the washington monthly

the washington monthly the monthly interview: tom tancredo washington monthly on the radio hosts markos kounalakis and peter laufer interview colorado congressman tom tancredo. by washington monthly on the radio publish and perish the mysterious death of lyndon larouche’s printer. by avi klein rudy awakening as president, giuliani would grab even more executive power than bush and cheney. his mayoralty tells the story. by rachel morris email address powered by: messagebot walter shapiro: obama goes for the capillaries 11/12/2007 jonathan alter: a gender fender bender 11/05/2007 jon meacham: the revolutionary 11/04/2007 walter shapiro: the democratic duel of the race 10/31/2007 t.a. frank: jenna vs. chelsea 10/29/2007 benjamin wallace-wells: giuliani's policy professor 10/26/2007 amy sullivan: huckabee's bid for the christian right 10/22/2007 joshua green: the colbert notion 10/19/2007 michael kinsley: receiving psychotic dictators: an etiquette guide 10/12/2007 michelle cottle: the machinations of jeri thompson 10/12/2007 matt cooper: fred thompson's big flop 10/12/2007 art levine: the gop's socialized medicine 10/12/2007 david segal: mitt romney's ideological turnabout 10/10/2007 jonathan alter: a schmoozer shares all 10/08/2007 jon meacham: a nation of christians is not a christian nation 10/07/2007 walter shapiro: rudy, mitt, fred or john 10/05/2007 stephanie mencimer: detainee rights on the docket 09/27/2007 art levine: unionbusting confidential 09/07/2007 mickey kaus: is the gq man a wuss? 09/07/2007 joe nocera: this climate is surely full of hot air 09/07/2007 michael kinsley: how dare you 09/07/2007 michelle cottle: hillary's consigliere speaks 09/07/2007 matt cooper: a dicey proposition 09/07/2007 walter shapiro: killing her softly with his song 09/07/2007 michael kinsley: god as their running mate 09/06/2007 david segal: bill clinton has what it takes for giving 09/05/2007 timothy noah: o.j. is still beating his wife 08/30/2007 matt cooper: ted olson for attorney general 08/27/2007 nicholas lemann: rovian wars 08/27/2007 michael kinsley: bush and his unreliable speechwriters 08/24/2007 walter shapiro: fred thompson has a revealing back story 08/23/2007 jonathan meacham: the hardest of calls 08/20/2007 jonathan alter: i know what you did last summer 08/20/2007 joshua green: a great society conservative 08/14/2007 benjamin wallace-wells: what is wrong with alaska? 08/13/2007 timothy noah: is mike gerson a glory hog?....or is his accuser just unhinged? 08/11/2007 matt miller: callous about health care? 08/09/2007 michelle cottle: hillary control 08/13/2007 issue jonathan alter: a red play for the golden state 08/13/2007 issue timothy noah: how to avoid the new ethics bill...and why it should become law anyway 08/07/2007 gregg easterbrook: road kill 08/05/2007 august 4, 2006 back to the future....the israeli security cabinet hasn't approved this yet, but it now seems likely that israel will end up the current war by occupying an even greater portion of lebanon than it did after its 1982 invasion:defense minister amir peretz told israel defense forces officials on thursday evening to begin preparing for the next stage of the military offensive in south lebanon, which would extend the idf's control to all lebanese territory south of the litani river. ....such an operation would extend israel's control past the security zone it held until the withdrawal of its troops in may 2000.laura rozen posts the following comment:from a colleague covering the conflict in israel: "almost everyone i talk to here is now saying the iraq war has presented one of the most significant threats to israel in its history." namely because it has so empowered iran, and reduced us ability to deal with iran now.and of course there was this assessment of iraq's future on thursday from general john abizaid:the commander of american forces in the middle east bluntly warned a senate committee on thursday that sectarian violence in iraq, especially in the capital, baghdad, had grown so severe that the nation could slide toward civil war. ....the tone of the testimony at the armed services committee’s three-and-a-half-hour hearing was strikingly grimmer than the pentagon’s previous assessments. ....the security situation in iraq was described in even starker terms by a senior british diplomat in baghdad, according to british news reports. he contradicted the official stance in london and washington by concluding that iraq was closer to civil war and partition than to democracy.so to summarize: the invasion of iraq has failed to create a stable state, let alone a democracy. instead, it has produced chaos and civil war, strengthened iran, and endangered israel. in turn, israel's war in lebanon has failed in its goal of significantly weakening hezbollah. instead, it has turned hassan nasrallah into a regional folk hero and is about to end in a rerun of the disastrous occupation that created hezbollah in the first place. perhaps a different strategy is in order for the future? —kevin drum 1:00 am permalink | trackbacks | comments (163) comments amazing that so many of our most brilliant minds (and a bunch of our dumber ones as well) could get iraq so wrong. why didn't anyone predict this result? oh, wait, some people did ... posted by: freakybeaky on august 4, 2006 at 1:07 am | permalink the pentagon is infested with democrat traitors. always has been. a free, deomocratic iraq will be a shining beacon of hope to the world and will ally with israel to conquer lebanon and syria. it's too bad the socialist/communist democrat party and its allies in the military can't see that. posted by: al on august 4, 2006 at 1:11 am | permalink "reduced u.s. ability to deal with iran now?" i presume "to deal" is a cute euphemism for "invade iran". is that a bad thing? posted by: a on august 4, 2006 at 1:12 am | permalink sorry, just to be clear, is that a bad thing it [the ability to invade iran] has been reduced? posted by: a on august 4, 2006 at 1:25 am | permalink a: yes. i predicted all of this in january of '03, while we were all hashing through the wmd paranoia on the nyt iraq forum. every last shred of it -- including the jeopardy to israel and the empowerment of iran. clinton surely didn't solve the underlying problems -- but i'm telling you, right now he looks like a foreign policy savant. bob posted by: rmck1 on august 4, 2006 at 1:26 am | permalink since the number of jews who have addressed the questions raised by this article is few, and the number of jews who have considered it seriously, is zero, and the number of jews who have ignored it is almost all, and it is so relevant to what is going on in gaza and lebanon, i feel it needs to be posted again: why doesn't the media publish this? i wonder indeed. israel fakes a provocation (the "kidnapping" of cpl gilad shalit) the following passages in italics are from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/26/wmid26.xml&ssheet=/news/2006/06/26/ixnews.html last night two israeli soldiers were killed and another kidnapped in a dawn attack by palestinian militants who tunnelled under gazas heavily protected border. the attackers, believed to number seven or eight, surprised israeli forces when they appeared at first light through a tunnel on open ground 300 yards inside israel near a kibbutz. gaza is built on old semi-consolidated sand dunes. it is extremely unlikely that anyone could tunnel 500, or more, yards in the sandy ground of gaza (300 yards into israel plus 200 yards of no-mans land plus more to the tunnel entrance), without the tunnel collapsing at some point. they split into three groups before launching simultaneous attacks on three israeli defensive positions - a look-out tower, plus a tank and an armoured personnel carrier, both dug in, facing gaza. if you were only seven or eight, would you split into three groups? if you were only two, or three, would you attack a tank over flat ground, manned by four soldiers waiting inside to kill you? they blew open the tanks rear doors with a missile fired from point-blank range before tossing grenades inside. two of the tank crew died and another was severely wounded but the final crew member, the gunner, was forced out of the wreckage at gunpoint. the rear doors are blown off and a few grenades popped inside. tanks are not made to fall apart. blowing off the rear doors would have taken a blast sufficient to seriously hurt those inside. the grenades would have then made mincemeat of them. one wonders if it is standard practice to wear a bulletproof vest inside a hot tank. one would think that the tank would be bulletproof enough not to require such a vest. can israeli tanks stop bullets, or not? later reports, from the new york times and guardian, tell use that shalit suffered only minor injuries to his abdomen and one arm, even though everyone else in the tank was severely wounded or killed. shalit would have been less than three feet away from those killed (there is no spare room in a tank). israeli trackers said they found his blood-stained bulletproof vest close to the gaza perimeter fence. the militants force shalit to take off his bulletproof vest and leave it close to the gaza concentration camp fence, in order to help the israelis with their investigation. by the way, whose blood is it on his bulletproof vest? did his minor wounds bleed profusely, or was it the other soldiers blood and guts all over him. pity their bulletproof vests didn't save them. meanwhile, two other militants attacked a nearby concrete watchtower.... the troop carrier was also damaged in another attack but it was unoccupied. the attackers then escaped back into gaza by cutting their way through the perimeter fence. interestingly, the attackers escaped easily by cutting through the (electrified) perimeter fence, yet cutting through the perimeter fence in order to get in, was so hard to do, that they burrowed through half a mile of sandy ground instead. something wrong with this story, perhaps? after all this commotion, the soldiers in all the nearby gaza concentration camp guard-towers, manage to miss a few arabs running the 300 yards, over flat ground, back to the perimeter fence, miss them when they cut through it, and miss them running across no-mans land to safety. it also appears, that they got amazingly lucky running through the no-mans land minefield. and why, you may ask, did they not return through the tunnel they had painstakingly dug? perhaps, they wanted to prove the total incompetence of the israeli soldier. if you believe this sad tale, i have a bridge to sell you. the hamas political leadership sought to distance itself from the incident last night when a spokesman said it had no knowledge of the fate of cpl shilat. ghazi hamad, a spokesman, said: "we are calling on the resistance groups, if they do have the missing soldier to protect his life and treat him well." yes, the hamas political leadership had no idea of the fate of cpl shilat, as the story is a total fabrication. the jew press then claims that the popular resistance committees, the armed wing of hamas and the (previously unknown) army of islam were jointly responsible for the kidnapping of shilat. why three groups you may ask? the reason for three groups, is so that each of them might believe that the other has the "kidnapped" soldier, when, in fact, none of them have him. he is sipping coffee in tel aviv. and why did a "previously unknown" group put up its hand? well, just in case one of the groups had doubts that the other group had the "kidnapped" soldier, they certainly couldn't be sure the "previously unknown" group didn't have him,... because after all, they don't have any idea who is leading, or anyone in, this unknown group. so the reason for the weird "i did it arrangement," is so that the jew press can claim that the arabs claimed responsibility, when all they have done, is to not deny they did it. oh yeah, the "previously unknown" group is a jew invention. it doesn't exist, except in the jew newspapers. of course, shortly, the army of islam will need to be created (by the jews) in order to negotiate the "release" of shilat. if you are not already convinced that the whole story is a fabrication, ask yourself; what were the four israeli soldiers doing in the tiny confines of that dug-in tank? ask your self; how long were they going to continue sitting in that tank? all day perhaps, or till they roasted in the desert sun? or, till another group of four took over on the next shift? and of course, having four soldiers in just one tank, wont provide a defense, so there will have to be hundreds of tanks and hundreds of soldiers all sitting in these tanks,... all waiting,... all waiting,... all waiting,.... for exactly what? waiting for palestinian children to throw stones at them, perhaps? perhaps, waiting attentively for militants to dig a half mile tunnel through sandy soil, pop up, and rush them over flat ground, but not attentively enough to see them approach? perhaps, they were waiting for the egyptian army to materialize, star trek like, from their bases hundreds of miles away on the other side of the suez canal? i dont know,... you tell me why? yes, the story is a total fabrication. a fake provocation to start a war. yes, the jews are evil people. