Cutting through the machinations and effects of the US empire
Extended quotation from the Angry Arab
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert: ``Hezbollah used Qana as base to launch 100s of rockets'', so we decided to kill all the women and children who are launching these rockets. I proudly announce to the Israeli nation that we have succeeded in killing a large number of the women and children of the enemy today, and will kill more tomorrow.... [the rest is here]
Bobo forgets to ask one little question
Left: Dead child is removed from rubble at Qana, Lebanon after Israelis bomb shelter, killing 54 civilians, including 37 children. Right: David Brooks pontificates on Hezbollah terrorism.
Last Friday, ebullient Newshour pundit David Brooks explained the facts of terrorism to host Jim Lehrer:DAVID BROOKS: Well, I think [the US] always had a strategy.
Brooks got it partly right, terrorists destroy. But Brooks fails to consider just who will clean up after Israeli terrorism. Who will weaken the Israeli program to destroy Lebanon and its population?
JIM LEHRER: You do?
DAVID BROOKS: I think, on the overall, the strategy has always been this two-prong strategy: first, weaken Hezbollah; then, bring in the international force to build a new reality and to strengthen the Lebanese government. That's always been the strategy. The implementation is the hard part, and it's always been the hard part.
JIM LEHRER: And it always will be, right?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, of course, because the terrorists just have to destroy. We have to build. And so the odds are against us even now. [emphasis added]
Let's see if Brooks reviews in the coming days the moral implications of the ``implementation'' of the American strategy to turn the Israeli terrorists loose on the Lebanese people.
Feelings in favor of genocide in America
I want to pick up the genocide theme from the last post a little bit by asking this question: How many readers of this blog of ever heard a acquaintance, neighbor, friend, or relative express a sentiment similar to this: ``We should just wipe all those hostile Muslim countries in the Middle East off the map and make it a parking lot''?? How do seemingly decent people get onto such a power trip?
Just a little while ago, a close neighbor of mine, a union man, told me, ``If the Iraqis don't like what we've done for them, we should pull out of there, surround the country, and nuke 'em into a sheet of glass.''
He was dead serious. I teased him with a zieg heil sign, but his conviction was unshakable. Ignorant as they are, these are extremely common, serious, heartfelt sentiments in America.
Many of these same folks well up with pride that the US was able to remove Saddam Hussein, clearly justified because Saddam was a killer who filled mass graves. That the US supported him in doing that is irrelevant, and the contradiction in opposing one form of mass murder while calling for another is lost in extreme cognitive dissonance. It amazes me how so many people in America can carry with seeming ease such deep contradictions. Perhaps pro-Israeli propaganda strongly reaches people here. And maybe the psy-ops operation known as Fox News is highly effective.
And just what is it that happens on Fox News and in other right wing media that stirs up such intense appeal for genocide, hence elimination of opposition to the American agenda? I very much like Media Matters for exposing the media expressions of notions favoring slaughter as legitimate policy. Yesterday, for example, they added to their voluminous collection of posts on the ejaculations of Fox News bully Bill O'Reilly:Bill O'Reilly declared that "[t]he reason we're not winning in Iraq" is that the U.S. is "not tough enough" to take actions like "level[ing] Fallujah ... and blow[ing] the hell out of it."
Yeah right, Bill. The US simply has not killed enough yet, that's our problem. I guess he forgot that the US did level Fallujah in November 2004.
A poster in the comments section under this item gave an excellent run-down of similar O'Reilly remarks:
O'Reilly is not alone in his use of Fox News to promote genocide. Here's how smarmy Neil Cavuto's guest a few days ago, Richard ``Bo'' Dietl, chairman and founder of private investigation firm Beau Dietl & Associates and a former detective with the New York City Police Department wants to solve the Middle East crisis:Dietl: I believe Iran is going to stay kind of mute, because they understand -- and they did all see what we did in Iraq. And let's not be fooled by America. America is the strongest army there is on the Earth, and that we could go into Syria, into Damascus -- Damascus, and make a parking lot out of that tomorrow.
