[Rhodes22-list] Politics--Ted Koppel on Iraq

[Brad Haslett]

Robert,

Yesterday I 'found' time on the lake, the first day with a heat index less
than a hundred in a week.  I'm trying to wind down after a late night sim
and stumbled across this observation.  It is a bit blunt - and dead on.

Brad

--------------------

  Failure to solve Palestinian question empowers Iran

*July 23, 2006*

*BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST *

 Afew years back, when folks talked airily about "the Middle East peace
process" and "a two-state solution," I used to say that the trouble was the
Palestinians saw a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to a
one-state solution. I underestimated Islamist depravity. As we now see in
Gaza and southern Lebanon, any two-state solution would be an interim stage
en route to a no-state solution.

 In one of the most admirably straightforward of Islamist declarations,
Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of U.S. and
French forces 20 years ago, put it this way:

"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to
eliminate you."

Swell. But, suppose he got his way, what then? Suppose every last Jew in
Israel were dead or fled, what would rise in place of the Zionist Entity? It
would be something like the Hamas-Hezbollah terror squats in Gaza and
Lebanon writ large. Hamas won a landslide in the Palestinian elections, and
Hezbollah similarly won formal control of key Lebanese Cabinet ministries.
But they're not Mussolini: They have no interest in making the trains run on
time. And to be honest, who can blame them? If you're a big-time terrorist
mastermind, it's frankly a bit of a bore to find yourself Deputy
Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions, particularly when you're no
good at it and no matter how lavishly the European Union throws money at you
there never seems to be any in the kitty when it comes to making payroll.
So, like a business that's over-diversified, both Hamas and Hezbollah
retreated to their core activity: Jew-killing.

In* Causeries du Lundi, *Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve recalls a Parisian
dramatist watching the revolutionary mob rampaging through the street below
and beaming: "See my pageant passing!" That's how opportunist Arabs and
indulgent Europeans looked on the intifada and the terrorists and the
schoolgirl suicide bombers: as a kind of uber-authentic piece of performance
art with which to torment the Jews and the Americans. They never paused to
ask themselves: Hey, what if it doesn't stop there?

Well, about 30 years too late, they're asking it now. For the first
quarter-century of Israel's existence, the Arab states fought more or less
conventional wars against the Zionists, and kept losing. So then they
figured it was easier to anoint a terrorist movement and in 1974 declared
Yasser Arafat's PLO to be the "sole legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people," which is quite a claim for an organization then barely
half-a-decade old. Amazingly, the Arab League persuaded the U.N. and the EU
and Bill Clinton and everyone else to go along with it and to treat the old
monster as a head of state who lacked only a state to head. It's true that
many nationalist movements have found it convenient to adopt the guise of
terrorists. But, as the Palestinian "nationalist" movement descended from
airline hijackings to the intifada to self-detonating in pizza parlors, it
never occurred to their glamorous patrons to wonder if maybe this was, in
fact, a terrorist movement conveniently adopting the guise of nationalism.

In 1971, in the lobby of the Cairo Sheraton, Palestinian terrorists shot
Wasfi al-Tal, the prime minister of Jordan at point-blank range. As he fell
to the floor dying, one of his killers began drinking the blood gushing from
his wounds. Doesn't that strike you as a little, um, overwrought? Three
decades later, when bombs went off in Bali killing hundreds of tourists plus
local waiters and barmen, Bruce Haigh, a former Aussie diplomat in
Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, had no doubt where to put the blame.
As he told Australia's Nine Network: "The root cause of this issue has been
America's backing of Israel on Palestine."

Suppose this were true -- that terrorists blew up Oz honeymooners and
Scandinavian stoners in Balinese nightclubs because of "the Palestinian
question." Doesn't this suggest that these people are, at a certain level,
nuts? After all, there are plenty of IRA sympathizers around the world (try
making the Ulster Unionist case in a Boston bar) and yet they never thought
to protest British rule in Northern Ireland by blowing up, say, German
tourists in Thailand. Yet the more the thin skein of Palestinian grievance
was stretched to justify atrocities halfway around the world, the more the
Arab League big-shot emirs and European Union foreign ministers looked down
from their windows and cooed, "See my parade passing!"

They've now belatedly realized they're at that stage in the creature feature
where the monster has mutated into something bigger and crazier. Until the
remarkably kinda-robust statement by the G-8 and the unprecedented
denunciation of Hezbollah by the Arab League, the rule in any conflict in
which Israel is involved -- Israel vs. PLO, Israel vs. Lebanon, Israel vs.
[Your Team Here] is that the Jews are to blame.

But Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian opportunism on Palestine has caught up with
them: It's finally dawned on them that a strategy of consciously avoiding
resolution of the "Palestinian question" has helped deliver Gaza, and
Lebanon and Syria, into the hands of a regime that's a far bigger threat to
the Arab world than the Zionist Entity. Cairo and Co. grew so accustomed to
whining about the Palestinian pseudo-crisis decade in decade out that it
never occurred to them that they might face a real crisis one day: a Middle
East dominated by an apocalyptic Iran and its local enforcers, in which Arab
self-rule turns out to have been a mere interlude between the Ottoman
sultans and the eternal eclipse of a Persian nuclear umbrella. The Zionists
got out of Gaza and it's now Talibanistan redux. The Zionists got out of
Lebanon and the most powerful force in the country (with an ever-growing
demographic advantage) are Iran's Shia enforcers. There haven't been any
Zionists anywhere near Damascus in 60 years and Syria is in effect Iran's
first Sunni Arab prison bitch. For the other regimes in the region, Gaza,
Lebanon and Syria are dead states that have risen as vampires.

Meanwhile, Kofi Annan in a remarkable display of urgency (at least when
compared with Sudan, Rwanda, Congo et al.) is proposing apropos Israel and
Hezbollah that U.N. peacekeepers go in, not to keep the "peace" between two
sovereign states but rather between a sovereign state and a usurper
terrorist gang. Contemptible as he is, the secretary-general shows a shrewd
understanding of the way the world is heading: Already "non-state actors"
have more sophisticated rocketry than many EU nations; if Iran has its way,
its proxies will be implied nuclear powers. Maybe we should put them on the
U.N. Security Council.

So what is in reality Israel's first non-Arab war is a glimpse of the world
the day after tomorrow: The EU and Arab League won't quite spell it out,
but, to modify that Le Monde headline, they are all Jews now.