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 1:26 am | permalink i can't imagine that a re-occupation of southern lebanon by israel is a good thing, but after this conflict escalated i think it pretty much became inevitable. why? because that's absolutely the only thing that israel could do that hezbollan simply can't spin as a victory. i predict that once the shooting stops (or at least subsides), there's going to be a flurry of diplomatic activity as israel tries to trade the newly occupied territory as quickly as possible. the problem is hezbollah won't give them the one thing that could get israel out of lebanon, which is namely to disarm. maybe the best we can hope for is a partial return of occupied territory for a partial disarmament and an ongoing political process. if we're lucky. posted by: curtis on august 4, 2006 at 1:29 am | permalink a: i don't think kevin intends for "dealing" with iran to be a euphemism for invading. it's about being able negotiate from a position of strength. invading iraq was supposed to do that, but it's done the opposite. posted by: enozinho on august 4, 2006 at 1:31 am | permalink a: on the basis of your clarification -- no, not at all. except in the bigger picture, it makes an incursion against iran more likely, because 1) bush is totally clueless and wouldn't know how to do the right thing if god indeed *was* whispering into his ear, 2) the neocons are panicked, and nothing distracts from a failed war like the charge of support for a new war and 3) israel and/or hezbollah can quite easily present a more credible casus belli than the nuclear sabre-rattling we were doing before the lebanon crisis happened. in sum -- i'm scared shitless about that very possiblity. bombing iran will only serve to increase solidarity behind a reactionary nutcase who is the islamic world's answer to chimpy mcflightsuit. a ground invasion of iran will kick our asses into the middle of next week and send the oil spot market to the moon. bob posted by: rmck1 on august 4, 2006 at 1:32 am | permalink enozinho: exactly right. bob posted by: rmck1 on august 4, 2006 at 1:34 am | permalink don't know whether slim is a genuinely anti-semitic troll, or a different kind of troll playing anti-semite to discredit anyone who mildly criticizes israel. posted by: gar lipow on august 4, 2006 at 1:35 am | permalink yes, the story is a total fabrication. a fake provocation to start a war. why is it the jews can just ignore the truth of the matter? it is important to understand that the jews started both the massacres in gaza and lebanon. both of these were wars of choice, disguised to look like retaliation (the usual lying jew way). in gaza they fabricated a (clearly false) story in their newspapers about a "kidnapped" soldier. in lebanon the israeli death force (idf) sent troops into a disputed piece of syria (called shebaa farms, that has historically been claimed by lebanon) knowing full well how hizbollah would respond to an intrusion by jew troops into this section of arab land. hizbollah responded exactly as they have in the past. no surprise here. the jews used this as an excuse for their pre-planned nazi attack on lebanon. the shebaa farms were owned by lebanese citizens from the town of shebaa (in lebanon) until they were stolen by the thieving jews in their 1967 surprise attack on the arabs. since the shebaa farms were administered by syria when the jews stole the golan heights from syria, the legalistic jews decided they did not have to return the shebaa farms to lebanon when they withdrew from lebanon in 2000. in short: the jews started both the massacres in gaza and lebanon. actually, i read that the capture (kidnapping) of israeli troops occurred near the shebaa farms area from haaretz.com, but since then have not been able to otherwise verify this. none of the lying jew press reports actually mention where the capture took place. is this because, as per usual, the lying jew press was lying about where it took place? does anyone actually know where this occurred? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 1:36 am | permalink perhaps a different strategy is in order for the future? for starters, americans need to vote for guys who can string four words together in a coherent fashion and who can ride their bicycle without falling off it all the time. i would say these are clear prerequisites to being chief executive. just because a guy is worth some cheap laughs on "jackass" or "america's funniest presidential videos" is no reason to vote for him. c'mon america, get serious. on second thought, avoid voting for bicycle riders at all. and nappers. and guys who take month-long vacations while terrorists are plotting to attack us when they've only been on the job six months and have already taken many long weekends... ...they're right out. posted by: windhorse on august 4, 2006 at 1:39 am | permalink gar lipow said: "don't know whether slim,..." you can figure it out for yourself. it is not hard. is the long article above correct in its assertions, or not. answer that question and you have your answer to the other. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 1:41 am | permalink i get it. negotiating from a position of strength means having the possibility to threaten to invade - but not really mean it. look - every possible threat - other than the military - that the u.s. can launch against iran is still there, most notably economic sanctions. iraq hasn't affected other countries' willingness to partake in sanctions against iran - it wasn't big before, and it isn't all that big now. posted by: a on august 4, 2006 at 1:42 am | permalink the pentagon is infested with democrat traitors. always has been. if the thread runs long enough, we'll probably be asked 'who promoted peress?' posted by: davis x. machina on august 4, 2006 at 1:44 am | permalink a different strategy depends on the political repudiation of the bush cult and its correlates: neocon fantasy, religious right dispensationalism, msm chin stroking, and (hardest of all) toxic patriotism. the problem, however, is that any kind of repudiation must involve a paroxysm in america itself. the denial here is deep, broad and wide. president regular guy embodies the folk wisdom of a hundred million talk radio chats and country-western songs. now that foreign policy is a subset of that wisdom, there can be no return to sanity. posted by: walt on august 4, 2006 at 1:46 am | permalink why can't you criticize israel? why is doing that a third rail? why is it that labeling israel the fascist bastids that the country is, is taboo? you know the idf, don't you? the gangsters of sabra, shatilla, jenin. and others that we don't know about. who were those incarcerated in these israeli death camps. women, children, old men. and the israeli-controlled world said not a word. i continue to recall the amerikan-supplied f16's over beirut 25 years ago. dropping cluster bombs on the non-combatants. oh, the kossacks, the eschatonians, the drummists, hate to hear of that. it will get you banished for mentioning jews as nazis. but let us not forget how ronnie raygun and his puppeteers, george herbert walker bush, and james baker, armed arik via the third party that they helped create...pinochet's chile and cardoen enterprises. chile-supplied cluster bombs raining down on beirut. delivered by amerikan supplied f16's. the pix of these israeli stuka attacks were not aired in the usa. the pix of israel being nazis was not aired here. but the europeans saw those attacks. they saw jews being mass murderers. will the united states ever notice? i trust that this gets posted. for saying these things i am being banned at many sites. saying these things causes one to be labelled a troll. it is sort of like george bush calling his opponents terrorists. so, the left is identical to the right? posted by: albertchampion on august 4, 2006 at 1:50 am | permalink amir peretz -- he's the saddam hussein look alike, right? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 1:52 am | permalink albertchampion -- yeah, its funny isn't it. the jews act like nazis, yet cry when called nazis. actually, the nazis weren't as bad as the jews. their bad name is mainly the result of jew lies about them,... like the holycos$t lie. ahhh,... the power of the jew press to spin jew lies as reality. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 1:58 am | permalink albertchampion: i don't think you're a troll, per se. i *do* think you're a looney conspiracy theorist, though, who -- just like the genuine anti-semitic trolls who are infesting this site -- has a severe intellectual problem with separating correlation with causation. every thread i've ever seen you post on has been steeped in conspiracy theories and the ill motives of a small cabal. therefore, i don't trust much of what you write. the natural reaction is much rather for you to call me one of the deluded sheeple. you know ... by definition. qed. and to me, that's got a lot less to do with an ideology i disagree with than just sloppy thinking combined with an aggrandized self-image. bob posted by: rmck1 on august 4, 2006 at 1:58 am | permalink perhaps a different strategy is in order for the future? given these clown's track record...i think the more appropriate question is "when do we invade iran"? posted by: justmy2 on august 4, 2006 at 2:01 am | permalink albertchampion said: "so, the left is identical to the right?" both left and right in america are run by jews. the democrats by the jew kerry. the republicans by the jew bush. nice way to have things if you can arrange it, i guess. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 2:05 am | permalink "when do we invade iran?" just before the price of oil tops $500.00 per barrel for the first time. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 2:08 am | permalink i'm scared shitless about that very possiblity. sy hersh seems to think there will be a massive revolt amongst military leaders if an invasion of iran is pushed to strongly by the bush administration. i believe this assessment. it's the middle of an election year that the president needs to keep the bleeding to a minimum, but the drumbeats from the patriotic fervor that would come from calls for "dealing" (in the euphemistic sense, yes) with iran just aren't there. it won't benefit the bush administration politically to invade or ratchet up the rhetoric and that seems to be all this administration knows. that and tax cuts + deregulation. posted by: gq on august 4, 2006 at 2:11 am | permalink hey slim. arthur lee died today. so lay off. posted by: eddie van hazel on august 4, 2006 at 2:22 am | permalink come on slim and albert, quote us some protocols of the elders of zion while you are at it. posted by: zoroasterd on august 4, 2006 at 2:25 am | permalink "almost everyone i talk to here is now saying the iraq war has presented one of the most significant threats to israel in its history." sure. with saddam and his nutball sons in power in iraq, israel could have slept easy for the next forty years. posted by: elwin on august 4, 2006 at 2:37 am | permalink zoroasterd -- instead of making inane comments,... why don't you do something useful, like pointing out the mistakes (if any) in the article israel fakes a provocation (the "kidnapping" of cpl gilad shalit) above. too hard for you,...? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 2:38 am | permalink only a naive partisan would argue that the elimination of sadaam endangered israel. i'm sorry, but kevin is awful and cannot be taken seriously on terrorism and war; he is quite good on politics and other domestic issues. posted by: brian on august 4, 2006 at 2:42 am | permalink kevin, what about your post a little while ago pointing out that in fact the previous invasion (prior to the buffer zone occupation) accomplished an attainable goal, of kicking out the plo, who had a full military presence? it seems premature in the extreme to suggest that by now israel should have already taken out the 10,000 or whatever rockets hezbollah has (and clearly they *do* have them, unlike the fabled iraqi wmd.) it seems likewise premature in the extreme to suggest that you can draw conclusions about the remainder of the operation from the data we have so far - i assume you've seen the same reports i have: we have no hard information whatever about the real impact on hezbollah, other than perhaps to ponder why nasrallah now talks about a cease-fire (clever press games, or self-preservation, or both?) could you be specific about what you envision: israel calls a cease-fire immediately and withdraws. then what? by what means do you imagine hezbollah will disarm? if they do not disarm, but in fact continue to accumulate heavy war materiel on a massive scale with impunity as they have done for the past few years, do you really imagine there is hope for moderation on that border? if you want to see negotiations, what should be offered to hezbollah and what should be asked of them? unlike in iraq, where the troops are principally fighting ieds and suicide bombers, the actual threat from hezbollah consists of hard military targets: rocket launchers. mobile they may be, hidden in groves they may be, but they are significant military targets and must be defended as such; it seems senseless to me to suggest that going after them is in any way equivalent to a counter-insurgency. you seem to make an implicit assumption that if something is difficult or far more difficult than was thought then it must not be attempted (no matter the consequences--or that by definition the consequences of other routes will be better.) since we are making wild analogies rather than making sense, here's one: are the criteria for giving up on a mired foreign occupation and state-building adventure the same as the criteria for giving up on the existence of one's own state? the closer hezbollah gets to being as powerful as you say, the less it make sense to talk about giving up weakening them because it is hard. you also seem to make a bizarre assumption that difficult situations are by definition analagous: in turn, israel's war in lebanon has failed in its goal of significantly weakening hezbollah. "in turn"??!! how on earth do you come to make such a facile analogy between setting up a stable state in iraq and reducing a rocket threat in south lebanon (an outlandishly less ambitious goal)? it's just absurd on its face. "failed"??!! come on! you know very well you don't have anything like enough data to make that assertion. qualify it with in two weeks, fine. but you have no useful evidence either way as to the impact thus far on hezbollah manpower or the percentage by which rocket capability has been dented. you are surely logical enough to understand that on a timescale of a few weeks the number of rockets fired per day may not necessarily reflect linearly the overall rocket capability. even if you turn out to be right that israel cannot succeed against hezbollah, you have not shown that the reasons are analagous to iraq, nor do i think such a thing could be shown. if the bush people are pushing israeli action based on such a false analogy, it's all the more absurd for you to follow them in it. you obviously aren't going to argue that force simply never works or that all uses of force are the same. we don't have to bring up wwii here. force worked against serbia. period. it did not solve the ethnic problems, peacekeepers will be needed there probably forever, and that's fine if that's how it has to be, just as it is in cyprus. but it stopped the mass killing, period. and reducing hezbollah's effectiveness as a now much-more traditional military threat, in preparation for peacekeepers to keep a troubled but improved peace, is clearly far more analagous to the serbian situation than to iraq. making wild analogies and flying wildly out ahead of the news cycle does not seem all that constructive. posted by: q on august 4, 2006 at 2:45 am | permalink if the iraqi war has made israel less safe, a point with which i agree, then it cannot be denied that israel has no choice but to do as much damage to hezbollah as they possibly can, whether or not they make beirut bob a folk hero to the jew haters of the world. posted by: rich on august 4, 2006 at 2:49 am | permalink 2,000 hezbollah davids against 20,000 jew goliaths. and the incompetent jews can't even handle this,.... man, what if the whole arab world got mad at the shitty country,... ... i guess, the cowardly jews would have to run to daddy usa. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 2:55 am | permalink help! help! sew me back on, i don't wanna diiiieeeeee .... posted by: slim's foreskin on august 4, 2006 at 2:57 am | permalink damn, that guy should lay off us. night after night of guzzling -- doesn't he know his people don't have the genetic makeup for it? he'd better exercise more moderation or his teeth'll start rotting from all the sugar and he'll have to go to his uncle the dentist again ... posted by: slim's manichewitz stash on august 4, 2006 at 3:01 am | permalink nice post by q. i might not agree with it, but at least it is well thought out, and presented,... as opposed to the garbage people like bob spurt. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 3:02 am | permalink hi! we're all stuck in big dried chunks to the bottom of the chair! posted by: slim's pickings on august 4, 2006 at 3:03 am | permalink damn, i wish slim would stop flipping me around in front of his goy friends. i am *not* a "mini-frisbee!" posted by: slim's yarmulke on august 4, 2006 at 3:05 am | permalink no, slim -- all the brylcreem in the world isn't going to make us help you look like mike nesmith circa 1967! posted by: slim's sidelocks on august 4, 2006 at 3:08 am | permalink he had *better* find a nice girl from the neighborhood to marry (maybe his second cousin?) and have five kids with. the more kids, the better our chances! posted by: slim's tay-sachs genes on august 4, 2006 at 3:12 am | permalink "... i guess, the cowardly jews would have to run to daddy usa." well. the usa is about as incompetent as the jews. some maybe the arabs/persians will win. posted by: bobs tits on august 4, 2006 at 3:23 am | permalink perhaps it's been so hot for so long in so much of the country that people's brains have gotten cooked. can't we all just agree that the project of spreading democracy at the point of a gun has been, um, something short of an unalloyed success? posted by: bad jim on august 4, 2006 at 3:28 am | permalink i think we need to consider a world-wide boycott of all businesses that do business with israel or support or promote israeli aggression (that would include all american media outlets). this boycott should extend to all jewish-owned or -controlled businesses. the diaspora has gotten away with murder over the years, secretly supporting israeli violence but hiding behind the specter of anti-semitism in order to avoid being blamed for it. the situation is now so deadly serious that we can no longer afford to pander to political correctness. the enablers of zionism have to start to pay. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 3:30 am | permalink zoroasterd -- instead of making inane comments,... why don't you do something useful, like pointing out the mistakes (if any) in the article israel fakes a provocation (the "kidnapping" of cpl gilad shalit) above. or tell me where the the capture (so-called kidnapping) of israeli troops occurred,... the only articles that name a town, claim that they were captured on the lebanese side of the border (near the lebanese town of ayta al-sha`b). so, what have we here; more deliberate lies from the jew press? all this too hard for you,...? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 3:36 am | permalink "the israeli security cabinet hasn't approved this yet, but it now seems likely that israel will end up the current war by occupying an even greater portion of lebanon than it did after its 1982 invasion:" not only the cabinet hasn't approved this yet, olmert seem to be against it, too. but it doesn't matter. so far, the idf only managed to advance a maximum of two miles into lebanon in some places, in other places just a few hundred yards. un troops report that the israelis conduct pinpoint attacks without showing much enthusiasm at occupying the villages. of course, you can't keep a highly evasive guerilla force out of an area this way. imho peretz is following some kind of potemkin strategy here: he's publicly pushing for broad goals, knowing totally well that they are impossible, just to put the blame on international pressure when those goals can't be achieved in the days left. he will then have his own 'dolchstosslegende' and can claim that he had the right idea for getting rid of the katyusha plague, but that the world denied israel this option, so he isn't to blame for the consequences. seems to be the just another example of the kabuki theatre favored by israeli politicians. posted by: gray on august 4, 2006 at 3:36 am | permalink on another note: never mind losing david broder. today, the administration lost tom friedman. posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 3:47 am | permalink brooksfoe: can you quote the column? i don't have timesreject. thanks, bob posted by: rmck1 on august 4, 2006 at 3:48 am | permalink "today, the administration lost tom friedman." whoa! and even chris 'tweety' matthews seems to feel bold enough to critizes bush now and then thses days. who's next? will alan colmes actually start to scrutinize administration spin? the rats leave the sinking ship... posted by: gray on august 4, 2006 at 3:53 am | permalink if israel had responded in kind to the initial hostage raid with a comparable in scale raid on a knows hezbollah missile base. the blame (justly or not) would have remained with the initial kidnappers, whoever they might actually be. by bombing the crap out of virtually the entire country of lebanon, they have become invaders no better than the iraqi government of 1991. claiming they need to be given some sort of concession before agreeing to a cease fire is ludicrous. far from being given concessions, they should be made to pay for the harm and damage they chose to do. oh, and slim and co. pull your head out. just because the israeli government has gone bugfuck crazy doesn't mean that even a majority of israelis support this blood bath let alone jews who have chosen not to live there. when you paint everyone as guilty, no one is held responsible. bigoted bullshit like your posts just gives the real criminals a free ride. posted by: joe on august 4, 2006 at 4:16 am | permalink joe, hate to disappoint you, but last time i looked, polls show 87% of the israeli public strongly behind their government's war. darn. posted by: nepeta on august 4, 2006 at 4:51 am | permalink who would have thought three years ago that one of the consequences of the us invasion of iraq would be to embolden israel to re-invade lebanon? actually i remember at the time reading several critiques of the iraq invasion citing precisely this situation -- that america's use of pre-emptive war in the "global war on terrorism" would open up israel's use of the same tactics. this, in turn, would broaden and deepen the sunni (saudi, egypt, lebanon) vs. shiite (syria, iran, iraq) conflict. it's unbelievable to me that the us would stand by and watch retaliation against lebanese civilians after they so recently booted the syrians out. how does bombing beirut help lebanon gain control over the hezbollah? a re there any me leaders left (besides israel) who support our me foreign policy? kuwait??? and which me leaders (besides israel) will now risk supporting the us effort to stop iran's nuclear program? it appears secretary rice was utterly unprepared for the consequences of all this -- "surprise visits" indeed. posted by: pj in jesusland on august 4, 2006 at 5:27 am | permalink the question posed by q is rather absurdly ahistorical: what about your post a little while ago pointing out that in fact the previous invasion (prior to the buffer zone occupation) accomplished an attainable goal, of kicking out the plo, who had a full military presence? the plo was (i) a foreign presence in s. lebanon, whose own fighters were largely sunni muslim or xian, exacerbating already existing inter-lebanese tensions - the shia at first [82] were favourable to israeli action against them; (ii) hezbullah already survived roughly 15 years of guerilla warfare w israel, emerging as it did out of the s. lebanese shia in the mid-80s and being fully engaged in head-to-head combat w israeli forces from 90 forward or so [a decade, to 00 withdrawal motivated in large part by the efficacity of hezbullah]; (iii) despite the truly vapid american media commentary on the subject, hezbullah is primarily a lebanese movement. while getting help from abroad [and who doesn't], the basis of their power runs deep, and by good old fashioned 'service to constituents'politics. they gave the impoverished s. leb. shia a voice in politics for the first time - and now the "arrogant" sunni and maronites are even publically giving them props and uniting behind them. 'expelling' hezbullah now means engaging in bosnian serb style ethnic cleansing by israel, to depopulate a third of lebanon. aside from the fact that this will not destroy hezbullah, given the rest of leb land will likely see this as an existential threat against them, engaging in this kind of ethnic cleansing certainly is not in the best long term interests of the israeli state. nor even the us, given it would turn lebanon into failed state (or in the alternative, into a hezbullah state: neither scenario is a win). in short, thinking hezbullah is comparable to the plo merely betrays a complete lack of acquiatance with the basic facts. posted by: the lounsbury on august 4, 2006 at 6:11 am | permalink re this question, re there any me leaders left (besides israel) who support our me foreign policy? kuwait???: the answer is no. following radio med. [regional arabic/fr serv]- rfi, even kuwait has peeled off. the journo correctly noted that kuwait is a good weathervane for us policy, as both on a popular level, and in parliament even kuwaitis have begun using the "american israeli aggression against lebanon" (tm) language. it rather doesn't matter whether one thinks, according to one's prejudices, that this is good or bad in itself or right or wrong. it is, surely, a nasty indication of the degree of damage the clumsy and incompetent anglo-american diplomatic efforts are doing to self-interest. it is also rather striking that the us has so deeply bought the line of one state's interests being "identical" to its own. a piece of foolishness and a disturbing indication (i explicitely leave aside with contempt the anti-semitic clap-trap in comments supra, and generally) of the degree of influence that one vision of its proper relations - even with an ally - have taken. posted by: the lounsbury on august 4, 2006 at 6:18 am | permalink there is always the possibility that slim and company are just the hezbollah morning shift in a beirut internet cafe. or, if not hezbollah, perhaps just some group of shiite college kids "doing their bit" for the cause. the timing of their posts fits. the repetition of the same prepared posts is another clue. depending on where they learned english, they sometimes give away their origin through the use of idioms. the phenomenon has been seen on other sites and from other groups. it's just more assymetrical warfare. posted by: trashhauler on august 4, 2006 at 6:20 am | permalink for: the lounsbury learning some lebanese history. in 1954, jews planned and eventually caused the first lebanese civil war. it took them much effort and time, but eventually their evil plan came to fruition. how do we know this? because ben gurion and moshe sharett (early israeli prime ministers) corresponded to each other about ben gurion's plan to destroy lebanon and moshe sharett's son published the correspondence. "the only thing that's necessary is to find a lebanese officer, even just a major. we should either win his heart or buy him to make him agree to declare himself the savior of the marionette population. then the israeli army will enter lebanon, will occupy the necessary territory and will create a christian regime which will ally itself with israel ... and then everything will be all right." moshe dayan you can read exactly what these evil jews planned for lebanon here. for those too lazy to click, the following snippet from the correspondence sums it up. "the creation of a christian state (in lebanon) is therefore a natural act; it has historical roots and it will find support in wide circles in the christian world, both catholic and protestant. in normal times this would be almost impossible. first and foremost because of the lack of initiative and courage of the christians. but at times of confusion, or revolution or civil war, things take on another aspect, and even the weak declares himself to be a hero. perhaps (there is never any certainty in politics) now is the time to bring about the creation of a christian state in our neighborhood. without our initiative and our vigorous aid this will not be done. it seems to me that this is the central duty - or at least one of the central duties, of our foreign policy. this means that time, energy and means ought to be invested in it and that we must act in all possible ways to bring about a radical change in lebanon. sasson ... and our other arabists must be mobilized. if money is necessary, no amount of dollars should be spared, although the money may be spent in vain. we must concentrate all our efforts on this issue ........ this is a historical opportunity. missing it will be unpardonable." ben gurion, february 27, 1954, personal correspondence to moshe sharett. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 6:34 am | permalink i wonder if i am the only one nostaligic for saddam hussein. such order and stability we had then. posted by: bob h on august 4, 2006 at 6:38 am | permalink the lounsbury said: "it is also rather striking that the us has so deeply bought the line of one state's interests being "identical" to its own." the reason is simple, but you refuse to accept it (or you are a jew and already know the truth, and are only here to convince others to believe even greater lies). george w bush is a jew (who pretends to be a christian)! this partly explains the weirdness of the man and why he never acts like a christian. here, have a look at him praying at the wailing wall. he could be praying to allah, but it doesn't look like it. and what is that funny cap thing on his head? yes, bush is a jew, he has jews all through his family tree. for example, levi pierce and his mother barbara pierce (levi and barbara are related) are both jews. pierce is an americanization of the jewish name perez/peretz/peres. the name is of hebrew origin. according to genesis 38, pharez (the spelling perez is also used (in the first book of chronicles)) was a son of judah born to tamar (who incidentally, was judah's daughter in law (judah, the father of the jews, was a dirty old man)). in case you are interested levi and barbara pierce are related as follows: thomas holbrook (d. 1677) m. jane powys .john holbrook m. elizabeth stream |.hannah holbrook m. ephraim pierce | .ephraim pierce m. mary low | .mial pierce m. judith round | .nathan pierce m. lydia martin | .isaac pierce m. anna fitch | .levi pierce m. betsey slade wheeler | .elizabeth slade pierce m. courtland philip livingston butler | .mary elizabeth butler m. robert emmet sheldon | .flora sheldon m. samuel prescott bush | .prescott sheldon bush m. dorothy walker | .george herbert walker bush m. barbara pierce | .george w. bush, us president .thomas holbrook m. jane kingman .peter holbrook m. alice godfrey .sylvanus holbrook m. naomi cook .john holbrook m. zilpah thayer .john holbrook m. rhoda thayer .john holbrook m. mercy hill .chloe holbrook m. james pierce .jonas james pierce m. kate pritzel .scott pierce m. mabel marvin .marvin pierce m. pauline robinson .barbara pierce doesn't that mean bush's mother is his cousin? always thought bush was inbred. in the 2004 us election you got to choose between the jew kerry and the jew bush. some choice,... like the choice between the front side of a piece of paper, or the back side. so the result of the election has already been decided before you get to "choose". i would rather have the iranian type of election. and here's a couple of snaps of bush's grandaddy,.. sure looks jewish to me: prescott sheldon bush with ike. prescott sheldon bush with nixon. assorted shots of bush with rabbis: bush visiting the st. petersburg synagogue on a rushed trip to russia. another shot from the st. petersburg synagogue visit. jeb bush celebrates chanukah with assorted rabbis. bush's mom posing with a local and russian rabbi. note that in all this time, not one jew has made the claim that bush is not a jew. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 6:47 am | permalink ron: here's the friedman column. he says the experiment in iraqi democracy has failed, and wants a plan to get us out of iraq. -------- "time for plan b" it is now obvious that we are not midwifing democracy in iraq. we are baby-sitting a civil war. when our top commander in iraq, gen. john abizaid, tells a senate committee, as he did yesterday, that “the sectarian violence is probably as bad as i’ve seen it,” it means that three years of efforts to democratize iraq are not working. that means “staying the course” is pointless, and it’s time to start thinking about plan b — how we might disengage with the least damage possible. it seemed to me over the last three years that, even with all the bush team’s missteps, we had to give our iraqi partners a chance to produce a transitional government, then write a constitution, then hold an election and then, finally, put together their first elected cabinet. but now they have done all of that — and the situation has only worsened. ... yes, i believe it was and remains hugely important to try to partner with iraqis to create one good example in the heart of the arab world of a decent, progressive state, where the politics of fear and tribalism do not reign — the politics that has produced all the pathologies of unemployment, religious intolerance and repression that make the middle east so dangerous to itself and others. but the administration now has to admit what anyone — including myself — who believed in the importance of getting iraq right has to admit: whether for bush reasons or arab reasons, it is not happening, and we can’t throw more good lives after good lives... ...i think we need to try a last-ditch bosnia-like peace conference that would bring together all of iraq’s factions and neighbors. just as bosnia could be solved only by an international peace force and the dayton conference — involving russia, europe and the u.s., the powers most affected by bosnia’s implosion — the civil war in iraq can be quelled only by a coalition of those most affected by iraq’s implosion: the u.s., russia, europe, japan, india, china, turkey, saudi arabia, egypt, iran, syria and jordan. as in bosnia, any solution will have to be some form of federalism, a division of oil wealth and policing by an international force, where needed... ...yes, the best way to contain iran would have been to produce a real shiite-led democracy in iraq, exposing the phony one in tehran. but second best is leaving iraq. because the worst option — the one iran loves — is for us to stay in iraq, bleeding, and in easy range to be hit by iran if we strike its nukes. finally, the war in iraq has so divided us at home and abroad that leaving, while bringing other problems, might also make it easier to build coalitions to deal with post-u.s. iraq, iran, hezbollah and syria. all these problems are connected. we need to deal with iran and syria, but from a position of strength — and that requires a broad coalition. the longer we maintain a unilateral failing strategy in iraq, the harder it will be to build such a coalition, and the stronger the enemies of freedom will become. posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 6:53 am | permalink whoops, i meant "bob" and wrote "ron". duh. posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 6:54 am | permalink oh, and slim: i'm jewish. bush is not a jew. okay? posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 6:55 am | permalink it is likely that the litani river was the goal all along. israel were not prepared to begin their campaign when it started, with only two brigades near the border. they hadn't mobilized the reserves or pre-positioned much equipment. it followed, then, that they would open the ball with air strikes and long range artillery. hence the bombing of infrastructure, command and control nodes, and lines of communication seemingly unrelated to rocket launchers. that's called "preparing the battle space" in military terms. now that they've had time to mobilize ground forces, they can move north in force. it remains true that the best way to counter a rocket launcher is to roll a tank over it. the goal won't be to depopulate southern lebanon. it appears that they are banking on some sort of robust international force that could take over from them, with the eventual goal of the lebanese military replacing hezbollah in the south. posted by: trashhauler on august 4, 2006 at 7:04 am | permalink brooksfoe: "i'm jewish. bush is not a jew." and how do you know this? what proof do you have? go on, prove it. bush is a jew, just like fdr, churchill, lbj and many other leaders were. "you shell know them by their deeds." posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 7:06 am | permalink brooksfoe said: "yes, i believe it was and remains hugely important to try to partner with iraqis to create one good example in the heart of the arab world of a decent, progressive state" you are a nut. lebanon was that one good example in the heart of the arab world and you evil jews just bombed it to pieces. in the process you showed exactly how evil you jews are. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 7:11 am | permalink sorry brooksfoe, apparently friedman is the nut. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 7:16 am | permalink folks, slim is an obvious right-wing troll sent to discredit this blog and the liberals who comment here. stop playing his game! posted by: squeakyrat on august 4, 2006 at 7:17 am | permalink pj in jesusland wrote: who would have thought three years ago that one of the consequences of the us invasion of iraq would be to embolden israel to re-invade lebanon? actually i remember at the time reading several critiques of the iraq invasion citing precisely this situation -- that america's use of pre-emptive war in the "global war on terrorism" would open up israel's use of the same tactics. this, in turn, would broaden and deepen the sunni (saudi, egypt, lebanon) vs. shiite (syria, iran, iraq) conflict. violence always leads to more violence. until one side is ready to embrace a nonviolent response, we should get used to this for the rest of our lives. posted by: michael buchanan on august 4, 2006 at 7:24 am | permalink has there ever been a situation involving israel when they didn't respond with violence? it seems too easy to provoke a response from them. posted by: michael buchanan on august 4, 2006 at 7:28 am | permalink genesis 15:18 in the same day the lord made a covenant with abram, saying, unto thy seed have i given this land, from the river of egypt unto the great river, the river euphrates: understand now, that bush believes this mess!! jordan, syria, lebanon, iraq, ... et alia posted by: colophon on august 4, 2006 at 7:30 am | permalink sqeakyrat, not necessarily a right wing nut, though that's a possibility. the same kind of annoying stuff has shown up on military blogs, with just the same reaction - who is this nut? don't rule out the possibility that slim really believes his stuff. there are plenty of pcs in lebanon and throughout the middle east. posted by: trashhauler on august 4, 2006 at 7:31 am | permalink how many "christians" here support the evil nazi jews in their murder of many hundreds of woman and children in lebanon. put forward your names forward as supporters of vicious killers. tell us clearly that you support the actions of a bunch of nazi jews who continue to deliberately kill hundreds, going on thousands, of civilians, so we know who, and what, you are. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 7:39 am | permalink if the pope were serious about peace, he would organize an envoy including himself to travel to southern lebanon and demand a cease fire. posted by: michael buchanan on august 4, 2006 at 7:48 am | permalink "sorry brooksfoe, apparently friedman is the nut." reading what you post in bold letters, i'm not so sure about your sanity, too, slim. i guess it's just blind rage that's driving your rants. there may be reasons for this, ok, but this doesn't fit well into the general tone of this blog. less emotion, more reason, pls. posted by: gray on august 4, 2006 at 8:05 am | permalink slim, have you been seeing honest joe lately? some say you're a jew. can you prove you're not? posted by: bobbyp on august 4, 2006 at 8:12 am | permalink war and discord is what the neocons want. there are untold billions, if not trillions, being pocketed by a slew of corporations and governments trading in arms and various other products of war. don't kid yourself policies are being struggled for that will end all this. the opposite is true. how else to explain agitiating for combat with iran and syria in the midst of everything else pinning us down in the middle east? no, things are just as bush and his henchmen would have them. posted by: steve duncan on august 4, 2006 at 8:24 am | permalink the invasion of iraq has failed to create a stable state, let alone a democracy. instead, it has produced chaos and civil war, strengthened iran, and endangered israel. in turn, israel's war in lebanon has failed in its goal of significantly weakening hezbollah. instead, it has turned hassan nasrallah into a regional folk hero and is about to end in a rerun of the disastrous occupation that created hezbollah in the first place. perhaps a different strategy is in order for the future? hey, this presents an opportunity! posted by: gregory on august 4, 2006 at 8:44 am | permalink just want to take issue with error repeated here by kevin and elsewhere throughout the digital ether, that being 'the prior occupation created hezbollah'. the iranian revolution created hezbollah and it was then exported to lebanon as means of broadening that revolution by exploiting plo conflict and an indigenous shia population. the occupation certainly provided fecund soil for that seed, but did not in fact create that seed: it is reasonable to suggest seed may have taken root and flourished regardless of occupation. posted by: derek jeter on august 4, 2006 at 8:57 am | permalink only a naive partisan would argue that the elimination of sadaam endangered israel. i'm sorry, but kevin is awful and cannot be taken seriously on terrorism and war; he is quite good on politics and other domestic issues. only a mendacious and malicious partisan would argue that the current debacle in iraq -- including, as kevin pointed out, the ascendancy of iran -- has not endangered israel. of course, despite his pose of moderation, brian is such a dishonest gop shill, and so, like the gop, can't be taken seriously politics and other domestic issues, and, like the party he represents, has lost all credibility on terrorism and war. posted by: gregory on august 4, 2006 at 9:03 am | permalink is the long article above correct in its assertions, or not. answer that question and you have your answer to the other. ugh. i am as against the current stupidity/insanity/overreaction by israel as any other reasonable, thinking being but you throw the slur-ish "jew" around with nazi-like abandon (jew press, jew military, jew blah blah). blatant and clear antisemitism. if you weren't antisemitic to your core, you would use the proper terms: israeli press, israeli government, israeli military, etc, which are entities apart from jews in general. not the same thing. as for your story...tanks don't have back hatches to blow off. a tank has a big-assed engine in the back. there is usually/always an escape hatch on the bottom of the tank. tiny little thing. not something that you can just run up to and toss grenades into. same with the hatch on top. a vehicle that has a big hatch as you describe on the back is an armored personnel carrier. personnel in the carrier are as likely as not to wear vests because, you know, being ground pounders, they may need to exit quickly to fight. you'd be an idiot, particularly if on alert, to not wear your vest and be ready to exit the armored personnel carrier in a flash. i am not addressing the specifics of your posting because i know little about it except the basic kidnapping schtick. i do know that israel has overreacted, big-time, to an annoyance that is really of no earth-shattering account. soldiers are legitimate targets. period. always. one cannot commit acts of "terrorism" againt legitimate military targets. thus, the explosive reaction by israel against hizbollah is, in fact, way overreacting. hamas took out a couple valid military targets and captured a couple more. they intended this to go the way it has in the past with a reasonable response in which, in the end, prisoners were exchanged. instead, israel has truly placed its future stability and safety very much on the line like never before. they have pulled a bush and created the very (predictable) opposite result that they wanted and expected. they have strengthened hizbollah. hell's bells, over 60% of the christian lebanese have now gotten onboard with hizbollah! the catholic leader in beirut has joined with other sects as well as muslims to express their support of hizbollah! good job israel! brilliant! fuctards. posted by: praedor on august 4, 2006 at 9:07 am | permalink brooksfoe said: " i guess it's just blind rage,... " no blind rage here. what do you call a bunch of people who destroy a whole nation on the basis of two soldiers being taken captive. you call them evil nazi jews. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:09 am | permalink looks like ya got a nasty infestation of trollius conspiratorius here. these buggers are more destructive than termites and harder to remove than dry rot. i suggest spraying liberally with a 10% solution of phosphoric acid, followed by a brief evacuation of the comments section. posted by: the exterminator on august 4, 2006 at 9:17 am | permalink the lounsbury: i know it gives everyone a near sexual climax to indulge in logical fallacy with another senselessly ad hominem comparison of israel to serbian genocidal killers, ethnic cleansers, nazis, dolchstosslegenders, and on and on. the jews are the real nazis. not, mind you, the millenially anti-semitic and openly, declaredly racist and genocidal populations that surround them, going back to the lovely grand mufti of jerusalem. you go, girls. but back in the rational world, no one is talking about expelling hezbollah from lebanon. the point of kevin's earlier post was that the plo was a hard military target and it was possible to get to them. certainly attitudes toward them by the native lebanese were a potential factor - but a large fraction of native lebanese have been leaning toward disarming hezbollah and they can't do a thing about it even with a 25k+ strong lebanese army, so that is hardly dispositive. exactly as you point out - hezbollah survived israeli occupation: as a guerilla force, using suicide bombing and guerilla tactics. maintaining a military state of readiness to launch rocket barrages is arguably a very different thing, and that is what we are talking about weakening. the argument is, massive iranian backing and war materiel have transformed hezbollah into a significant military threat, correspondingly vulnerable to military interdiction. return them to something more like their occupation days, and prevent further wholescale armament by iran and syria, and they might be reduced to occasionally blowing up peacekeeping barracks and skirmishing on the border - an inevitable but acceptable thorn in the side of peace. a guerilla force can make trouble, sometimes it might even contribute to a withdrawal of occupying forces, but it is less likely to be an existential threat to a neighboring state (as years of dogged suicide bombings by the palestinians have demonstrated.) if hezbollah is indeed rehearsing an attempt to rise to the level of existential threat, then this needs to be prevented if there is ever to be peace on that border. bloody obviously. posted by: q on august 4, 2006 at 9:19 am | permalink "slim" has been posting his anti-jewish rants here almost non stop since 2:00 am. hil-arious!!! hey, slim. maybe leave the trailer park today and go out and fill out some job applications. you can always post here and fuck your own sister later tonight, when you get home. today, its time to get a job. but then again, the jews have probably conspired to keep you jobless, dumb and living in a mobile home somewhere in alabama. right? jew! jew! bwaaawk! posted by: pat on august 4, 2006 at 9:23 am | permalink dirty jews! dirty jews! j-j-j-jews! dirty jews-bwaaawk! slim is a cracker! bwaawk! posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:25 am | permalink praedor said: "as for your story... tanks don't have back hatches to blow off." true, but i didn't write the story. liars in the press did. my whole point is that the story is a transparent lie. if you read the whole article from the telegraph (always useful before you comment) you will find that they mention one tank and one apc (which was unoccupied). some relevant bits from the article are: "they split into three groups before launching simultaneous attacks on three israeli defensive positions - a look-out tower, plus a tank and an armoured personnel carrier, both dug in, facing gaza. they blew open the tank's rear doors with a missile fired from point-blank range before tossing grenades inside. two of the tank crew died and another was severely wounded but the final crew member, the gunner, was forced out of the wreckage at gunpoint,.... the troop carrier was also damaged in another attack but it was unoccupied." posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:26 am | permalink dirty jews! dirty jews! bwaawk! posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:28 am | permalink when i was little, a jewish boy was in my gym class. when we were in the shower together, i saw his weiner. it made me feel excited and my face got reallt hot. then something was tingly and sticky down there. when i told my daddy about it, he got really angry and spanked me. dirty jews! bad jews! they made daddy mad! jews! bwaawk! posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:31 am | permalink speaking for all jews, we are terribly worried about slim's postings here. his spending seven straight hours posting and reposting the same news articles on political animal threatens to blow the lid off of our attempts at world domination. if only slim would get a job and have to leave the trailer park every day, we in the zionist movement would be free to pursue our dangerous schemes! curses! foiled by unemployed redneck slim again! posted by: jews on august 4, 2006 at 9:34 am | permalink yuck. posted by: shortstop on august 4, 2006 at 9:35 am | permalink "brooksfoe said: " i guess it's just blind rage,... "" no, i said that. slim, you're a really confused person. better have a break and lie down a bit. if it gets worse, you should see a doctor. posted by: gray on august 4, 2006 at 9:42 am | permalink q said: "but back in the rational world, no one is talking about expelling hezbollah from lebanon." gee, buddy. what planet do you live on? the jews have already expelled almost all of the lebanese from southern lebanon, and many from the north. i guess you are technically correct, in that hezbollah is about the only group not expelled. hezbollah is marked for extermination. basically, it is just too dangerous to be anywhere in lebanon, with a bunch of vicious killers on the loose. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:45 am | permalink well, at least you have an argument there, slim. and it would look even better if you stopped useing that annoying bold letters... posted by: gray on august 4, 2006 at 9:48 am | permalink basically, it is just too dangerous to be anywhere in lebanon, with a bunch of vicious killers on the loose. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:45 am | permalink fortunately, though, i am not in lebanon; i am in a doublewide in northern alabama. more specifically, i am stting here in my pee-stained overalls, slightly drunk on generic beer i bought at the piggly wiggly with my food stamps. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:50 am | permalink let me remind the jews here, that: the root cause of the problem arises from the fact that the jews ethnically cleansed somewhere between 750,000 and a million christian and muslim arabs from their homes in the 1948 jew land grab. the solution is easy. compensate these people or the 5,000,000 of their descendants in the palestinian diaspora for what the evil jews have done to them. if you had been thrown out of your home and not allowed to return, you would be still fighting as well. i certainly would be. i would never give up, and i would teach my children to hate the jews who did this to me. you see how it goes on? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:50 am | permalink if you had been thrown out of your home and not allowed to return, you would be still fighting as well. i certainly would be. i would never give up, and i would teach my children to hate the jews who did this to me. you see how it goes on? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:50 am | permalink c'mon, now silly little slim. you know you don't have a home. you have a mobile home. and as for your kids, you mean you kids who are also your nephews, right? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 9:53 am | permalink slim's malpractice suit against his mohel must be going badly. posted by: thethirdpaul on august 4, 2006 at 9:59 am | permalink in order for biblical scripture to be fulfilled, all arabs and other non-jews must move east of the euphrates!! genesis 15:18 in the same day the lord made a covenant with abram, saying, unto thy seed have i given this land, from the river of egypt unto the great river, the river euphrates: understand now, that bush believes this mess!! jordan, syria, lebanon, iraq, ... et alia posted by: colophon on august 4, 2006 at 7:30 am posted by: cursedbeham on august 4, 2006 at 10:10 am | permalink "police commander dan ronen said 70 rockets crashed into towns across the north in under an hour. a total of 135 rockets were fired at northern israel by friday afternoon." it's a mystery the media can not find out how many deaths are caused by the incessant katyusha bombing. "iran is racing to resupply hezbollah across the syrian border ahead of a possible cease-fire being ironed out this week at the united nations. meanwhile, israeli jets have begun a new bombardment of beirut's suburbs and hezbollah is threatening to launch a missile attack on tel aviv." "the iranians this week began a double game in lebanon best summed up by president ahmadinejad's message to muslim nations yesterday in malaysia: "although the main solution is for the elimination of the zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented." "although the main solution....." is there anyone that still doubts this man? so, let's call for that cease fire so the islamo-fascists can replan and reload we'll all do this again in six months. sound good? posted by: jay on august 4, 2006 at 10:13 am | permalink a tank doesn't have a rear door (or a side door, either). the particular piece of equipment in question might have been a self-propelled gun, a piece of mobile artillery. perhaps an m-108, but that's just a guess. google it. whoever is posting this stuff is relying on inaccurate press accounts to "prove" his point. he clearly has no independent knowledge of military equipment or tactics. posted by: trashhauler on august 4, 2006 at 10:13 am | permalink ok, ok, since you beg for it: gods chosen people, the arabs. the mad jews believe many strange things. one such strange belief is that g_d has promised them the area of land from the nile to the euphrates. however, this belief is entirely mistaken. in genesis 15:18 "in the same day the lord made a covenant with abram, saying, unto thy seed have i given this land, from the river of egypt unto the great river, the river euphrates." the descendants of abraham are promised the land from the nile to the euphrates, however, in genesis 17:8 "and i will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of canaan, for an everlasting possession; and i will be their god." the descendants of abraham's younger son, isaac (which includes as a small portion, the jews) are promised canaan (the so-called promised land). so then, according to the torah, the jews (together with the israelites) have only been promised canaan. and that is all they get, for in joshua 21:43 & 45 "and the lord gave unto israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein..... there failed not ought of any good thing which the lord had spoken unto the house of israel; all came to pass." g_d says that the israelites and jews have already possessed all the land promised to them. that's it, no more for the jews. so, since it is not the jews that got the land from the nile to the euphrates, which descendants of abraham did get it. well, by observation, it is clear that the descendants of abraham's eldest son, ishmael, got it. that is, the arabs were promised the area of land from the nile to the euphrates, and g_d gave it to them. so, the jews are disobeying g_d when they try to force the arabs from their g_d given home. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 10:14 am | permalink so there. enough posting. i have to go and bang my sister now. daddy says we can't bang the sheep anymore or else we can't eat it later. daisy lou, here i come! posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 10:17 am | permalink i told you folks slim was sitting in an internet cafe somewhere in the middle east. ::grin:: posted by: trashhauler on august 4, 2006 at 10:18 am | permalink it's pretty clear that military force has accomplished about everything it can accomplish in the middle east. only a fool, a sadist or a neocon would think that what the region really needs is more war. we reached the point of diminishing returns quite a few years ago. it's time to go to the negotiating table. and *everything* should be on the table, including the occupied territories and israel's status as lone nuclear power in the region. posted by: chuck on august 4, 2006 at 10:18 am | permalink the vulnerable line of supply to us troops in iraq by patrick lang alexandria, va. (• patrick lang is former head of human intelligence collection and middle east intelligence at the defense intelligence agency.) american forces in iraq are in danger of having their line of supply cut by guerrillas. napoleon once said that "an army travels on its stomach." by that he meant that the problem of keeping an army supplied is the prerequisite for the very existence of the force. a 21st-century military force "burns up" a tremendous volume of expendable supplies and continuously needs repairs to equipment as well as medical treatment. without a plentiful and dependable source of fuel, food, and ammunition, a military force falters. first it stops moving, then it begins to starve, and eventually it becomes unable to resist the enemy. in 1915, for example, this happened to british forces that had invaded mesopotamia. a british-indian force traveled up the line of the tigris river, advancing to kut, southeast of baghdad. they became besieged there after their line of supply was cut along the river to the south. some 11,000 troops ultimately surrendered, after the allies suffered another 23,000 casualties trying to rescue them. american troops all over central and northern iraq are supplied with fuel, food, and ammunition by truck convoy from a supply base hundreds of miles away in kuwait. all but a small amount of our soldiers' supplies come into the country over roads that pass through the shiite-dominated south of iraq. until now the shiite arabs of iraq have been told by their leaders to leave american forces alone. but an escalation of tensions between iran and the us could change that overnight. moreover, the ever-increasing violence of the civil war in iraq can change the alignment of forces there unexpectedly. southern iraq is thoroughly infiltrated by iranian special operations forces working with shiite militias, such as moqtada al-sadr's mahdi army and the badr brigades. hostilities between iran and the united states or a change in attitude toward us forces on the part of the baghdad government could quickly turn the supply roads into a "shooting gallery" 400 to 800 miles long. at present, the convoys of trucks supplying our forces in iraq are driven by civilians - either south asians or turks. if the route is indeed turned into a shooting gallery, these civilian truck drivers would not persist or would require a heavier escort by the us military. it might then be necessary to "fight" the trucks through ambushes on the roads. this is a daunting possibility. trucks loaded with supplies are defenseless against many armaments, such as rocket-propelled grenades, small arms, and improvised explosive devices. a long, linear target such as a convoy of trucks is very hard to defend against irregulars operating in and around their own towns. the volume of "throughput" would probably be seriously lessened in such a situation. a reduction in supplies would inevitably affect operational capability. this might lead to a downward spiral of potential against the insurgents and the militias. this would be very dangerous for our forces. are there alternatives to the