There you have it, the parking lot again. Perhaps these neo-Hitlers are want of a place to park (and refuel?) their SUVs.
Genocide a-okay to certain CNN guests
Heard on CNN's Paula Zahn Now, July 28...
After one guest on the show, Ibrahim Hooper from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, pointed out that ``if any other country on Earth'' [besides Israel] treated an entire population as ``terrorist" and threatened to destroy it, ``it would be called genocide'', Jed Babbin, a former Pentagon official in the first Bush administration, complained that it was ``bizarre'' for Hooper ``to apologize for the terrorists who have been raining death'' due to rocket attacks.
Babbin concluded, ``It is not the Israelis' fault -- I'm willing to kill as many people as it requires to take out Hezbollah. That's the fact.''
Muggy & stormy
Lightning-laced downpour at 2:10 pm
We had a direct hit by a strong storm cell this afternoon:SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
Looks like nearly an inch, about 20 mm, of rain fell in about a half hour. I just checked the radar and we're under the gun for more pretty soon.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CARIBOU ME
206 PM EDT FRI JUL 28 2006
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CARIBOU MAINE HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
* UNTIL 245 PM EDT.
AT 203 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PENNY SIZE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR VEAZIE...OR ABOUT NEAR BANGOR AND MOVING EAST AT 20 MPH...
IN ADDITION TO LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS CONTINUOUS CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING IS OCCURRING WITH THIS STORM. MOVE INDOORS IMMEDIATELY! LIGHTNING IS ONE OF NATURES NUMBER ONE KILLERS. REMEMBER... IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.
On a sad note, my trusty Olympus C-5060 is very ill with system failure. It does just barely function in program mode, so I was able to take the pretty-good picture you see above. But I can't get it's macro focus mode to work any more. Oly will be retired and replaced by next week. He'll be sorely missed.
US brand of ``diplomacy'' endorses terrorism
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Rome, shows her feeling that too many Lebanese are still alive
``I can still remember seeing the people who were driving with the fear in their eyes, with everything, every precious thing they have in their cars.... My God, this is too terrible.''
That and the title of this post are quotes from Malak Khaled, an eyewitness to the Israeli bombing and who is currently internally displaced in Lebanon. She was interviewed by Dennis Bernstein on Flashpoints for Thursday July 27.
She described how thousands of people are attempting to evacuate through a landscape where main bridges are reduced to rubble and Israeli warplanes buzz over the fleeing civilians. This causes incredible fear because of the Marwaheen massacre two weeks ago where ``an Israeli missile incinerated a car and a small truck full of families leaving their Lebanese border village of Marwaheen near Tyre after the Israeli army used loudhailers to tell residents they had just hours to go. Pictures showed charred bodies of children strewn across the road.''
Download and listen to that entire interview, and the two others in the program. They will rip out your gut.
Meanwhile, the Green Light continues to shine brightly for the slaughter, as Israel explains that it's offensive ``will continue for several more weeks," according to Major-General Udi Adam.
Here's more, the clear message Rice transmitted in Rome:Haim Ramon, the Israeli justice minister, told army radio on Thursday: "We received yesterday in the Rome conference permission, in effect, from the world - part of it gritting its teeth and part of it granting its blessing - to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah's presence is erased in Lebanon and it is disarmed."
Malak Khaled, in the interview cited above, expresses anguish over the thousands of civilians stuck in the areas Israel de facto has declared a free-fire zone. Juan Cole has posted a commentary by Patrick McGreevy using the notion of hominus sacres--``those without rights who can be killed without it being called the murder of a human, homicide''--to describe Israeli terror:
Ramon also said that "everyone who is still in south Lebanon is linked to Hezbollah, we have called on all who are there to leave. Bint Jbeil is not a civilian location, we have to treat it like a military zone".Look at this logic: since Israel has asked civilians to leave, any that disobeyed have forfeited their status as civilians. Because the United States and its British followers have blocked the resolution to stop the killing, Israel will continue until Hezbollah ``is no longer present.'' But remember Hezbollah has been redefined to include all those ``still in south Lebanon.'' This crude logic renders all the people of southern Lebanon hominus sacres.
