(no subject)

[somedaybitch]

Lebanon as Human Shield

i'm fascinated by how many people are believing that this is simply a prisoner swap "gone wrong".

norm geras has an interesting post with quotes from several pieces here. he quotes lot of folks with lots of sensible stuff to say.

i particularly like this bit quoted from Julie Flint:

Few Lebanese accept Hezbollah's claim that its intent was to barter the release of the handful of Lebanese still held in Israeli jails. They blame Hezbollah for plunging Lebanon back into war, without consulting a government of which it is now part, for reasons that have nothing to do with Lebanon: the need, imposed by its own raison d'etre, to show solidarity with suffering Gaza and, more reprehensibly, the desire of its Iranian and Syrian sponsors to show that they are regional powers indispensable to peace.

But there is fury, too, towards Israel, whose wildly disproportionate use of force risks economic collapse in a country where the national debt is twice the national income and possibly, in a worst-case scenario, new civil war as positions polarize around Hezbollah.

and this bit from Eric Lee:

No one doubts that Israel has a right to respond to the capture of two of its soldiers by the Hizbollah militia last week. That capture was effected during a raid that violated an internationally recognised frontier. Israeli forces defending their own national border sustained casualties. By any standards, that is an act of war.

In addition, the civilian population of northern Israel has been subjected to intermittent, random bombardment by Hizbollah rockets for years. This too is illegal and unacceptable and, even if casualties are limited, should be recognised as such by the international community.
.....
The tragedy of the current crisis is that the Israeli response to Hizbollah's aggression has displayed a disregard for civilian casualties that has played directly into the hands of all those in the region who stand to benefit from conflict.

it's win/win for Hezbollah either way.

eta: this is almost funny.

An anguished leader in The Daily Star puts its hope in America:

"We are holding out hope that the Americans will be faithful to the values that they have championed and protect us from further harm."

well, we would, but given that we're still being called unilateral, demonic, hegemonic, imperialist bastards for Iraq, i can't see it happening any time soon. otoh, if we don't get any oil from Lebanon or Syria or Iran or Israel, then maybe the world wouldn't crucify us if we stepped in.

or maybe the UN will do something decisive. *coughbullshitcough*


h/t to Instapundit