Middle East Wars

I am feeling sad. It is really absurd for us to be letting Isreal drag us into a war with Syra and Iran. I said nine days ago that Isreal was probably right to respond to the Hizbollah tit with a tat.

The tit for tat stategy often works. Had Isreal responded to Hizbollah's rockets with a few barages of missiles then unilaterally stopped, Isreal would have forced Lebanon and the Arab world to bridle in Hizbollah terrorists.

Unfortunately, Isreal has rejected the tit for tat strategy and seems intent on a strategy of gradual escalation. Gradual escalation means world wide war.

The stated goal I keep hearing is that Isreal's goal is to kill all the people who hate Isreal. Unfortunately with each casuality they inflict, they increase the number of people in need of killing. Isreal is going to have to kill between 30 to 100 million people to make any significant dent in the number of people that hate Isreal.

Killing all the people that hate you never works, because the act of killing all of your enemies creates more enemies.

Conversely, the tit for tat strategy works because it points out the world that nasty things being done by Hizbollah.

Unfortunately, the ongoing invasion changes the world's perception of Hizbollah from that of a terrorist group to that of freedom fighters.

If the US and Isreal played the game right, the missile barrages and use of landmines by Hizbollah would come off as bad form. Moderates in the Arab world would turn against Hizbollah ... reducing the number of enemies of Isreal.

Right now, the US is in a dangerous situation where Isreal could escalate a kidnapping into a regional war involving US troops.

While the escalation of the war has me sad. The use of landmines in the war really has me on end.

Imagine how wonderful it would be if the US had signed the landmine ban. If we had, then we would be in a position to condemn Hizbollah for using a banned terrorst weapon.

Unfortunately, since our own Donald Rumsfeld is the world's number one promoter for widespread use of landmines, Hizbollah is able to use landmines with impunity.

I agree with neocons that the US needed to confront radical Islam. Unfortunately we need to do so with some intelligence and tact. Intelligence and tact that Rumsfeld and friends clear lack.