This site is an echo chamber. Those with dissenting views are quickly shouted down, not by counter argument but by stupid remarks and insults. And, when someone runs out of their alloted troll rating, they just spam until everyone is annoyed. The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict has exposed this, at least for me. Few seem to have any sympathy for Israel's dire position. Instead, they lament the innocent loss of life on the Lebanese side as if Israeli's have not also been dying, for 58 years, and for no good reason. I don't know where this animus toward Israel springs, but I have my thoughts. More inside.
This is supposed to be a progressive sight. But, the sympathy shown to religious fanatics and their supporters seems to me contrary to the progressive movement. Progressives derisevly dismiss Evangelical Americans at home, rightly so I might add, but they seem to have a special place in their hearts for radical islam in its "heroic" struggle against Israel. This is inconsistent to the point of absurdity. If you hate your local fundamentalist idiot, you should hate the foreign one that wants you dead even more, no?
But, alas, it is not so. Rather, Israel is decried for its "attrocities" as if firing rockets indiscriminately purely at civilians with zero military or strategic significance at all is not an attrocity? Where the fuck is the outrage at that? Very little, believe me. I have seen pictures of dead Lebanese children on this site. Horrific pictures, to be sure, but no critical discussion of who is at fault for that childs death. And, when one is challenged at where the true fault lay, the answer is venom; not at Hezbollah, or, in some cases, even Israel; rather, the hatred is reserved for the questioner, as if the answer is plain for all to see--this is the classic echo chamber effect.
But, I'll ask it again: whose fault is it when guerillas fight among civilians, not street fighting, but launching rockets right in their midst? The answer to a Kossack, incredibly, is that it is Israels fault; Israel should just take the rockets up their ass with a smile, right?Why? Because of their overwhelming military superiority, because they are democratic and Hezbollah is a non-state actor, because war is bad, because the response is disproportionate. This is a sample of the answers I got when I challenged some of these Hezbollah sympathizers. But, all these arguments are lame.
I have a simple response: Hezbollah killed those children because 1) they kidnapped two soldiers and killed six in an unprovoked cross border raid, 2) the Lebanese government has their implicit, if not tacit, support lest they would have rid themselves of this menace a long time ago, 3) Hezbollah, like all guerillas, purposefully hide and fight among civilians, a few complicit, the rest caught in the cross-fire, and 4) Hezbollah has done nothing to evacuate the civilians they claim to fight for because it is in their interest that civilians die.
Is the Israeli response disproportionate? Many, think it is, but then fail to describe what would be proportionate. The failure stems from the fact that there is no legitimate answer to this. A state has the right to defend itself from an unprovoked attack in any way it deems fit. So, there's my two cents; let the beatings begin.