It is monstrous that the US and Israel wish to continue the slaughter, now far, far beyond any issue of captured soldiers. After two weeks of meeting resistance, the issue for these allied super-militaries is denying Hezbollah a perception of victory, a perception that resistance to the neocon agenda is worthwhile or even possible.
There is no other way to describe the US-Israeli policy--it is terrorism if we take the US definition of such seriously--as pointed out by former ambassador Edward Peck in a Democracy Now! interview today:you can google U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2331, and read the U.S. definition of terrorism. And one of them in here says -- one of the terms, ``international terrorism,'' means ``activities that,'' I quote, ``appear to be intended to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.''
That describes US-Israel policy to a tee.
CNN lets slip just who is under attack
Does Lebanon have a right to defend itself after all?
In a little departure from the usual triumphal analysis of Israeli military tactics that are standard fare on the US news channels, Anderson Cooper 360 carried last night this report from the ``other side'' by correspondent Michael Ware:COOPER: ...CNN's Michael Ware broke the news today that there may be other groups or at least supporters of one other group who have joined the fight against Israel along the side of Hezbollah.
Well, Cooper (holding fort on the Israeli side) does find the defense of Lebanon a ``troubling'' development, especially the evident widespread support amongst the disparate Lebanese population for what is viewed as Hezbollah's heroism.
Michael Ware joins me now.
Michael, what do we know? What group is this? Who are these people?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's emerging, Anderson, is that Hezbollah are not the only Lebanese to have taken up arms against the Israeli Defense Force in Southern Lebanon. From just ordinary villages picking up weapons to defend their homes, to members of political parties.
Members of political parties are joining the fight. We've seen today from the political party of the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, saying that they have been involved in every major battle so far in this war.
There's speculation as to whether this is organized or whether this is being done ad hoc on a village by village basis. However, it's clear that Lebanese themselves have joined into this fight. Not necessarily with Hezbollah, but certainly alongside.
COOPER: Michael, what are the implications of this for the Lebanese government? I mean, if you have supporters from this group, Amal, joining in the fight, what does that bode for the Lebanese government?
WARE: Well, what defense analysts here, even Lebanese army generals and senior officers, say is that essentially the army's incapable of defending Lebanon. Particularly against the most sophisticated conventional army in the region, being the Israeli Defense Force.
So by and large they've contracted out the defense of the country to Hezbollah. So what we're seeing here is that very much the government, its weaknesses are being more and more exposed. So this is going to be much more difficult for the government to get a handle upon. And it's going to be much more difficult for the Lebanese army to step into this breach.
But don't forget, this is also the political currency of Lebanon. The constituency of the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, his party, the Amal movement, comes from Southern Lebanon. If their local supporters do not see their -- their leaders helping protect them against the invasion, then they will definitely lose traction.
COOPER: Michael Ware reporting from Beirut, some troubling developments. Appreciate that, Michael. We'll check in with you tomorrow, as well.
All right. When we come back we'll talk to retired Brigadier General James "Spider" Marks about the fighting on the ground right now in South Lebanon, said to be intense. We'll have the latest information when we return live from the Lebanese-Israel border. Stay with us. [emphasis added]
Seems like owners of the US media should be perceiving language sympathetic to Lebanon as a bit too much to be telling the American public. Let's keep watching and see if the memo comes down from on high at CNN to stop presenting crazy notions about the ``defense of Lebanon''.
Letter to Hastert condemns Iraqi PM for wanting Israeli killing in Lebanon to stop
As far as stopping war is concerned, perhaps the worst thing that could happen is a Democrat take-over of Congress. Get this:Senate Democrats press Iraqi PM on Israel remarks
The key phrase there is ``recognize Israel's right to defend itself.'' The Iraqis--all of them, it's one of the few things that unites them--don't see pummeling of Lebonese civilians and infrastructure as part of ``Israel's right to defend itself.''