*(c)Mark Steyn 2006*



On 7/22/06, Robert Skinner <robert at squirrelhaven.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks again, Brad.
>
> How do you find time to dig up these
> very-much-on-target references?
> I'm retired (mostly) and marvel at
> your bredth of interests and
> bibliography.
>
> V/R Robert Skinner
> ----------------------------------
> Brad Haslett wrote:
> >
> > Robert,
> >
> > You may find the attached editorial interesting as well.  It supports
> some
> > points you made.  BTW, Friedman's book "The World Is Flat" is a great
> read
> > on globalization.
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > ------------------------
> >
> > [image: deseretnews.com]
> >
> > Deseret Morning News, Saturday, July 22, 2006
> >
> > *U.S. needs help from World of Order*
> >
> > *By Thomas L. Friedman*
> >
> >  TEL AVIV, Israel — There was a small item in The Jerusalem Post the
> other
> > day that caught my eye. It said that the Israeli telephone company,
> Bezeq,
> > was installing high-speed Internet lines in bomb shelters in northern
> Israel
> > so Israelis could surf the Web while waiting out Hezbollah rocket
> attacks.
> >
> > I read that story two ways: one, as symbol of Israeli resilience, a
> > boundless ability to adapt to any kind of warfare. But, two, as an
> > unconscious expression of what I sense people here are just starting to
> > feel: This is no ordinary war, and it probably won't end soon. At a time
> > when most Arab states have reconciled to Israel and their dispute is now
> > about where the borders should be, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Shiite
> > militia, armed with 12,000 rockets, says borders are irrelevant. It is
> > Israel that should be erased.
> >
> > That's why I find, in talking to Israeli friends, a near total support
> for
> > their government's actions — and almost a relief at the clarity of this
> > confrontation and Israel's right to defend itself. Yet, at the same
> time, I
> > find a gnawing sense of anxiety that Israel is facing in Hezbollah an
> enemy
> > that is unabashedly determined to transform this conflict into a
> religious
> > war — from a war over territory — and wants to do it in a way that
> threatens
> > not only Israel but the foundations of global stability.
> >
> > How so? Even though it had members in the national cabinet, Hezbollah
> built
> > up a state-within-a state in Lebanon and then insisted on the right to
> > launch its own attack on Israel that exposed the entire Lebanese nation
> to
> > retaliation. Moreover, unprovoked, it violated an international border
> with
> > Israel that was sanctified by the United Nations.
> >
> > So this is not just another Arab-Israeli war. It is about some of the
> most
> > basic foundations of the international order — borders and sovereignty —
> and
> > the erosion of those foundations would spell disaster for the quality of
> > life all across the globe.
> >
> > Lebanon, alas, has not been able to produce the internal coherence to
> > control Hezbollah and is not likely to soon. The only way this war is
> going
> > to come to some stable conclusion anytime soon is if The World of Order
> —
> > and I don't just mean "the West," but countries like Russia, China,
> India,
> > Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia too — puts together an international
> force
> > that can escort the Lebanese army to the Israeli border and remain on
> hand
> > to protect it against Hezbollah.
> >
> > I am not talking about a U.N. peacekeeping force. I am talking about an
> > international force, like the one that liberated Kosovo, with robust
> rules
> > of engagement, heavy weapons and troops from countries like France,
> Russia,
> > India and China that Iran and its proxies will not want to fight.
> >
> > Israel does not like international forces on its borders and worries
> they
> > will not be effective. But it will be better than a war of attrition,
> and
> > nothing would set back the forces of disorder in Lebanon more than The
> World
> > of Order helping to extend the power of the democratically elected
> Lebanese
> > government to its border with Israel.
> >
> > Too often, assaults like Hezbollah's, which have global implications,
> have
> > been met with only "a local response," said Gidi Grinstein, who heads
> Reut,
> > an Israeli defense think tank. "But the only way that these networks can
> be
> > defeated is if their global assault is met by a global response."
> >
> > Unfortunately, partly because of China, Russia and Europe's traditional
> > resentment and jealousy of the United States and partly because of the
> > foolish President Bush approach that said unilateral America power was
> more
> > important than action legitimated by a global consensus, the global
> forces
> > of order today are not at all united.
> >
> > It is time that The World of Order got its act together. This is not
> > Israel's fight alone — and if you really want to see a "disproportional"
> > Israeli response, just keep leaving Israel to fight this war alone. Then
> you
> > will see some real craziness.
> >
> > Bush and Condoleezza Rice need to realize that Syria on its own is not
> going
> > to press Hezbollah — in Bush's immortal words — to just "stop doing this
> > s---." The Bush team needs to convene a coalition of The World of Order.
> If
> > it won't, it should let others more capable do the job. We could start
> with
> > the elder George Bush and Bill Clinton, whose talents could be used for
> more
> > than just tsunami relief.
> >
