By Craig P. Dixon, southcoast247.com correspondent Social Commentary 68
July 17, 2006
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this week’s Craig Cares. I’m Craig P. Dixon.
Recent events in Israel have got me scared shitless. First, an Israeli soldier is kidnapped by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that currently controls the government. Hamas wishes to use their prisoner as a bartering chip: 1 Israeli soldier for every Palestinian woman and child currently held by Israel. Then 2 more Israeli soldiers are kidnapped by Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group that, once again, holds considerable sway in Lebanon’s political landscape. They too wish to trade their prisoners for Hezbollah members imprisoned by Israel.
I have yet to hear of a country that negotiates with terrorists. To do so would open the door to attack after attack, raid after raid, demand after demand. Furthermore, it would demonstrate a sovereign nation’s weakness to the terrorists, as well as the world. This is unacceptable.
So, Israel retaliates the only way it knows how: With brute military force. They’ve bombed the living shit out of the Palestinians with missiles and mortars, and recently began rumbling tanks and troops back into the Gaza Strip. They’re continuously bombing Hezbollah controlled areas in Southern Lebanon as well as the capitol, Beirut, and have begun mustering troops along the Lebanese border.
These, my friends, are dark times. We’re Israel’s greatest friend and ally. Truly, if we decided to stop backing Israel, the country would cease to exist. It’s only a matter of time before the United States gets pulled into this conflict, and the world shall follow soon after. What I see happening in Israel is a good indicator that World War 3 may be upon us, unless cooler heads prevail.
And, if there’s anything to be said of the Middle East, it’s that these are hotheaded people, willing to fight over such things as baseless and ridiculous as whose God is the true God, or which stretch of “holy” land belongs to whom. They’ve been fighting for thousands of years over this bullshit, and I have no doubt in my mind that they’ll continue the battle for a thousand more.
If they don’t annihilate each other first.
The US should do all it can to settle this conflict diplomatically. Though we don’t have relationships with Hamas or Hezbollah, we do have good relations with countries that do. We must ask these countries to pressure both sides to release their prisoners as we urge restraint and patience from the Israelis.
For we cannot enter another battle theatre. Our military is already stretched thin, and top US generals in Iraq have requested more troops to quell the civil conflict brewing there. More troops would’ve been a good idea when we first entered Iraq or, as I see it, never going in the first place would’ve proved the best plan of action. Now we’re stuck in a conflict with no foreseeable end, where a large force of American troops must be kept for at least 25, if not 50, years.
Sure, countries aren’t formed overnight. But, in order to build a democracy, you’ve got to want it. And I’m not sure the Iraqis, or any Middle Eastern country for that matter, have the desire or responsibility to handle a Western democracy.
And that’s what we, as Americans, can’t understand. With every nation we destroy and attempt to rebuild in our image, we forget that these people a) aren’t Americans, b) could give a shit less about democracy when they’re too busy trying to get something to eat, and c) could give a fuck less what We want to do with Them. It’s about what They want, not the other way around.
Yet here we go, exerting our will on whomever we please, whenever we please, for no apparent reason other than We Can.
Upon leaving office, George Washington urged the country to stay out of foreign affairs. And, for awhile, we did. Of course this is impossible in the present. Technology has brought diverse cultures, separated by thousands of miles of land and sea, to each others proverbial and literal doorsteps. But perhaps our all-knowing leaders could more wisely choose the games into which we throw our cards.
Or else we may be drawn into yet another seemingly endless, horrifically bloody conflict, the parameters of which we’ll never fully understand.
Recent events in Israel have got me scared shitless. First, an Israeli soldier is kidnapped by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that currently controls the government. Hamas wishes to use their prisoner as a bartering chip: 1 Israeli soldier for every Palestinian woman and child currently held by Israel. Then 2 more Israeli soldiers are kidnapped by Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group that, once again, holds considerable sway in Lebanon’s political landscape. They too wish to trade their prisoners for Hezbollah members imprisoned by Israel.