present line of supply leading to kuwait? there may be, but they are not immediately apparent. a line of supply consists of the route and the facilities at both ends. our present line of supply now originates in kuwait with its ports, stevedores, warehouses, etc. a new line of supply leading from turkey or jordan would require similar facilities. turkey has not been very cooperative in this war, and a supply line leading from jordan would have to pass through anbar province, the very heart of the sunni arab insurgencies. creating new facilities in these countries would be possible but politically difficult, and it would take time. few of the permanent requirements for uninterrupted resupply can be satisfied out of the local economy. iraq lacks reserves of these supplies, and there would not be anything like enough "left over" for our forces to subsist on. what about air resupply? it appears that only 5 to 10 percent of day-to-day military deliveries into iraq are currently transferred by air. inside iraq, local deliveries by air probably amount to more. in a difficult situation, the tonnages delivered could be increased, but given the bulk in weight and volume of the needed supplies, it seems unlikely that air resupply could exceed 25 percent of daily requirements. this would not be enough to sustain the force. compounding the looming menace of the kuwait-based line of supply is the route followed by the cargo ships en route to kuwait. geography dictates that the ships all pass through the strait of hormuz and then proceed to the ports at the other end of the gulf. those who are familiar with the record of iran's efforts against kuwaiti shipping in the iran-iraq war will be concerned about this maritime vulnerability. potential adversaries along the line of supply include many combat-experienced and well-schooled officers and former officers. we can be sure that they are acutely aware of this weakness in our situation. the precarious nature of our supply line is well-known to our military leadership. unfortunately, this is one of the many problems in iraq that has not been adequately addressed because of a shortage of troops. we should start building ourselves another line of supply as a backup, and we should do it soon. posted by: thinker on august 4, 2006 at 10:19 am | permalink "and i will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of canaan, for an everlasting possession; and i will be their god." posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 10:14 am what the matter slim, yhwh did not like the negroe? is this yhwh gave their land, canaan, to the jews? where is this racist yhwh of yours, slim? we need to put yhwh on trial for hate crimes. posted by: cursedbeham on august 4, 2006 at 10:24 am | permalink i didn't think the trolls here could get get any more insane, and then along comes slim. holy friggin' god. posted by: haha on august 4, 2006 at 10:25 am | permalink "and i will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of canaan, for an everlasting possession; and i will be their god." posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 10:14 am what's the matter slim, yhwh did not like the negroe? is this why yhwh gave their land, canaan, to the jews? where is this racist yhwh of yours, slim? we need to put yah boi yhwh on trial for hate crimes. posted by: cursedbeham on august 4, 2006 at 10:26 am | permalink wow, this is basically the slim thread. to clear out the infestation i can see only one best course of action: nuke the site from orbit. it's the only way to be sure. slim, did you stumble into your local public library and find one of the 'puters left on this site? try this: at the top of that browser thingy there is a litter winder with words in it that look like this, "http://www.washingtonmonthly.com". see that? ok, good. now, move that little cursor arrow thingy up there and all quick-like, double-click with the right button on that mouse thing. now, the words in that winder should now have a purty colored background (a "highlight") around it. good. now enter these letters: "http://www.powerlineblog.com" and hit that big keyboard button with the letters "enter" on it. you will find that you have so much more fun there, i assure you. though many wont have the "guts" that you do to say what you do here, many of them, being the only saved christians, will actually feel the way you do about them jews. don't like 'em, know they're condemned to eternal hellfire, but need 'em to bring on the rapture. go on, git now. posted by: praedor on august 4, 2006 at 10:27 am | permalink slim...uh...am i clear on this? you think the jews should get the land of canaan, as god promised, and the arabs should get the rest of the land from the nile to the euphrates? you're clear that the land of canaan is everything from the galilee and the jordan to the mediterranean, right? so are you saying the israelis should get the west bank and gaza? somehow i can't imagine you're saying that. posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 10:27 am | permalink for 40 years we fought the ussa with a policy of containment (with a few acceptions). bitter enemies, close to nuclear war at one time or another, but we ground them down and forced change. i can't help but think what the me would be like if we employed the same strategy of containment. or the nightmare if we had used pre-emption against the ussr starting in 1950. pre-empt or contain. thoses are the choices. i hope it doesn't take another 45 years learn whether pre-emption works of not. posted by: the fake fake al on august 4, 2006 at 10:29 am | permalink i can't help but think what the me would be like if we employed the same strategy of containment. that was pretty much what we were doing re iraq, until bush insisted on blowing the whole thing up. at this point i don't know if it's possible to ever undo the damage. posted by: haha on august 4, 2006 at 10:32 am | permalink http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14163530/ and this weakens hezbollah how? it stregnthens the lebaneses govt and army in what way? steve gilliard said it best when he wrote: when this is over we will have maronite gumen marching with hezbollah calling for isreal's destruction. what pisses me off most about this ,other than the death of innocent lebanese is that as us citizen and taxpayer i will get the blame and the bill for this. posted by: klyde on august 4, 2006 at 10:35 am | permalink let's not assume slim is in a mobile home in alabama. it's just as likely he's delivering his spiels from his room in a dartmouth fraternity house. speaking for all jews, we are terribly worried about slim's postings here. his spending seven straight hours posting and reposting the same news articles on political animal threatens to blow the lid off of our attempts at world domination. "world domination"? you mean pinky & the brain were jewish lab mice? posted by: vincent on august 4, 2006 at 10:36 am | permalink from the 1979 hostage crisis in iran (52 hostages for 444 days) we "contained" and tried diplomacy for over 21 years. appparently without too much success: november 1979: muslim extremists (iranian variety) seized the u.s. embassy in iran and held 52 american hostages for 444 days, 1982: muslim extremists (mostly hezbollah) began a nearly decade-long habit of taking americans and europeans hostage in lebanon, killing william buckley and holding terry anderson for 6 1/2 years. april 1983: muslim extremists (islamic jihad or possibly hezbollah) bombed the u.s. embassy in beirut, killing 16 americans. october 1983: muslim extremists (hezbollah) blew up the u.s. marine barracks at the beirut airport, killing 241 marines. december 1983: muslim extremists (al-dawa) blew up the u.s. embassy in kuwait, killing five and injuring 80. september 1984: muslim extremists (hezbollah) exploded a truck bomb at the u.s. embassy annex in beirut, killing 24 people, including two u.s. servicemen. december 1984: muslim extremists (probably hezbollah) hijacked a kuwait airways airplane, landed in iran and demanded the release of the 17 members of al-dawa who had been arrested for the bombing of the u.s. embassy in kuwait, killing two americans before the siege was over. june 14, 1985: muslim extremists (hezbollah) hijacked twa flight 847 out of athens, diverting it to beirut, taking the passengers hostage in return for the release of the kuwait 17 as well as another 700 prisoners held by israel. when their demands were not met, the muslims shot u.s. navy diver robert dean stethem and dumped his body on the tarmac. october 1985: muslim extremists (palestine liberation front backed by libya) seized an italian cruise ship, the achille lauro, killing 69-year-old american leon klinghoffer by shooting him and then tossing his body overboard. december 1985: muslim extremists (backed by libya) bombed airports in rome and vienna, killing 20 people, including five americans. april 1986: muslim extremists (backed by libya) bombed a discotheque frequented by u.s. servicemen in west berlin, injuring hundreds and killing two, including a u.s. soldier. december 1988: muslim extremists (backed by libya) bombed pan am flight 103 over lockerbie, scotland, killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground. february 1993: muslim extremists (al-gama'a al-islamiyya, possibly with involvement of friendly rival al-qaida) set off a bomb in the basement of the world trade center, killing six and wounding more than 1,000. spring 1993: muslim extremists (al-gama'a al-islamiyya, the sudanese islamic front and at least one member of hamas) plot to blow up the lincoln and holland tunnels, the u.n. complex, and the fbi's lower manhattan headquarters. november 1995: muslim extremists (possibly iranian "party of god") explode a car bomb at u.s. military headquarters in saudi arabia, killing five u.s. military servicemen. june 1996: muslim extremists (13 saudis and a lebanese member of hezbollah, probably with involvement of al-qaida) explode a truck bomb outside the khobar towers military complex, killing 19 american servicemen and injuring hundreds. august 1998: muslim extremists (al-qaida) explode truck bombs at u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania, killing 224 and injuring thousands. october 2000: muslim extremists (al-qaida) blow up the u.s. navy destroyer uss cole, killing 17 u.s. sailors. sept. 11, 2001: muslim extremists (al-qaida) hijack commercial aircraft and fly planes into the world trade center, the pentagon and a field in pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 americans. containment works against gov't regimes, it does not work against an ideology posted by: jay on august 4, 2006 at 10:37 am | permalink don't know whether slim is a genuinely anti-semitic troll, or a different kind of troll playing anti-semite to discredit anyone who mildly criticizes israel. dunno - does it matter? i think kevin should take notice - his blog has turned from one where people discuss things to being merely a platform for ranting anti-semites. if that's what he wants, fine, but if i were him i'd do something to protect the reputation of the site. posted by: wapiti on august 4, 2006 at 10:39 am | permalink brooksfoe -- the jews claim to greater israel is supposedly based on the torah. i am saying that, the jews flunked logic 101, and have read the torah the way they wanted it to be, not the way it is. i am saying that, based on the torah, the jews have no claim at all to greater israel. based on the torah, the jews have a claim to current israel, along with the israelites (wherever they may be). if the jew spread theory of british israel is correct, then all the brits and yanks and lots of others can claim israel. it will be interesting fitting 4-500,000,000 people in canaan (israel) so that the jews can claim that all of israel, has returned to israel, as prophesied in ezekiel 37:19-22: "behold, i will take the stick of joseph, which is in the hand of ephraim, and the tribes of israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. and the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. behold, i will take the children of israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. and i will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 10:45 am | permalink wapiti, yeah, it has to be said, poor kevin's and kos' posts about the difficulties of discussing this blogospherically sure find echoes in this comment thread. the enlightenment is dead. long live the enlightenment. sigh. maybe we could have a reasoned debate about the designated hitter? no, probably not. knitting patterns? can sea-monkeys really perform tricks? posted by: q on august 4, 2006 at 10:49 am | permalink yeah! more censorship! posted by: michael buchanan on august 4, 2006 at 10:51 am | permalink "a tank doesn't have a rear door (or a side door, either). the particular piece of equipment in question might have been a self-propelled gun, a piece of mobile artillery. perhaps an m-108, but that's just a guess. google it." that's true for conventional tanks, but idf merkawas are different. i don't have to google that, i know where i read it recently: "the layout of the merkava (chariot) is unconventional, with the turret and crew compartments to the rear of the vehicle and the engine up front. this was done to improve crew survival in the case of an armor-penetrating hit on front quarter. the vehicle has a hatch on the center deck forward of the turret for the driver, and hatches in the turret for the commander and loader. the gunner uses either one of these hatches. there is another clamshell hatch on the rear for crew escape or access under fire." http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/merkava.htm of course, a rear hatch is an advantage in the case of bailing out under fire. and so the israelis do have some russian tanks converted into troops carriers with rear hatches, too. posted by: gray on august 4, 2006 at 10:52 am | permalink i ask again, does anyone actually know where (in lebanon) the capture of the two israeli troops occurred (that sparked the nazi response from israel)? or don't any of you care. any jew lie is a good lie, right, and shouldn't be exposed. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 10:53 am | permalink so isreal is doing this for more land............. posted by: jaier on august 4, 2006 at 11:00 am | permalink "hezbollah said it captured the two israeli soldiers at 0904 (0704 gmt). a statement from the group said the two were taken to a "safe place". it did not mention whether they were alive or dead or injured. what is hezbollah? capture marks escalation the group says it has captured the soldiers to secure the release of detainees held in israeli prisons. "fulfilling its pledge to liberate the prisoners and detainees, the islamic resistance... captured two israeli soldiers at the border with occupied palestine," the hezbollah statement said. hezbollah captured three israeli soldiers in 2000. they died during the operation, but four years later, the group was able to exchange their bodies for 430 palestinians and lebanese held in israeli jails. there you go slimmy. posted by: jay on august 4, 2006 at 11:01 am | permalink jay proves he can't read, or possibly that he can't understand what he reads,... where, ya turkey. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 11:04 am | permalink waaaay up thread trashhauler wrote: "a tank doesn't have a rear door (or a side door, either). the particular piece of equipment in question might have been a self-propelled gun, a piece of mobile artillery. perhaps an m-108, but that's just a guess. google it. whoever is posting this stuff is relying on inaccurate press accounts to "prove" his point. he clearly has no independent knowledge of military equipment or tactics." the israeli merkava tank has two troop doors which open vertically in the rear of the tank. the doors are to allow crew, and munitions to pass thru into the tank when it is in defialde from a prepared firing position. the engine is located in the front of the tank to the left under a reinforced glacis plate again to protect from frontal attack. this design ensures crew surviveability and allows the crew to escape from a frontal direct hit which occur 75% of the time. http://www.voodoo.cz/merkava/images/mk3/mk3_9.jpg the space with the hebrew letter is the rear door on the merkava mk111 and its from the first site that i googled "merkava tank" posted by: david on august 4, 2006 at 11:09 am | permalink here's the only article that i have been able to find: "the lebanese police said that the two soldiers were captured as they 'infiltrated' into the town of aitaa al-chaab inside the lebanese border." http://in.news.yahoo.com/060712/43/65tzi.html some cross-border raid this turns out to be. so the lying jew press determined the capture to be a cross-border raid,... on the basis of what? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 11:17 am | permalink bottom line slim, yhwh is a racist. that is why he gave canaan (negroe) to abram. since the jew enslaved the canaanites, the metaphor refers to the people of canaan as well as the land of canaan being given to the jew. abram’s son ishmael does not entitled to abram’s legacy because ishmael’s mother, hagar is a negroe. yah boi, jesus, he is a racist too, and again it is jew versus negroe: the syrophoenician woman the story of the syro-phoenician woman, also offending our ethical sensibilities is in the new testament. and what’s more, its about jesus. and even worse, that which we find offensive in the story comes from the lips of jesus himself: let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs." it seems that jesus, a jew, essentially calls this woman a dog – a jewish man making a racist comment about a canaanite (read palestinian) implying that she and her kind don’t deserve his or god’s attention. the woman, whom matthew describes as of canaan, is said by mark to have been a greek, and a syrophenician by birth. but there is no contradiction here; for we know that it was the prevailing custom among the jews to call all foreign nations greeks, and hence that contrast between greeks and jews, which occurs so frequently in the writings of paul. as she was a native of the territories of tyre and sidon, we need not wonder that she is called a syrophenician; for that country was called syria, and formed part of phenicia. the jews disdainfully gave the name of canaanites to all the inhabitants of that district; and it is probable that the majority of them were descended from the tribes of canaan, who when banished from their native country, fled to a sort of retreat in the neighborhood. both agree in this point, that the woman was a native of a heathen nation, that she had not been instructed in the doctrine of the law, and that she came of her own accord to christ, humbly to entreat his aid. mark 7:25-30 25 soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. she came and fell at his feet. 26 the woman was a greek, a syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 he said to her, "let the children be fed first. for it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." 28 she replied and said to him, "lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps." 29 then he said to her, "for saying this, you may go. the demon has gone out of your daughter." 30 when the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. matthew 15:21-28 21. and jesus departing thence withdrew into the territories of tyre and sidon. 22. and, lo, a woman of canaan, who had come from those territories, cried saying, have compassion on me, o lord, thou son of david; my daughter is grievously afflicted by a devil. 23. but he made no reply to her, and his disciples approaching implored him, saying, send her away; for she crieth after us. 24. but he answering said, i am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of israel. 25. and she came and worshipped him, saying, lord, help me. 26. but he answering said, it is not seemly to take the children's bread, and throw it to the dogs. 27. but she said, certainly, o lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. 28. then jesus answering said to her, o woman, great is thy faith; be it to thee as thou desirest. and her daughter was cured from that time. posted by: colophon on august 4, 2006 at 11:20 am | permalink watcher/slim/jj/whatever: i love you. posted by: fumphis on august 4, 2006 at 11:24 am | permalink jay: containment works against gov't regimes, it does not work against an ideology. yet, jay rejected containment for the government regime known as saddam hussein's iraq. so, jay (and bush) rejected using a method against a government regime that jay admits works against government regimes. which means jay lied when he said invasion was the only workable means of dealing with saddam's government regime in iraq. posted by: advocate for god on august 4, 2006 at 11:26 am | permalink so the lying jew press determined the capture to be a cross-border raid,... on the basis of what, exactly? well, none of the articles that mention the "cross-border" raid, say where it occurred, or even near where it occurred. i guess this is just one more example of people being lied to by the jews. if you can find such an article please post a link to it. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 11:27 am | permalink . where is the accountability for the iraqi civil war? . posted by: wpb on august 4, 2006 at 11:30 am | permalink brad delong has extend exerpts from the tom ricks' 'fiasco'. very interesting observations on what led to the clusterfuck called iraq. posted by: nut on august 4, 2006 at 11:38 am | permalink this endless anti-semitic trolling is getting really tiresome. if the goal is to drive readers away from political animal, i'm pretty close to rewarding the trolls for all their work. it's bad when mind-numbing bush loyalist parodies (al) and nauseating, delusional republican triumphalists (rdw) look measured by comparison. i doubt that friedman's "defection" on iraq is the belweather it might seem to be. the mustached one is a propagandist primarily for what greg palast calls the neocon-pentagon faction in the administration. in the past three years, the power on the ground in iraq has flipped back and forth at least a couple of times between the necoon-pentagon and state department-big oil factions. it's useful to scrutinize anything that friedman says on iraq through that lens. columns like this may be nothing more than pawn moves in the chess game between defense and state. however, i have to chuckle cynically when friedman talks about giving iraqi democracy a chance and watching it fail. it was the neocons that friedman speaks for that handed down order after order during the cpa's tenure to carve out a delusional, norquistian utopia in iraq. dividing up the spoils and fossilizing their ideology in iraqi law was their only priorities in the early days. freidman is an apologist for powers that have demonstrated they don't give two shits about iraqi democracy. posted by: andrew wyatt on august 4, 2006 at 11:38 am | permalink the invasion of iraq has failed to create a stable state, let alone a democracy. instead, it has produced chaos and civil war, strengthened iran, and endangered israel. well, in bush's last public appearance (or rather, the one before he spat on sam donaldson) he was saying that the conflagration had been part of the plan all along, and that "managed calm" was getting us nowhere. so, his "new ear of peace and stability in the middle east" really means a regional war spiraling out of control. the soft bigotry of low expectations can even define "victory" down, it would seem. . posted by: grand moff texan on august 4, 2006 at 12:00 pm | permalink andrew wyatt said: "if the goal is to drive readers away,..." the goal is to get you to think. most people have been so brain-washed by the system, they are unable to think coherently. lets just take one small example. andrew, you know that the current problems in lebanon were "caused" by a cross-border raid, don't you? since, you know that to be a fact, i am sure you can tell me exactly where it occurred. so andrew, where exactly did it occur? can't answer that one eh? why do you think that you can't answer that question? why do you think that no one here can answer that question (except for the answer that puts the capture in lebanon)? why? why? why? why? posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 12:01 pm | permalink jay: so, let's call for that cease fire so the islamo-fascists can replan and reload we'll all do this again in six months. sound good? so, those nasty islamo-fascists can replan and reload, but israel cannot. got it. let's just keep on doing it for another six months an have even more deaths on both sides during that six months and then have it still going on, because, you know, if israel just keeps up the pressure now it will all go away, just like it did after 18 years previously . . . oops, didn't go away even after 18 years of aggressive israeli military action, but according to jay six more months this time will do it! sounds just like the dickless cheney refrain: the insurgents are on their last legs; just hold on for a few more weeks (monthe/years/decades/centuries) and will have 'em whuppped! yeah, baby! you would make a dumb rock look smart, jay. posted by: advocate for god on august 4, 2006 at 12:03 pm | permalink michael buchanan: has there ever been a situation involving israel when they didn't respond with violence? israel was actually being quite restrained given hezbolla provocations up until this round. the tit-for-tat doctrine goes back to at least 1949. nepata: joe, hate to disappoint you, but last time i looked, polls show 87% of the israeli public strongly behind their government's war. however, it's also worth noting that a large number from both left and right are critical of the way the war is being conducted. posted by: has407 on august 4, 2006 at 12:06 pm | permalink well, everything is a pawn move in something. but most people are mediocre chess players, and the pawn moves are often motivated more by vague aspirations and general principles than by concrete plans. i think friedman's belief in the possibility of a democratic iraq was genuine, and that he became convinced in the aftermath of 9/11 that the world requires big solutions. i also think his sojourns in the world of big business have left him fatally vulnerable to messianic hype and egotistical ceos. he's a crappy writer. but in the '80s he was at least a fairly reasonable thinker. it was the messianism of the post-communist internet boom years that unhinged him. i think it's at least possible that having been smacked upside the head by iraq, he may be leaving flat-lexus-land and returning to the world of the evidence-based. posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 12:11 pm | permalink slim. . .i really hope kevin bans you or the info gets your to slow down or shut up completely. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/ar2006071200262.html hezbollah said it carried out the attack about 9:05 a.m., when its fighters managed to cross the heavily fortified border near shtula, an israeli farming town of about 350 people. hezbollah guerrillas fired on two israeli army humvees, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. hezbollah's leader, hasan nasrallah, said an hour passed before israeli forces set out to recover the captives, giving hezbollah time to smuggle them to a place he called "safe and far, far, far away." he said the attack had been planned for months and was aimed at forcing negotiations that would win the release of three lebanese held in israeli jails. posted by: slim, troll or wacko? on august 4, 2006 at 12:11 pm | permalink so the lying jew press determined the capture to be a cross-border raid,... on the basis of what, exactly? well, none of the articles that mention the "cross-border" raid, say where it occurred, or even near where it occurred. i guess this is just one more example of people being lied to by the jews. if you can find such an article please post a link to it. well, it looks like others have noticed this jew lie,.... this gives quite a number of news-releases that say the capture was in lebanon. http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/israeli_solders.html posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 12:20 pm | permalink i like thomas friedman, and unlike brooksfoe, i think he's a good writer. but i'm forced by intellectual honesty to agree with brooksfoe that tf actually had a faith based idealism about america "leading" the way in changing the world from fractional isolationalism into a global community. reality can be so unkind to dreamers. i think tf is nipping a few off the o'l flask while he watches iraq crumble before our very eyes. even rumsfeld had the look of a petulant child throughout the affair during the other day's congressional grilling, which i interpret as his admission that things are going to hell in hand basket. overall, the clear ringing bell that is tolling through the minds of all western leaders is that the american government is being run by a bunch of...:::sigh:::...hormone laden teenie-boppers. i can only wonder if the rest of the world is wondering when the american parents are going to come home and take control of their kids. 2006 will determine that. posted by: sheerahkahn on august 4, 2006 at 12:26 pm | permalink from the linked to article: the militant group hezbollah captured two israeli soldiers during clashes wednesday across the border in southern lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbor to look for them. the forces were trying to keep the soldiers' captors from moving them deeper into lebanon, israeli government officials said on condition of anonymity. [forbes 7/12/06] the lebanese shiite hezbollah movement announced on wednesday that its guerrillas have captured two israeli soldiers in southern lebanon. "implementing our promise to free arab prisoners in israeli jails, our strugglers have captured two israeli soldiers in southern lebanon," a statement by hezbollah said. "the two soldiers have already been moved to a safe place," it added. the lebanese police said