WHY THEY HATE US
by Michael Hammerschlag
"They have a right to defend themselves from terrorism,"
intoned our Chump in Chief, and that was
the end of any hope for American intervention
or mediation of Israel's savage attack on
the Hezbollah and innocent Lebanese. ‘Like
an pricked enraged giant, striking out in every direction,’ said the BBC, as Olmert
showed he wasn't the moderate the world believed
when he carried out the Gaza withdrawal,
but a clumsy second rater who makes even
Sharon look wise.
Apparently, Hezbollah has better and many
more missiles than they used to, but still, the vast majority were dumb
blind rockets, like throwing a rock at a
park and hoping it would kill a few scattered
people (though the spread of indefensible
anti-ship missiles could completely change
the tactical balance of the Middle East).
To this came the frenzied thuggish response-
blasting the Beirut airport, blasting apartment
buildings, tearing up the infrastructure,
killing 10-20 civilians for every terrorist.
To every country but America, Israel is the
one sowing terror with their inaccurate artillery,
and huge air strikes. To this neocon President
and cabinet, there is obviously nothing Israel
can do that would be beyond the pale- out
of bounds- and Israel is encouraged by this
in their depredations.
Understandably, the Israelis were enraged
by the capture of their soldiers, also the
new tactic against US forces in Iraq, but
there are reports they were actually in Lebanon*. But even the normal disproportionate Israeli
reaction of 4 dead Palestinians for every
dead Israeli was abandoned in their frenzied
response, attacking many targets in Beirut,
South Lebanon, even the West Bank. 400 dead
so far, and counting vs. 38 or so for he
Israeli's (some by their own doing- hitting
a mine in invading Lebanon). The Israeli
invasion and retaliatory strikes in Gaza
have claimed 110 lives. Now the calculus
is 12 to 1 or 16 to 1, or whatever the Israeli's
want to make it. "The question is, whether
the Lebanese can control the Hezbollah,"
intoned the housebroken correspondent, well
aware that any criticism of Israel was forbidden.
No, the question was, "is Israel, by
it's unlimited promiscuous attacks on numerous
innocents and civilians, committing war crimes".
We won't ask that question. A TV report spends
5 minutes on 9 dead Israeli soldiers, but
5 seconds reporting that 23 Palestinians
were killed in the fetid cage of Gaza.
Meanwhile Bush, folksily frat-boy-ternizing
with Blair (“get Hezbollah to stop doing
this shit"), and giving unsolicited
neck rubs to a grimacing German premiere
Merkel (smiling, our protective LA Times said, before they erased the photo that
gave lie to their words), as the foreign
press openly snickered at his fantasies about
Iraqi democracy. Bush isn't just inarticulate,
ignorant, careless, and cowardly in avoiding
any responsibility. He's downright creepy.
And in his cynical inaction and paralyzing
influence on the G8, "disgraceful", just what he called the New York Times in the latest pre-election volley of press
intimidation. Only seeing one side, he wants
ridiculed Kofi Annon to stop Hezbollah, while
he has given a green light to Israeli attacks.
What the world sees is Lebanon being pulverized
by US jets and bombs; what the Muslim world
sees is America aiding and abetting Israeli
aggression. Most of these Hezbollan rockets
land with the impact of a large mortar, while
Israel's artillery is reducing apartment
buildings or blocks to rubble.
By blowing the hell out of the Lebanese,
Israel claims to try to force them to reign
in Hezbollah. But Israel's ambassador admits
blithely that Hezbollah is much stronger
than the Lebanese government, making their
attacks blind stupid retribution against
an innocent bystander, as counterproductive
in the long run as America's reckless Iraq
invasion. Now talk is abuzz of invasion,
but security from mobile missiles is a chimera,
and Israel has done all this before, with
painful results. "Invading Lebanon again,"
said an Israeli general, "would be like
America going back into Vietnam". And
reprising that 1982 horror may plunge Lebanon
again into another bitter long term civil
war.
Few have suffered like Lebanon, repeatedly
invaded, partitioned, bombed, and bullied
by Israel and Syria; and subject to one of
the longest bitterest civil war in modern
history- 1975-1990. Finally rebuilt and vibrant,
Israel is shattering it yet again- wantonly
and carelessly. 95% of the bridges are damaged
or destroyed, and 80% of the roads, reports
NBC News. Despite the wanton destruction,
Americans know who to root for: our sympathies
are 54% with Israel compared to only 11%
for the Lebanese. We have crossed another
terrrible bridge into a world where the half
of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims who didn't hate us, now do. America will pay for this
for decades- this homeland "security"
our blithering Bush has brought us.
The Iranian backed Hezbollah are bad guys.
They were responsible for the 1983 Beirut
Marine barracks explosion and US embassy
bombing that killed over 300 Americans, but
Reagan National Security Advisor Bud McFarlane
was reportedly eagerly watching as US battleship
shells slammed into Muslim neighborhoods.
We were not honest brokers, and Bush's willful
negligence is threatening to ban us from
that role. The Hezbollah are quite happy
for the Israeli's to shatter all of Lebanon-
creating more radicals for the cause. It's
Insurgency 101, but Olmert and the hard liners
don't care or understand; neither does our
globally ignorant Administration. Not only
is it hopelessly late to avenge quarter century
old grievances, Hezbollah now is a full service
political organization that provides schools,
hospitals, community centers; a source of
much of their support.
The useless robotic Kindo-sleaza Rice won’t
“impose a settlement”, but ignored the manifest
danger of destabilizing the tenuous Lebanese
government, as she incredibly thanked their
Prime Minister for his "courage and
steadfastness", before jetting off to
Israel to permit the continuing assault.
"What we are seeing..is .. the birth
pangs of a new Middle East," said the unreconstructed neocon, as if the Iraq
invasion had been a smashing success, and
the destruction of Lebanon a positive event.
Encouraged by US blocking of a cease fire,
Israel blasted a long time South Lebanon
UN observer post off the map in an obviously
deliberate 12 hour bombardment, killing 4; and are now targeting even ambulances.
What the world sees is America not lifting
a finger to stop the carnage, even cheering
it on, while scuttling frantically to evacuate
US citizens, our precious college girls,
who are worth 1000 to 1 of those Arabs. They
see that most of the 21st century weapons decimating the ancient cities
of Lebanon are stamped Made in America (and we are rushing the Israelis more).
But, altogether, this sad conflict- it's
not a war- it's an Israeli general attack
vs. a scattered dedicated opposition- illustrates
the answer to what people whine in confusion,
"Why do they hate us?" It's not
because of our freedoms.
It's dee planes, boss, dee planes.
Michael Hammerschlag has no dog in this fight.
His articles have appeared across 16 time
zones, and his father escaped Nazi persecution
on the last boat out.