In a letter to [Iraqi Prime Minister] al-Maliki, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York called the Iraqi leader's comments troubling.
"Your failure to condemn Hezbollah's aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raise serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East," the letter said.
However, the Iraqis do seem to recognize Hezbollah's ``right to defend'' Lebanon. I personally do not condone rocket attacks. But then, I am not in a position where I must survive against a vastly more powerful military force that wants to kill me. But I do believe that al-Maliki has it exactly right on Lebanon:What is happening is an operation of mass destruction and mass punishment and an operation using great force that Israel has -- and Lebanon does not.
Last month's glowing Republican reports revealed again and stronger than ever as complete BS
This is from a USA today story on war critics from military towns that mentions a pro-war, conservative Republican Congressman from my home state of Minnesota:Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn. In a debate last month in the House of Representatives, Gutknecht defended the U.S. presence in Iraq. "Now is not the time to go wobbly," he said. He visited Iraq last week hoping to meet some of the 2,900 Minnesota Guard and Reserve members stationed there, and returned shaken. "It's a much more dangerous place than I thought," says Gutknecht.
I had expressed fears that the Rovian panic-button line where the Republicans last month bet the farm ``that the American people will see their war in Iraq in just this way--stay in it for victory or withdraw for `defeat'''--therby creating a big November disappointment for Democrats playing on out-of-Iraq sentiments. We still have to wait and see.
Now he's calling for a phased U.S. troop withdrawal and more Iraqi involvement in enforcing security.
"I don't think 'stay the course' sells," Gutknecht says.
Suddenly, however, we do have a situation where just a few weeks past those Congressional debates and Bush's War Council & surprise Iraq visit, Iraq is rapidly deteriorating and spiraling out of control. Today, with Iraqi Prime Minister Malaki in Washington, there is a report out saying more US troops are on the way just to shore up an utterly failed attempt to clamp down on mayhem in the Iraqi capital.
Back on June 14, the White House promised to launch operation ``Forward Together'', a giant sweep of Baghdad, along with Iraqi forces.The President will provide, through the Commander, MNF-I, 12 battalions (approximately 7,200 troops) of Coalition forces in Baghdad to support 36 battalions of Iraqi Army forces (approximately 26,000) and nearly 23,000 Iraqi police who will work together to secure the city. Their goal will be to deny terrorists safe haven in areas around Baghdad and to deny terrorists freedom of movement in the city.
Result? Skyrocketing uncontrolled violence with over 3,000 dead in one month.
In this report, Patrick Cockburn says,While the eyes of the world are elsewhere, Baghdad is still dying and the daily toll is hitting record levels. While the plumes of fire and smoke over Lebanon have dominated headlines for 11 days, with Britain and the US opposing a UN call for an immediate ceasefire, another Bush-Blair foreign policy disaster is unfolding in Iraq.
Cockburn goes on to say that, ``Baghdad is now breaking up into a dozen different hostile cities,'' and ``The Iraqi government is a prisoner of the Green Zone''.
In a desperate effort to stem the butchery, the government yesterday imposed an all-day curfew on Baghdad, but tens of thousands of its people have already run for their lives. In some parts of the city, dead bodies are left to rot in the baking summer heat because nobody dares to remove them. I drove through empty streets in the heart of the city yesterday, taking a zigzag course to avoid police checkpoints that we thought might be doubling as death squads. Few shops were open. Those still doing business are frantically trying to sell their stock. A sign above one shop read: "Italian furniture: 75 per cent reductions.''
Iraqis are terrified in a way that I have never seen before....
Cockburn also has significant quotes from Iraqi government ministers, ``Iraq as a political project is finished,'' and, ``The parties have moved to plan B''.
