Monday, July 24, 2006

Notes on Lebanon situation

It's war by any other name, reprinted from the Asia Times. A curiosity: originally the info I saw presented on Hezbollah's prisoner abduction stated that it occurred on Israeli territory. It was only several days later that I saw the claim made that the soldiers were on Lebanese territory. Truth is always the first casualty of war, isn't it? Over here we have "The original border crossing, the capture of the two soldiers and the killing of three others was planned, according to Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah leader who escaped assassination by the Israelis on Friday evening, more than five months ago." Hmmm....I think I'd like to see a direct quote from Nasrallah before I consider the matter any further....

Of note in the Asia Times article I think is that it suggests this is part of an attempt by warmongering members of Hizbollah and Hamas to force these organisations back onto the path of militancy rather than developing a more pragmatic, diplomatic approach.

Oh yeah, and why now? Iran I believe, even if only in the form of providing, for lack of a better phrase, moral support: Ahmadinejad is getting big points in the Islamic world for his public anti-American and anti-Israeli position, or so I've been led to believe.

No, I don't think "regime change" is desirable, or even possible, in Iran - in fact I think such a thing would be spectacularly stupid. But I'm not going to sit back and give a theocratic, fundamentalist authoritarian government a free ride just because the US opposes its existence. In case people hadn't noticed, a LOT of countries are getting antsy about Iran of late.

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