Lebanon

[drscott]

Lots of news this morning. As usual, Lebanon's people are being dragged into war by external parties. They recently threw off the domination of Syria, but haven't been able to gain control over Hezbollah in the south -- Hezbollah has enough support to remain a tolerated faction. Now the financiers of terror (in this case, Iran) are getting their desired distraction in the form of a war on Israel, rockets have hit Haifa, and innocents on all sides are dying. To the extent that Israel has made some effort to avoid noncombatant casualties, I give them credit. But it's still tragic that Lebanon must suffer so that the hatreds of others can play out. I've been chatting with lebocub, who hopes it will blow over soon. Meanwhile, Beirut has been leafleted from the sky with warnings to avoid Hezbollah facilities.

This is ominous because it may trigger open warfare with Iran and a global crisis.

Comments

[markbuster.livejournal.com]

Yes- I don't think people understand how incredibly terrible this all is.
I'll tell you this, if I run into one fucking crunchy white chick with a "Israel out of Palestine" bumper sticker, I will not act rationally.

[pklexton.livejournal.com]

Yes, this does have a disturbingly worse-than-unusual, very bad feel to it. (Kind of like the feeling I had early on about the cartoon crisis).

Unfortunately with the current crowd in charge Washington I am not very confident of their crisis management capabilities. The only area in which they excel seems to be to manipulate crises to serve pre-existing agendas of their constituency. So that adds another element of fuel for the fire. Usually intervention from the White House is the most likely way these things get defused. This White House has credibility only on one side of the dispute.

[furfairy.livejournal.com]

Oops. That anonymous comment linking to the Objective Standard was mine.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

For quite a long time, I've been fairly critical of Israel's foreign policy and its treatment of the Palestinians. (Although, to be fair, I note that no one else is rushing to their aid, either.) But I find myself supporting Israel's retaliation against military and paramilitary forces that bombard its territories.

I agree that the ominous part is the threat of a regional conflict whose effects have a global impact. The possibility of nuclear conflict makes it even worse, especially for the people who are weary after so many decades of conflict.

[tdjohnsn.livejournal.com]

Do you read Michael Totten's blog? He has written a great deal about lebanon (he lived there for six months earlier this year) and interviewed people on both sides of the border. Lebanon sounds like a wonderful place which makes this all doubly sad.