With all this in the background, the Malaki-Bush meeting today had an air of continuing unreality, ``And, God willing, there will be no civil war in Iraq,'' said Malaki.
I mentioned the lock-step resolution supporting Israel in its destruction of Lebanon in the last post. Here are the paltry 22 who did not cast a vote in favor of it:
NAYS—8
Abercrombie, Conyers, Dingell, Kilpatrick (MI), McDermott, Paul, Rahall, Stark
ANSWERED ‘‘PRESENT’’—4
Kaptur, Kucinich, Lee, Waters
NOT VOTING—10
Davis (FL); Davis, Jo Ann; Duncan; Evans; Fortenberry; McKinney; Northup; Nussle; Sanchez, Loretta; Westmoreland
I suppose some of them, like Dennis Kucinich, wanted to vote ``present'' because they did not want to come off like rocket attacks on Israel were okay. The Michigan reps.--Conyers, Dingell, Kilpatrick (MI) -- represent many voters of Arab and Middle Eastern descent. McDermott and Paul are solidly anti-war. It takes some courage in Washington to step out of the Israel lock step.
This seems reasonable
U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich from Ohio has submitted a resolution calling for ``immediate cessation'' of the devastating bombing in the Middle East. Of course, this rightly includes the far-less destructive rocket attacks on Israel.
I think this is dead-in-the-water, given the locked-in nature of US support for Israel in both parties in the Congress. But at least let them know you care that a berserk Middle East superpower firing US-made bombs and killing hundreds of innocents hardly can be, as Condoleezza Rice would have you believe, the ``birth pangs'' of democracy and advancement of a long-term ``peace process''.
Here is the letter I just wrote about the Kucinich resolution to my own Rep.To: The Honorable Mike Michaud, U.S. House of Representatives
RE: H. CON. RES. 450; the situation in the Middle East
Dear Mike:
I urge you to support H. CON. RES. 450, calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no preconditions.
I would also like to mention that I was disappointed to see your name in the “yeas” on H. Res. 921 supporting Israel’s wanton destruction of Lebanon with US-made bombs. I’ll reserve discussion here, but if you have interest in learning about the flaws in this license for Israel to break international law, please read this article: “Congress and the Israeli Attack on Lebanon: A Critical Reading” by Stephen Zunes [http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3381].
Major new Pakistan nulear facility
These guys get ``a large plutonium-production reactor'' and there is only a mild tut-tut discouraging ``military use of the facility''. Maybe A. Q. Khan could be asked to distribute the stuff to nuclear wannabes around the world.
Incredible shame for America
This is not self-defense: South Beirut after Israeli bombardment
New York Times headline July 22:
U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis
The US-Israel axis just can't kill fast enough. What is said in this article is just outrageous. More GBU-28 bunker busters are on their way ahead of schedule:WASHINGTON, July 21 The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday....The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike....American officials said that once a weapons purchase is approved, it is up to the buyer nation to set up a timetable. But one American official said normal procedures usually do not include rushing deliveries within days of a request. That was done because Israel is a close ally in the midst of hostilities, the official said....Israel said its air force had dropped 23 tons of explosives Wednesday night alone in Beirut, in an effort to penetrate what was believed to be a bunker used by senior Hezbollah officials....
This amazing tidbit is also included in the story: The Saudis have been assuaged with a new $6 billion weapons deal of their own.
Lebanon not destroyed enough
According to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, too many people are still alive and too many essential facilities are still standing. The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is not yet dire enough.
Secretary Rice says there are no ``quick fixes'' that could ``create conditions that can lead to a lasting and sustainable end to the violence''.
