everything he could without
being assassinated by his own side.  He'd given up plenty too, and the
Israelis share just as much blame for walking away without an agreement. 
As to Israel's options, I go back to the choice of tactics. By engaging
them directly, they've handed Hezbollah a victory simply for surviving this
long in the face of overwhelming military superiority. That probably
doesn't help Israel at all.

[snip]

Care to comment Alan?

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