> > The forces of disorder — Hezbollah, al-Qaida, Iran — are a geopolitical
> > tsunami that we need a united front to defeat. And that united front
> needs
> > to be spearheaded by American leaders who understand that our power is
> most
> > effective when it is legitimated by a global consensus and imbedded in a
> > global coalition.
> >
> >  ------------------------------
> >
> >  *New York Times News Service*
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > (c) 2006 Deseret News Publishing Company
> >
> > On 7/22/06, Robert Skinner <robert at squirrelhaven.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > Brad, thank you for the Hanson article.  It is a very
> > > interesting and relatively coherent analysis of the
> > > current dynamics in the Middle East.  If you take as
> > > a postulate that Bush had as his initial intent the
> > > destabilization of the Iran-Iraq detante and the
> > > exposure of the jihadist sociopathy, then you could
> > > make an argument for his foreign policy.
> > >
> > > As for me, I believe that even a blind pig can find
> > > an acorn now and then.  To me, it is likely that
> > > the situation and options that Hanson describes are
> > > more the result of good luck than prescient planning.
> > >
> > > Whatever the causes, however we arrived at this point,
> > > I'm all for loosing the hounds on the jihadists.  I
> > > have been and still am of the opinion that vandals of
> > > any origin are the true enemies of peace, and the
> > > current group has weapons of far greater power than
> > > any before.  I am sure that many misbegotten
> > > psychopaths are dreaming of the day when they can
> > > drive a nuke or dirty bomb into Manhattan.
> > >
> > > I'd say that any nation who actively advocates the
> > > obliteration of another nation or supports another
> > > with that goal (including our own) has no business
> > > with nukes.  Further, any nation that has a
> > > territorial boundary issue with another (including
> > > our own) and refuses to submit the issue to
> > > international arbitration is on the ragged edge of
> > > outlawry.
> > >
> > > As Stephen Hawking observes (paraphrasing), if we
> > > continue to fight over who owns this ball, there
> > > won't be a ball to fight over.
> > >
> > > /Robert Skinner
> > >
> > > Brad Haslett wrote:
> > > >
> > > > You may recall the discussion we had a couple of years ago after the
> US
> > > sold
> > > > some bunker busting bombs to Israel.  It is my hope that before the
> > > shooting
> > > > stops in the current fight,  Israel "tests" a couple of these on
> Iran's
> > > > nuclear reactor.  Here is Victor Hansen's latest assessment.
> > > >
> > > > Brad
> > > >
> > > > Private Papers
> > > > www.victorhanson.com
> > > >
> > > > *July 21, 2006**
> > > > **A Strange War**
> > > > Israel is at last being given an opportunity to unload on
> jihadists.*
> > > > by Victor Davis Hanson
> > > > *National Review Online*
> > > >
> > > > *S*um up the declarations of Hezbollah's leaders, Syrian diplomats,
> > > Iranian
> > > > nuts, West Bank terrorists, and Arab commentators — and this latest
> > > Middle
> > > > East war seems one of the strangest in a long history of strange
> > > conflicts.
> > > > For example, have we ever witnessed a conflict in which one of the
> > > > belligerents — Iran — that shipped thousands of rockets into
> Lebanon,
> > > and
> > > > promises that it will soon destroy Israel, vehemently denies that
> its
> > > own
> > > > missile technicians are on the ground in the Bekka Valley. Wouldn't
> it
> > > wish
> > > > to brag of such solidarity?
> > > >
> > > > Or why, after boasting of the new targets that his lethal missiles
> will
> > > hit
> > > > in Israel , does Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ("We are
> ready
> > > for
> > > > it — war, war on every level") now harp that Israel is hitting too
> deep
> > > into
> > > > Lebanon ? Don't enemies expect one another to hit deep? Isn't that
> what
> > > "war
> > > > on every level" is all about?
> > > >
> > > > Meanwhile, why do the G-8 or the United Nations even talk of putting
> > > more
> > > > peacekeeping troops into southern Lebanon, when in the past such
> > > rent-a-cops
> > > > and uniformed bystanders have never stopped hostilities? Does anyone
> > > > remember that it was Hezbollah who blew up French and American
> troops
> > > who
> > > > last tried to provide "stability" between the warring parties?
> > > >
> > > > Why do not Iran and Syria — or for that matter other Arab states —
> now
> > > > attack Israel to join the terrorists that they have armed? Surely
> the
> > > > two-front attack by Hamas and Hezbollah could be helped by at least
> one
> > > > conventional Islamic military. After promising us all year that he
> was
> > > going
> > > > to "wipe out" Israel , is not this the moment for Mr. Ahmadinejad to
> > > strike?
> > > >
> > > > And why — when Hezbollah rockets are hidden in apartment basements,
> then
> > > > brought out of private homes to target civilians in Israel — would
> > > > terrorists who exist to murder noncombatants complain that some
> > > "civilians"
> > > > have been hit? Would not they prefer to lionize "martyrs" who helped
> to
> > > > store their arms?
> > > >
> > > > *W*e can answer these absurdities by summing up the war very
> briefly.
> > > Iran and
> > > > Syria feel the noose tightening around their necks — especially the
> ring
> > > of
> > > > democracies in nearby Afghanistan , Iraq , Turkey , and perhaps
> Lebanon
> > > .
> > > > Even the toothless U.N. finally is forced to focus on Iranian nukes