that the two soldiers were captured as they "infiltrated" into the town of aitaa al-chaab inside the lebanese border. [hindustan times 7/12/06] the lebanese hezbollah movement announced wednesday the arrest of two israeli soldiers in southern lebanon. lebanese police said that the two soldiers were arrested as they entered the town of aitaa al-chaab inside the lebanese border. israeli aircraft were active in the air over southern lebanon, police said, with jets bombing roads leading to the market town of nabatiyeh, 60 kilometers south of beirut. [bahrain news agency 7/12/06] translation: according to the lebanese police force, the two soldiers were captured in lebanese territory, in the area of aïta al-chaab close to the border, whereas israeli television indicated that they had been captured in israeli territory. [fr.news.yahoo 7/12/06] in the afternoon, the scene changed in the streets of southern lebanon, which was the target of 32 israeli raids that mainly targeted areas near the area where the two soldiers were captured in aita al chaab, close to the border with israel. [news.monstersandcritics.com 7/12/06] according to the lebanese police force, the two israeli soldiers were captured in lebanese territory, in the area of aïta al-chaab, near to the border with israel, where an israeli unit had penetrated in middle of morning. [afp 7/12/06] the militant group hezbollah said it captured two israeli soldiers during clashes across the border in southern lebanon on wednesday. [chinabroadcast 7/12/06] it all started on july 12 when israel troops were ambushed on lebanon's side of the border with israel. hezbollah, which commands the lebanese south, immediately seized on their crossing. they arrested two israeli soldiers, killed eight israelis and wounded over 20 in attacks inside israeli territory. [asia times 7/15/06] translation: hezbollah has made it clear time and again that it would retaliate by capturing and detaining israeli soldiers if they entered lebanon and use them in an exchange of prisoners. israel has in a deliberate manner sent a commando into lebanon (aïta al chaab) they came under attack from hezbollah, who captured two of their soldiers. [voltairenet.org 7/18/06] there is a map that shows were the soldiers were captured: here and yes jay, shtula is somewhat close to where everyone else says the soldiers were captured. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 12:28 pm | permalink slim, for the love of all that is good and holy, stfu! posted by: sheerahkahn on august 4, 2006 at 12:31 pm | permalink [t]he pawn moves are often motivated more by vague aspirations and general principles than by concrete plans. spot on, brooksfoe. and i would probably agree with you that friedman projects a personal sincerity. my suspicion is that, generally speaking, the neocons in this administration and in the conservative think-tank apparatus believe what they say. collectively, they may be arrogant, witless, and ideologically fanatical, but at least they have a vision(tm) for american foreign policy beyond the base, opportunistic greed that motivates the state department and its corporate puppeteers in iraq. the pure, academic neocons at least recognize that the sauds should not be our allies. (not because they are wedded to sunni theocrats, of course, but because they are the al capone of the most significant price-fixing conspiracy in the modern world--opec.) faint praise, i know, and a bit like choosing which dangerous lunatic is the least crazy. (as walter declared in the big lebowski: "nihlists? fuck me. say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, at least it's an ethos.") posted by: andrew wyatt on august 4, 2006 at 12:34 pm | permalink "defense minister amir peretz told israel defense forces officials on thursday evening to begin preparing for the next stage of the military offensive in south lebanon, which would extend the idf's control to all lebanese territory south of the litani river." this isn't going to work. hezbollah's medium-range rockets could still be launched into israel from north of this position. witness how they are currently launching hundreds of short-range rockets a day right over the heads of the supposed 10,000 israeli ground forces (after the israeli pm claimed they destroyed 70% of their ability to launch missiles). the israeli rightwing will have to end their decades long illegal military occupation before there's any hope of ending any retaliation. btw, notice how the israeli pm has now picked up the bushies meme that "we're making progress" ? oy vey. . posted by: vj on august 4, 2006 at 12:39 pm | permalink so the jews have been caught lying to everyone, twice now. so the jews have been caught lying to everyone, to start both of these nasty little wars. see,... like i said. totally, evil nazi jews. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 12:39 pm | permalink collectively, they may be arrogant, witless, and ideologically fanatical, but at least they have a vision(tm) for american foreign policy beyond the base, opportunistic greed that motivates the state department and its corporate puppeteers in iraq. i am not entirely sure that what we need at this point is a vision(tm). i think some basic manners(tm) might be a better place to start. the world at this point is like a bar in which about a third of the patrons are ready to fight. we need more patrons who just conduct themselves with basic decency and politeness, not more who want to get up and tell everyone what their vision is, and insult everyone who doesn't buy into it, and then announce they have every right to drink as much as they want and start making weird threats they can't follow up on, and then barf on themselves. as it were. posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 12:46 pm | permalink david, thanks for the info on the israeli merkava tank. it is apparently a hybrid vehicle of some sort, capable of carrying troops, as well as a fighting crew. not similar to our tanks at all, but still qualifies as a "tank" because of its fighting ability. posted by: trashhauler on august 4, 2006 at 12:47 pm | permalink slim, you have so much to learn. there is a big difference between evil jews and nazi jews. evil jews have horns on their heads; nazi jews have a third eye and eat christians between mealtimes. they look similar at a distance though, and they frequent the same after-hours clubs. posted by: brooksfoe on august 4, 2006 at 12:51 pm | permalink the 'buffer zone' is on the wrong side of the israel-lebanon border. posted by: hostile on august 4, 2006 at 12:56 pm | permalink brooksfoe said: "evil jews have horns on their heads; nazi jews have a third eye and eat christians,..." just like i thought. you will be unhappy to hear that i must leave you all now. have fun. posted by: slim on august 4, 2006 at 1:05 pm | permalink news,ent,star,singer,pic ent, news, fun and star ent news star pic of act hot star news ent news in china posted by: 4545 on august 4, 2006 at 1:51 pm | permalink kick slim off this board. he abuses the bold text function. posted by: charles dickens on august 4, 2006 at 2:08 pm | permalink "we need more patrons who just conduct themselves with basic decency and politeness, not more who want to get up and tell everyone what their vision is, and insult everyone who doesn't buy into it, and then announce they have every right to drink as much as they want and start making weird threats they can't follow up on, and then barf on themselves." exactly. posted by: gray on august 4, 2006 at 3:09 pm | permalink this is why you invade small, poor countries (i prefer tropical) that can't put up much resistance. i wasn't called the great liberator for nothing posted by: ghost of the gipper on august 4, 2006 at 10:41 pm | permalink how to make a terrorist into a freedom fighter. step 1) invade his/her country step 2) kill lots of civilians posted by: counter-insurgent on august 4, 2006 at 10:45 pm | permalink i blame the people's front of judea for the current conflagration. also the judean people's front. posted by: blame on august 4, 2006 at 10:50 pm | permalink how can mel gibson post from the rehab clinic? posted by: the passion for cuervo on august 4, 2006 at 10:52 pm | permalink good one, brooksfoe. we tried overthrowing elected governments, making threats, invading countries that don't want us there, giving total support to a country that is especially hated in the reagon, sending missionaries to convert them, forcing our trash culture down their hroats, supporting repressive governments to get at their oil and gosh, none of it works! for reasons we can't fathom, they don't seem to love us! if nothing else works, why not try being the good guys? seems a very simple truth to me. people who do good are liked. it should work for governments as well. posted by: james of dc on august 5, 2006 at 2:43 am | permalink kevin, don't you think these threads are all getting a bit, uh, contaminated? posted by: kenji on august 5, 2006 at 6:59 am | permalink seriously, kevin, can't you do something to ban the ranter of the boldtype? he really clogs the threads with his crap. btw, when did mel gibson start posting as slim? ps, slim, you can't be a jew through your father's lineage. only moms count. you could look it up. posted by: cal gal on august 5, 2006 at 7:27 pm | permalink 电梯 - 电梯, 电影 - 电影, 电子感应水处理器 - 电子感应水处理器, 镀膜企业 - 镀膜企业, 对讲机 - 对讲机, 对讲机 - 对讲机, 二手笔记本电脑 - 二手笔记本电脑, 二手挖机 - 二手挖机, 二手挖掘机 - 二手挖掘机, 二手挖掘机 - 二手挖掘机, 二手挖掘机 - 二手挖掘机, 二手挖掘机 - 二手挖掘机, 二手挖掘机 - 二手挖掘机, 二手挖掘机 - 二手挖掘机, 发电机 - 发电机, 发电机组 - 发电机组, 反应锅/反应釜 - 反应锅/反应釜, 防爆工具 - 防爆工具, 防渗漏 - 防渗漏, 飞机票 - 飞机票, 飞机票 - 飞机票, 飞机票 - 飞机票, 废气处理设备 - 废气处理设备, 粉末涂料 - 粉末涂料, 粉末冶金 - 粉末冶金, 粉碎机 - 粉碎机, 风速仪 - 风速仪, 缝编无纺布 - 缝编无纺布, 缝编无纺布 - 缝编无纺布, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福彩3d - 福彩3d, 福建企业名录 - 福建企业名录, 福利彩票 - 福利彩票, 福利彩票 - 福利彩票, 福禄克 - 福禄克, 钢管 - 钢管, 钢制拖链 - 钢制拖链, 高频机 - 高频机, 高压泵/往复泵/试压泵 - 高压泵/往复泵/试压泵, 高压清洗机 - 高压清洗机, 高压清洗机 - 高压清洗机, 高压柱塞泵 - 高压柱塞泵, 隔膜泵 - 隔膜泵, 工程机械 - 工程机械, 工程机械 - 工程机械, 工程机械 - 工程机械, 工业设计 - 工业设计, 公关策划 - 公关策划, 管缆防护套 - 管缆防护套, 光触媒 - 光触媒, 光稳定剂770 - 光稳定剂770, 光学镜片 - 光学镜片, 广告机 - 广告机, 广告设计 - 广告设计, 广西企业名录 - 广西企业名录, 国际机票 - 国际机票, 国际机票 - 国际机票, 国际机票 - 国际机票, 国际机票 - 国际机票, 国际机票 - 国际机票, 国际机票 - 国际机票, 国际旅游 - 国际旅游, 航空障碍灯 - 航空障碍灯, 河北企业名录 - 河北企业名录, 河南企业名录 - 河南企业名录, 湖北企业名录 - 湖北企业名录, 湖南企业名录 - 湖南企业名录, 滑触线 - 滑触线, 化工泵 - 化工泵, 化工泵 - 化工泵, 画廊 - 画廊, 环保加盟 - 环保加盟, 换热器/空气热交换器 - 换热器/空气热交换器, 活塞环 - 活塞环, 火车时刻表 - 火车时刻表, 货架 - 货架, 机床垫铁 - 机床垫铁, 机床防护罩 - 机床防护罩, 机柜 - 机柜, 机柜 - 机柜, 机票 - 机票, 机票 - 机票, 机票 - 机票, 机票查询 - 机票查询, 激光粒子计数器 - 激光粒子计数器, 加固 - 加固, 加盟 - 加盟, 加热器 - 加热器, 家教 - 家教, 家居装饰 - 家居装饰, 甲醛检测 - 甲醛检测, 甲醛清除剂 - 甲醛清除剂, 甲醛治理 - 甲醛治理, posted by: bb on august 6, 2006 at 1:37 am | permalink how about this for a solution to be the mother of all solutions? let's take a little leaf from history, peace at any price is better than war. this was said by no other than krishna, the hindu god before the start of what must have been at that time the greatest war that the world had ever seen, some 4000 years bc. he managed to avoid the constant barrage of wars and battles that had destroyed the peace and prosperity of his home town mathura by suggesting to his king that they evacuate from the town and build one elsewhere. thus dwarka was built. the whole big problem, as someone pointed out somewhere here, is that people were driven out of their home from their homes and land by people who believed that the land rightfully belonged to them. maybe they were right, maybe not, i am not educated enough on the subject to honestly make a comment, although from my viewpoint it looks like the people of israel were wrong. a piece of land that was legitimately bought / purchased or bartered for should have been given to them. that was no so. i am neither jewish nor do i eye arabs with any particular affection. in fact i think both of them are being stupid about the whole issue, arabs more than the israelis. arab hold a trump card in their hands, a royal flush that they can use to solve the problem, to get the world to fall head over heels to solve the problem for them. what if, let us say, the arab leaders gather at a vantage point, discuss this amongst themselves and know that they are no match for most of the civilized world in any significant way. they can't match the world on per capita literacy, doctors, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities. they can't match the rest of the world in armed might, in brains. the only things they have is the oil they posses that keeps the rest of world's engine chugging. so what if they decide, unanimously make this declaration, politely of course, with a smile, that they are just too distraught with the ongoing conflict spread over the middle east and so have decided to shut down all the pipes that spew oil to the world until this matter is fully and totally resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned. thank you very much. the world would scramble to solve the problem. the arabs, of course should add that a man in waiting at every oil well they posses with a lit torch just in case the chimp and his lap dog decide the best course of action is a military campaign to capture all oil wells. how long would it take before the amazingly jew-centric american population starts towards the white house with machetes and axes in hands. how long will it take for the increasingly idiotic looking blair to finally decide that he needs a permanent holiday and should leave the government to saner hands. how long before the world takes to streets demanding that something be done immediately about it, beat the shit of hezbollah and the israel if they have to make them sit together and talk of peace. not very long is my guess. but will it happen. you bet your last cent that it won't, the arabs are too damn stupid to ever think as a unit, too divided and greedy to ever be bold enough to it. there is another solution however, since america seems to love israel so much, why not clear up a space twice the size of present israel, buy swathes of land from neighboring canada if they have to and resettle israel there. let the palestinians go back to their homes, the hamas will not have a reason to fight for and if they still do then let them just kill each other as much as they want. hezbollah will be left stranded without a cause and die their own natural death. i am sure every man, woman and child, even from places as impoverished as bangla desh and ethiopia will shell out a dollar each towards the cause. that will save the world from many troubles that inflict the world, the amounts spent on weapons will be drastically reduced, the money going out of american pockets in the name of aid to israel will stop. all can leave in peace. an unusual solution no doubt, not acceptable by most, certainly not what would be termed as a manly thing to do, even a sign to the world that the terrorist organizations have been victorious. but who gives a damn if it leads to peace. dwarka, remember, lived on and prospered for many centuries, no one attacked it and no one attacked it and they lived in peace. that is what matters, doesn't it. it won't happen will it? 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