by
Larry C Johnson (bio | blog)
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Below, please see my addendum: "When is Killing Children Right?"
A correction to the original piece posted below
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Israel Takes A Stupid Pill
Apparently not content to let the U.S. do a self-immolation act in the Middle East by itself, Israel decided to set itself on fire by invading Lebanon. Burn baby burn? Like George Bush, Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, never served in a combat unit and launched military operations without thinking the matter through. In fact, Olmert reportedly never even served in the military. I raise this because there is one simple question Israel cannot answer about the current operations--what is their strategic military objective. Olmert has somehow persuaded the Israeli military to ignore strategy, think tactically, and in the process become really stupid. The events in the next several weeks will expose as myth the canard that you can secure a nation by killing terrorists. No you can't.
What about Hamas and Hezbollah?
Israel Takes A Stupid Pill, continued:Killing "terrorists" has a place in policy but it is not a strategic military obective. It is a tactical objective and may serve political purposes, but achieves little in terms of securing Israel. Israel is attacking targets in Lebanon like a drunken sailor in a bar fight. Flailing about, causing significant damage, hitting innocent bystanders, and generally making a mess of things. This is not the Israeli military that pulled off the brilliant and daring raid at Entebbe.
They are not terrorists. They carry out terrorist attacks, but they are not terrorists. They are something far more dangerous. They are fully functioning political, social, religious, and military organizations that use terrorism tactics, but they are far more formidible than terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or the Basque Terrorist Organization. They do have the resources and the personnel to project force, sustain operations, and cannot be easily defeated. Unlike the Egyptian and Syrian armies in 1973, Hamas and Hezbollah will not easily fold and cannot be defeated in a seven day war. If that is the assumption among some Israeli military planners it is a crazy fantasy.
While most folks in the United States buy into the Hollywood storyline of poor little Israel fighting for it's survival against big, bad Muslims, the reality unfolding on our TV screens shows something else. Exodus, starring Paul Newman, is ancient history. Hamas and Hezbollah attacked military targets--kidnapping soldiers on military patrols may be an act of war and a provocation, but it is not terrorism. (And yes, Hezbollah and Hamas have carried out terrorist attacks in the past against Israeli civilians. I'm not ignoring those acts, I condemn them, but we need to understand what the dynamics are right now.) Israel is not attacking the individuals who hit their soldiers. Israel is engaged in mass punishment.
How did Israel respond? They bombed civilian targets and civilian infrastructure and have killed many civilians. Let's see if I have this right. The Arab "terrorists" attack military units, destroy at least one tank, and are therefore terrorists. Israel retaliates by launching aerial, naval, and artillery bombardments of civilian areas and they are engaging in self-defense. If we are unable to recognize the hypocrisy of this construct then we ourselves are so enveloped by propaganda and emotion that, like the Israelis, Hezbollah, and Hamas, we can't think rationally. We can only think in terms of tribalism and revenge.
Iran, meanwhile, is sitting in the catbird's seat. They have a well-trained and highly competent surrogate force in Hezbollah. Hezbollah's successful attack on Friday on an Israeli naval vessel is a reminder that Hezbollah is not a bunch of crazy kids carrying RPGs and wearing flip flops. I would be willing to wager that at least one Iranian military advisor was helping Hezbollah launch the missile that hit the Israeli ship. But Iran is doing more than simply engage in tit-for-tat. They are thinking strategically.
The events unfolding in Iraq and Lebanon are going Tehran's way. The United States is being portrayed in the world media as someone who tolerates and excuses attacks on civilian populations. The perception becomes the reality and the ability of the United States to rally support among the Russians, the Chinese, and even the French becomes more impaired. We need the international community to deal effectively with nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran. Now, we will be bogged down trying to defend Israel from an angry international community.
In the past, the United States had enough credibility on both sides and kept enough of a distance during these blood fueds so that we could intervene and prevent the fighting from escalating into a gigantic war. It appears that there is no one in the Bush Administration who can step up and intervene to calm the situation. Hell, with John Bolton and Elliot Abrams leading the charge, we are Israel's enablers.
Former Senator Fred Thompson played a U.S. Navy Admiral in then Hunt for Red October. While speaking about escalating tensions as the United States and the Soviet Union chased a renegade submarine, he said:
This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.
Those words are relevant today. Let's hope and pray they don't come to pass.
The opinion piece I wrote, entitled "Israel Takes A Stupid Pill", has elicited major outrage from rightwingers eager to pick out minor mistakes rather than focus on the substance of my piece. I was correct in stating that Olmert has not been in combat. I was wrong in writing, "He reportedly never served in the military". The person I relied on for this was mistaken and I repeated the mistake. Olmert, according to Con Coughlin, was a military journalist. (
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/07/16/do1608.xml
As a commentator on my blog noted, "It is not just that Mr Olmert's military career was limited to occasional stints as a reporter for the Israeli army's in-house magazine. Unlike some of the more flamboyant characters who have occupied the Prime Minister's office - the devious Moshe Dayan, the laconic Yitzhak Rabin - Mr Olmert is a backroom, career politician who, apart from serving an unconvincing period as Jerusalem's mayor in the 1990s, has risen almost without trace."
Nonetheless, my piece does not hinge on whether or not Olmert served or didn't serve. The point is that Israel's lack of strategy in responding to the Hezbollah attacks has painted it into a corner and there is no easy way out.
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When is Killing Children Right?
by
Larry C Johnson
Does it matter? We do not know if this child was Muslim or Christian. Probably not Jewish since she was killed during an aerial attack in Lebanon by Israeli pilots.
This child was burned by an exploding bomb in Lebanon. We can find pictures as well of Israeli children, blown to bits, maimed and burned.
We also have the images of Jewish children, who were starved and murdered in ghettos set up by Christians who were Nazis. Despite history, we learn nothing. Muslims angry at Jews justify killing Jewish children. Jews angry at Muslims justify killing Muslim children. And Christians, angry at Muslims, Bhuddists, Communists, and other Christians, have justified killing all of those children.
Jesus, accepted as the Messiah by Christians, honored by Muslims as a prophet, and recognized by Jews as an ethical teacher, said some very pointed things about how human beings should treat children:
"Suffer the little children to come
to me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 19: 14). "Whoever
receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever offends one
of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for to have
a millstone fastened round his neck and that he be drowned in the depth
of the sea" (Mt. 18: 5-6). "See that you do not despise one of these
little ones; for I tell you that their angels do always behold the face
of my Father who is in heaven" (Mt. 18: 10).
At some point, this madness must stop. Killing children in the name of fighting terrorism is evil, regardless who does it.