> and
> > > > Syrian murder plots. And neither Syria can overturn the Lebanese
> > > government
> > > > nor can Iran the Iraqi democracy. Instead, both are afraid that
> their
> > > > rhetoric may soon earn some hard bombing, since their "air defenses"
> are
> > > > hardly defenses at all.
> > > >
> > > > So they tell Hamas and Hezbollah to tap their missile caches, kidnap
> a
> > > few
> > > > soldiers, and generally try to turn the world's attention to the
> > > collateral
> > > > damage inflicted on "refugees" by a stirred-up Zionist enemy.
> > > >
> > > > For their part, the terrorist killers hope to kidnap, ransom, and
> send
> > > off
> > > > missiles, and then, when caught and hit, play the usual victim card
> of
> > > > racism, colonialism, Zionism, and about every other -ism that they
> think
> > > > will win a bailout from some guilt-ridden, terrorist-frightened,
> > > Jew-hating,
> > > > or otherwise oil-hungry Western nation.
> > > >
> > > > The only difference from the usual scripted Middle East war is that
> this
> > > > time, privately at least, most of the West, and perhaps some in the
> Arab
> > > > world as well, want Israel to wipe out Hezbollah, and perhaps hit
> Syria
> > > or Iran
> > > > . The terrorists and their sponsors know this, and rage accordingly
> when
> > > > their military impotence is revealed to a global audience —
> especially
> > > after
> > > > no reprieve is forthcoming to save their "pride" and "honor."
> > > >
> > > > After all, for every one Israeli Hezbollah kills, they lose ten. You
> are
> > > not
> > > > winning when "victory" is assessed in terms of a single hit on an
> > > Israeli
> > > > warship. Their ace-in-the-hole strategy — emblematic of the entire
> > > pathetic
> > > > Islamist way of war — is that they can disrupt the good Western life
> of
> > > > their enemies that they are both attracted to and thus also hate.
> But,
> > > > as Israel
> > > > has shown, a Western public can be quite willing to endure shelling
> if
> > > it
> > > > knows that such strikes will lead to a devastating counter-response.
> > > >
> > > > *W*hat should the United States do? If it really cares about human
> life
> > > and
> > > > future peace, then we should talk ad nauseam about "restraint" and
> > > > "proportionality" while privately assuring Israel the leeway to
> smash
> > > both
> > > > Hamas and Hezbollah — and humiliate Syria and Iran, who may well
> come
> > > off
> > > > very poorly from their longed-for but bizarre war.
> > > >
> > > > Only then will Israel restore some semblance of deterrence and
> > > strengthen
> > > > nascent democratic movements in both Lebanon and even the West Bank
> .
> > > This
> > > > is the truth that everyone from London to Cairo knows, but dares not
> > > speak.
> > > > So for now, let us pray that the brave pilots and ground commanders
> of
> > > the
> > > > IDF can teach these primordial tribesmen a lesson that they will not
> > > soon
> > > > forget — and thus do civilization's dirty work on the other side of
> the
> > > > proverbial Rhine.
> > > >
> > > > In this regard, it is time to stop the silly slurs that American
> policy
> > > in
> > > > the Middle East is either in shambles or culpable for the present
> war.
> > > In
> > > > fact, if we keep our cool, the Bush doctrine is working. Both
> Afghans
> > > and
> > > > Iraqis each day fight and kill Islamist terrorists; neither was
> doing so
> > > > before 9/11. Syria and Iran have never been more isolated; neither
> was
> > > > isolated when Bill Clinton praised the "democracy" in Tehran or when
> an
> > > > American secretary of State sat on the tarmac in Damascus for hours
> to
> > > pay
> > > > homage to Syria 's gangsters. Israel is at last being given an
> > > opportunity
> > > > to unload on jihadists; that was impossible during the Arafat fraud
> that
> > > > grew out of the Oslo debacle. Europe is waking up to the dangers of
> > > radical
> > > > Islamism; in the past, it bragged of its aid and arms sales to
> terrorist
> > > > governments from the West Bank to Baghdad .
> > > >
> > > > Some final observations on Hezbollah and Hamas. There is no longer a
> > > Soviet
> > > > deterrent to bail out a failed Arab offensive. There is no longer
> > > empathy
> > > > for poor Islamist "freedom fighters." The truth is that it is an
> open
> > > > question as to which regime — Iran or Syria — is the greater
> > > international
> > > > pariah. After a recent trip to the Middle East, I noticed that the
> > > > unfortunate prejudicial stares given to a passenger with an Iranian
> > > passport
> > > > were surpassed only by those accorded another on his way to Damascus
> .
> > > >
> > > > So after 9/11, the London bombings, the Madrid murders, the French
> > > riots,
> > > > the Beslan atrocities, the killings in India, the Danish cartoon
> > > debacle,
> > > > Theo Van Gogh, and the daily arrests of Islamic terrorists trying to
> > > blow
> > > > up, behead, or shoot innocent people around the globe, the world is
> sick
> > > of
> > > > the jihadist ilk. And for all the efforts of the BBC, Reuters,
> Western
> > > > academics, and the horde of appeasers and apologists that usually
> bail
> > > these
> > > > terrorist killers out when their rhetoric finally outruns their
> muscle,
> > > this
> > > > time they can't.
> > > >
> > > > Instead, a disgusted world secretly wants these terrorists to get
> what
> > > they
> > > > deserve. And who knows: This time they just might.
> > > >
> > > > (c)2006 Victor Davis Hanson
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