What Rice and the US administration and the Israelis evidently want to continue is described in a summary of remarks by Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at Friday's special UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East crisis:As a result of targeting of fuel facilities, Beirut had only days of fuel remaining, he said. It was believed that there were sufficient food supplies, including wheat stocks, to cover national consumption for one to three months. The primary concern was the destruction to food-supply chains. Hospitals were functioning, but were overwhelmed and suffering from power outages. Too many ill could not reach hospitals on time, as the roads were blocked. With the number of people in shelters increasing, access to safe drinking water was also a concern. The Lebanese Government had requested international humanitarian assistance and had appealed for medical supplies and other equipment. While the figures remained only indicative, the current planning figures suggested more than half a million conflict-affected people, of which more than one third were children. There might be some 115,000 third-country nationals in Lebanon. More than 100,000 Lebanese were believed to be in Syria, and required assistance.
Yes, ``a rain of rockets'' is terrorizing civilians in a band of northern Israel, doubtless a war crime. But the humanitarian crisis is caused by the vastly larger war crimes committed by Israel in ``Southern Lebanon, Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.''
Please, Mr. Israeli, show restraint
That Rice is emitting a load of crap is belied by the clear fact, barely hidden, that the United States is directing the Israeli attack on Lebanon. The US is supplying the bombs, supporting the operation, and giving diplomatic cover--transparently bogus as it is. In a Wednesday NY Times story under the heading ``Violence'', we learned that the ``U.S. Appears to Be Waiting to Act on Israeli Airstrikes''. The fact of US control is hardly disguised:an American-Israeli consensus began to emerge on Tuesday in which Israel would continue to bombard Lebanon for about another week to degrade the capabilities of the Hezbollah militia, officials of the two countries said.
Meanwhile, Rice seems to understand there is civilian death. But just like any terrorist, she explains how the ends justify the means. The Nazis certainly would have approved:QUESTION: Madame Secretary, aren't you concerned that the delay in halting the fighting and the loss of many civilian lives in Lebanon will hamper your efforts to win the heart and minds of the Arab world?
Surely the US-Israeli destruction of Lebanon would have been justified by Hitler in a manner parallel to the reasons Ms. Rice offered. Was not the same logic at work in the June 22, 1941 Proclamation justifying the invasion of the Soviet Union? Judge for yourself:
SECRETARY RICE: I'm concerned about civilian casualties because I'm concerned about civilian casualties. Nobody wants to see innocent civilians caught up in this kind of fighting. And it's why we are very determined to do more about the humanitarian situation. It's why we have talked so determinedly and so frequently with the Israelis about restraint in their operations. It's why we've worked to get the humanitarian corridors opened. This is a terrible thing for the Lebanese people. The unfortunate fact is that if we don't do this right, if we don't create political conditions that allow an end to the violence to also deal with the root cause, deal with the circumstances that produced this violence, then we're going to be back here in several months more.
Because what is different now than when Robin was there in 1982 is that you have a circumstance in which a young, democratic government, free now of Syrian forces, is trying to assert its authority over Lebanese territory and trying to be there for a good neighbor and a good contributor to international peace and stability. And those extremists want to strangle it in its crib. They are frightened by the prospect of a Lebanon that is no longer a source of instability, no longer so weak that people use its territory in this way, much as these extremists want to strangle other new governments, new democratic governments in the region.
So this is a different Middle East and it's a new Middle East and it's hard and we're going through a very violent time. I want the violence against civilians to stop because the violence against civilians needs to stop, but I know that unless the circumstances are dealt with, it's not going to last, any end to the violence isn't going to last. [emphasis added]Only the victory of the Axis powers in the Balkans frustrated the plan of involving Germany in battle in the southeast for months, allowing the Soviet Russian armies to complete their march and increase their readiness for action. Together with England, and with the hoped for American supplies, they would have been ready to strangle and defeat the German Reich and Italy. [emphasis added]
``Israel’s strategy was to drive the Palestinians to largely-Muslim West Beirut (apart from those who were killed, dispersed or imprisoned), then to besiege the city, cutting off water, food, medical supplies and electricity, and to subject it to increasingly heavy bombardment. Naturally, the native Lebanese population was also severely battered. These measures had little impact on the PLO guerrilla fighters in Beirut, but civilians suffered increasingly brutal punishment. The correct calculation was that by this device, the PLO would be compelled to leave West Beirut to save it from total annihilation. It was assumed, also correctly, that American intellectuals could be found to carry out the task of showing that this too was a remarkable exercise in humanity and a historically unique display of `purity of arms,' even having the audacity to claim that it was the PLO, not the Israeli attackers, who were `holding the city and its population hostage'''.
