Saturday, August 12, 2006
Depressing, Wise Articles
Andrew McCarthy (not the Brat Pack actor) over at NRO has been on a roll for the past days writing well here and here about the major setbacks we are watching in our little war against radical Islamicists. Under the rubric it is better to know than to be happily ignorant, they should be read.
Money quotes:
We, of course, are neither joining Israel’s fight against Hezbollah nor registering that Hezbollah’s provocations, along with Hamas’s, are just the latest salvos in Iran’s war against us. Our top priority, instead, is to save Lebanon’s democracy. The administration — at least publicly — is advising Israel not to escalate the war while the “international community” works feverishly toward a “truce” according to which Israel would go back home (where Hezbollah has so far fired 3300 missiles) without having defeated the enemy, while Lebanon — the country that just told us it’s too weak to defend itself — would send 15,000 of its crack troops to police the border in conjunction with that great lover of Israel, the U.N.
You’ll no doubt be shocked to learn that Hezbollah thinks this is a dandy idea — the “best way” (you’d better be sitting down for this) to “preserve the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon.” If you don’t know whether to be more outraged by Hezbollah’s mendacity or by the fact that the international community cares what it thinks, you’re not alone.
[...]
If all that is not tragicomic enough, consider this: While we are throwing our arms around Lebanon, Lebanon is throwing its arms around Hezbollah. Between the sobs and sniffles that mark the oratorical style of this somewhat less than reassuring head-of-state, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora paused the other day to assert: “We are in a strong position [against Israel] and I thank the Sayyed for his efforts.”
“The Sayyed,” of course, is none other than Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s “secretary general” and the current darling of the Muslim world. (In a profile more glowing than any Republican could ever dream of, the New York Times has helpfully explained that the designation sayyid means Nasrallah “is a cleric who can trace his lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad” — making him just about the most distinguished America-hating, pathologically anti-Semitic mass-murderer of our time.) Heaping further praise on terrorists who hide among Lebanese civilians when they are not launching rockets at Israeli civilians, Siniora added, "I also thank all those who sacrifice their lives for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon."
To put it in Bush Doctrine parlance, presented with its “decision to make,” Lebanon has decided to “continue[] to harbor or support terrorism.” So, are we regarding it as a “hostile regime”? Heavens, no. After all, it’s a democracy.
Money quotes:
We, of course, are neither joining Israel’s fight against Hezbollah nor registering that Hezbollah’s provocations, along with Hamas’s, are just the latest salvos in Iran’s war against us. Our top priority, instead, is to save Lebanon’s democracy. The administration — at least publicly — is advising Israel not to escalate the war while the “international community” works feverishly toward a “truce” according to which Israel would go back home (where Hezbollah has so far fired 3300 missiles) without having defeated the enemy, while Lebanon — the country that just told us it’s too weak to defend itself — would send 15,000 of its crack troops to police the border in conjunction with that great lover of Israel, the U.N.
You’ll no doubt be shocked to learn that Hezbollah thinks this is a dandy idea — the “best way” (you’d better be sitting down for this) to “preserve the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon.” If you don’t know whether to be more outraged by Hezbollah’s mendacity or by the fact that the international community cares what it thinks, you’re not alone.
[...]
If all that is not tragicomic enough, consider this: While we are throwing our arms around Lebanon, Lebanon is throwing its arms around Hezbollah. Between the sobs and sniffles that mark the oratorical style of this somewhat less than reassuring head-of-state, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora paused the other day to assert: “We are in a strong position [against Israel] and I thank the Sayyed for his efforts.”
“The Sayyed,” of course, is none other than Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s “secretary general” and the current darling of the Muslim world. (In a profile more glowing than any Republican could ever dream of, the New York Times has helpfully explained that the designation sayyid means Nasrallah “is a cleric who can trace his lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad” — making him just about the most distinguished America-hating, pathologically anti-Semitic mass-murderer of our time.) Heaping further praise on terrorists who hide among Lebanese civilians when they are not launching rockets at Israeli civilians, Siniora added, "I also thank all those who sacrifice their lives for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon."
To put it in Bush Doctrine parlance, presented with its “decision to make,” Lebanon has decided to “continue[] to harbor or support terrorism.” So, are we regarding it as a “hostile regime”? Heavens, no. After all, it’s a democracy.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:52 AM 
