Purity of Arms:
�The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) serviceman and woman will use their
weapons and force only for the purpose of their mission, only to the necessary
extent and will maintain their humanity even during combat. IDF soldiers will
not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or
prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their
lives, bodies, dignity and property.�
Lebanon 7-20-06:
300 dead, 20,000 wounded, 500,000 displaced by Israeli aggression; vast swathes
of the infrastructure in complete ruins; including airports, the highway grid,
electrical power stations, sea-ports, factories, housing units and apartments,
and all major bridges and highways. The Los Angeles Times reports, �Civil
structure appears to have broken down almost completely. Ambulances have not
been able to operate. The dead are rotting in the rubble of smashed homes. Food
and clean drinking water are running out.�
The destruction of
Lebanon is a completely man-made catastrophe orchestrated in Tel Aviv and
rubber-stamped in Washington. The death and suffering are now on a scale that
rivals the Asian tsunami.
Mission
accomplished?
Why would Israel
bomb Lebanon�s pharmaceutical factories, grain silos and water processing
plants?
Why would they
attack the mosques, hospitals and a Greek Orthodox Church?
Why would they
flatten Lebanon�s largest milk factory?
Is Hezbollah in the
dairy business?
There is no pattern
or logic to the Israeli assault on Lebanon. It is simply a vicious attempt to
destroy the working parts of Lebanon�s prosperity and bury the entire society
under a pile of rubble. It�s a tragic example of pure, unalloyed revenge;
another �black flag� operation successfully executed by the IOF. (Israeli
Occupation Forces)
Lebanon posed no
threat to Israel�s security. The comical Katyusha rockets may have killed a handful
of Israelis (which is regrettable) but their military value is nil. Once they
are fired, no one knows where they will land. Yesterday an errant Katyusha
killed 2 Palestinians in Nazareth. Was that part of Nasrallah�s plan?
There�s no
comparison between Hezbollah�s glorified fireworks and the high-tech,
laser-guided, state-of-the-art weaponry wielded by the Israeli war machine.
Lebanon is a case-study of the lethal efficiency of modern WMD and their
astonishing ability to reduce a bustling metropolis into Dresden-like wreckage
in a matter of days. It is truly an incalculable disaster.
Israel has
succeeded in quashing an emergent, moderate nation with strong western
leanings. The Lebanese are secular, urbane and educated. Israel�s rampage will
only strengthen the fanatics and create a Petri dish for extremism and
retribution.
After six years,
Lebanon had finally dug out from Israel�s 18-year occupation, which left the
country in tatters and killed an estimated 30,000 civilians. Israel never
contributed a dime to the reconstruction although its culpability has never
been in dispute.
Now that Washington
has given Olmert the �green light� to finish his onslaught, we can expect that
the last few remnants of modernity will be smashed into pulp leaving behind the
familiar moonscape of Israeli intervention.
No one should
harbor any illusions of what it means to be Israel�s neighbor and the obvious
risks it involves. That said, it would be foolhardy for Lebanese people to
simply �start over� once Israel leaves. (If they do leave) What guarantees do
the Lebanese people have that, six years from now, Israel won�t decide that its
time for another tear through the Lebanese countryside; demolishing their towns
and cities and leaving them to deal with another humanitarian crisis?
Lebanon should
forestall any reconstruction until its leaders provide a coherent plan for
national security. Not one brick should be set atop another, not one pane of
glass should be replaced, until the Lebanese people can be certain that their
government has acquired the �deterrents� necessary to fend off future Israeli
aggression.
Providing security
is the basic function of government. By now, the Lebanese people should
recognize that they must do whatever is required to secure the weaponry they
need to defend themselves from (inevitable) Israeli invasions. That is simply
the price of occupying the land mass adjacent to the world�s second biggest
pariah-state.
This won�t be a
popular idea. The United States and Israel are now spearheading a campaign to
strip countries of WMD and leave them defenseless. The two blood brothers are
like the mugger in the park who forces his victim to �Drop your weapons� before
he steals his money and beats him senseless.
Lebanon needs a
credible deterrent to Israeli aggression. It cannot simply reemerge
Phoenix-like every decade or so following another rampage by the Mongol hordes
from the south.
No one can live
like that. Nations need security just like individuals. Lebanon needs to find
the means to arm itself by fair means or foul.
Besides, the
obsession with WMD has been a sham from the very onset. Of course the US and
Israel would like to remove the threat of retaliation; that way they can
continue their forays throughout the developing world without fear of
resistance. What Bush wants is a monopoly on violence so that he can keep his
marauding armies working overtime on behalf of the global-corporate cabal. That
is the real function of the military; to pave the way for debilitating loans
and reconstruction by the multinational carpetbaggers.
But what about the
Lebanese people; are they so intoxicated with their own prosperity that they
don�t grasp Israel�s clearly stated regional aspirations; don�t they see that
the Israeli leadership is chock-full of militarists and zealots; don�t they
notice how Israel has been armed-to-the-teeth with every homicidal device
know to man by its war-mongering U.S. patron; don�t they know that Lebanon is
expected to be a powerless, vassal-statelet in the broader �Israeli Realm�?
How many times must
Lebanon be bombed into oblivion before their leaders secure the means to ensure
their safety?
The fanatics and
militarists in Tel Aviv will not be deterred by fine words and lofty
sentiments; they need to see a credible deterrent.
Perhaps Lebanon
should duplicate Israel�s apartheid wall and build a 32 ft high looming
monolith along its southern border. Then they could establish a 5 mile-wide
�demilitarized zone� along the Litani River followed by watch-towers and
heavy-artillery. Ten percent of GDP could be allocated for military spending
and R&D.
Or they can wait
for Kofi Annan and the post-colonial Euro-morons in the so-called
�international community� to pull their heads out of the sand and take positive
action to isolate the US and Israel.
What a foolish
waste of time that would be.
There are no good
options, but one thing is certain. The invasion of Lebanon proves that the
crackpot strategy to Balkenize the Arab world and redraw the map of the Middle
East is moving forward according to plan. All eyes should be focused on
Damascus and the growing likelihood of a regional war. Israeli Prime Minister
Olmert has taken a chapter from Rumsfeld�s book and decided to �expand the
conflict,� which means, there�s no telling where it will end. The entire area
from the Red Sea to the Caspian Basin has been doused in gasoline and is ready
to go up in flames.
Lebanon has become
a lab-experiment to prove that Israel can extend its model of occupation from
Gaza to Beirut. Hezbollah�s defensive maneuvers will only incite greater
violence and devastation. Israel is now prepared to reduce the entire country
into finely-ground sand to assert its dominance and quash the resistance.
When they finish
their work, they�ll deliver Lebanon on a silver platter to the loan sharks at
the IMF and Wolfowitz�s World Bank. The global banking cartel can then apply
the shackle of indentured servitude to the once-bustling nation; ensuring that
their future remains in the vice-like grip of the American-Israeli banking
establishment.
The sacking of
Lebanon should rouse the world from its terminal state of apathy. The nut-jobs
are on the loose and they don�t care who gets killed in the process. The United
Nations, the U.S. Congress, and the Arab League have proved utterly worthless
in slowing the prospect of an all-out, regional conflagration. The Bush-Olmert
juggernaut will continue to lurch uncontrollably through the Middle East until
it is stopped in its tracks.
What alternative is there but resistance?