Noam Chomsky, 1983
from a passage in The Fateful Triangle on ``Peace for Galilee'', Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon that killed over 17,000 innocent civilians
``Hezbollah's provocative attack on 12 July was the trigger of this crisis. It is clear that the Lebanese government had no advance knowledge of this attack. Whatever other agendas they may serve, Hezbollah's actions, which it portrays as defending Palestinian and Lebanese interests, in fact do neither. On the contrary, they hold an entire nation hostage, set back prospects for negotiation of a comprehensive Middle East peace.''
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
July 20, 2006
Fruit filling out early
Bet there's 50 like this underway
The brandywine tomatoes are in full production mode with ideal conditions. It's hot, it's humid, and it doesn't stay dry for long. This week, a couple of dry days were followed by the passage of Tropical Storm Beryl off the coast this morning, leaving us about 10 mm of rain.
Al-Qaeda-like logic
``Sometimes it requires tragic situations to help bring clarity in the international community.''
President Bush
July 18, 2006
Smashing of Lebanon green-lighted by President Bush at G-8 meeting
Friends of war say Israel does nothing but defend itself. Boxer, friend of war where Israel is concerned, is disappointed that the US military is too ``bogged down'' due to its ``obsession with Iraq''.
See full story on the Israeli blockade, widespread killing, and destruction of essential infrastructure all around Lebanon here.
Israel and a coaltion of Western countries--with essential and fundamental diplomatic support from the United States--has mercilessly punished the Palestinian people since January for freely and fairly electing a Hamas-led government. Sure, Hamas is the Palestinian war party. But then, no such international pressure ever befalls America for electing Democrats and Republicans who form the most savage war party the world has ever known. Maybe Hamas, as well as the Lebonese Hezbollah have learned from us and because of us the lesson that force is the only answer when state interests are at stake.
Let's also recognize that Palestine, and now Lebanon too, are fighting for their very survival against vastly superior military powers (America and its Israeli client) who would much rather see the region's Arabs subdued to the status of Bantustans or POW camps surrounded by networks of walls and Israeli-only expressways.
Months ago, the attack on the Palestinians was already reaching a critical stage with Israel intentionally halting Gaza's economy, about which I posted here. Last month, Alexander Cockburn ran through the state of shambles and carnage that Gaza and all of Palestine had become under the brutal violence and de facto sanctions enforced by Israel, the US, and Europe:
Here's an example of how to look back farther than just a minute ago to see how these events have precipitated. On May 25, a clandestine group thought to be run by the Israeli Mossad assassinated an Islamic Jihad leader and his brother on Lebanese soil.
Does the put Wednesday's capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah near Lebanon following the capture of one near Gaza some days earlier in any sort of context? All I can say is that the US president has declared such right of killing, capture, and detention worldwide when at his whim he specifies ``enemy combatants'', perhaps pointed to for bounty. Israel uses cross-border assasins with impunity. Why should not other entities engaged in armed struggle for survival claim the same rights, as long as the captives are treated with the rights afforded by the Geneva Conventions? The Arab dictatorships clearly are uncomfortable with such a formulation, witnessed by a Saudi statment disavowing the captures as having any legitimacy as acts of resistance. I have rejected repeatedly in this blog warfare through detention, so I reject this tactic here as well. But the Israeli response is beyond any possible measure of self defense and should be condemed under Article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention.
Of course, as long as the American light for Israeli dealing of death and destruction is glowing brightly green, no appeal to international law means a damn thing. In yesterday's State Department briefing, spokesman Sean McCormack laid out in full detail the precepts re-stated today by President Bush at the G-8 meeting. McCormack banged the drum, ``This is, in our view, an act of self-defense on the Israeli part...'' and then responded,QUESTION: As the operations continue, it seems as if there are few ways as -- you know, not only for Americans but for humanitarian supplies, oil, and other supplies to get into the country. Are you talking to the Israelis about, I don't know, a ceasefire or something like to get more supplies into the country? Are you worried about a humanitarian crisis or an economic crisis? When you talk about supporting the Lebanon Government, is there anything you're doing in that respect?
Israel does nothing. America does nothing. Only Arabs do the ``dragging''. Cast your eyes away from Lebanese civilians. No list of outrages upon the Palestinian people following their democratic election (that came out wrong) need be reviewed. The Cedar Revolution is over, smashed-up Lebanon is set back 20 years, and the Palestinians are on a ``diet'' near starvation.
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, certainly I think the -- I think all the countries in the region, including Israel, are attuned to the fact that they do not want to cause any harm to innocent civilians. This is a very difficult situation right now for the Lebanese people, I think. We understand that. And that's why we're doing everything we can, why the UN is doing everything it can, to deescalate the situation. The way out of this, as I said, is for the rocket attacks to stop, for these two captives to be returned. Then, if you have that situation and you have a situation where the Government of Lebanon actually controls all of its territory, you can start to get back to a more normal situation....
Now, at the moment, I don't have a good read on the situation of the Lebanese people. I know it certainly must be very difficult for them right now. But this underscores the reason why you have to implement 1559. And the effect is that Hezbollah has dragged the Lebanese people into this situation. Hezbollah and its benefactors are attempting to drag the Lebanese people, drag the -- and with regard to Hamas and its benefactors, drag the Palestinian people into an abyss of violence. [emphasis added]
Rumor
Here's a totally unverified and unverifiable rumor seen on the comment boards at The Oil Drum:What I am about to say is complete speculation, so take it with a huge grain of salt. I have heard that Valerie Plame was not working on WMD issues in the Middle East when her cover was blown by the infamous White House leak. Rather, what I have heard is that she was actually involved with a front company getting hard data on whether Matthew Simmons charges against Saudi Arabia's reserves were true or not...
I have absolutely no idea if this is true, but I am certain that Simmons must have stirred up quite a reaction deep in Cheney's ``secure, undisclosed location.''
Meanwhile, look at the calming reassurances against breakdown of the global energy supply system that have to be given to keep markets from exploding in the face of rapidly-increasing Middle East violence:Adam Plowright, Agence France Press in The Daily Star: PARIS: World demand for oil will rise at about 2 percent a year for the next five years, but OPEC countries are leading an expansion of production that will replenish a supply safety cushion, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday. Investment by OPEC will increase the crude production capacity of the 11 countries belonging to the cartel by 10 percent from 2006 to 2011, with production of natural gas liquids set to increase by 44 percent. These increases, coupled with rising output from non-OPEC countries, will mean that growth in oil supplies outstrip growth in demand every year until 2010, adding vital spare production capacity to the global oil system.
Take this with about the same grain of salt as the Plame-Saudi story.
Beastly hot
Summer squash is taking over
Guess I underestimated how big that thing would get. We ate the first one tonight. It's great!
Fired-up union speech!
AFL-CIO organizer Stuart Acuff gave this fiery oratory to a crowd at the 2006 4th July Solidarity Celebration, Eastern Maine Labor Council, Brewer, Maine. You'll just have to listen to it to get the full effect!
``...lies like none of us have expected since Richard Nixon...
they lied to get us into an un-necessary war,
they lied about torture,
they lied about extraordinary renditions,
and they have lied to deface and defame the honor of the United States of America...
``Bush trade policy has cost us 3 million good manufacturing jobs.''
--Stuart Acuff
This 10-minute video is slightly edited to fit in YouTube. For a downloadable audio-only mp3 podcast of the full 12-minute Stuart Acuff speech, please visit peacecast.us here.
