miditek wrote:I believe that the bulk of most governments are hostile to Israel- they are not winning any popularity contests, but that is not their plan.
Well, feel free to believe what you will. I subscribe to one of the larger Finnish newspapers, and I'm always stricken by how only bad news about my culturally distinct home region ends up being reported. Of course, it might just be my own predisposition.
I would be very interested in knowing what the plan is, though, as I don't see how this ultimately will benefit Israel, or indeed anyone. Well, stock holders in weapons manufacturers I suppose, they must be really happy right now!
As I posted just a little while ago, I was raised to believe that Armageddon will happen. The Muslims also believe that it will happen as well.
I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about people who genuinely want and look forward to a grand conflict like it's a videogame or a summer blockbuster. To them it's not even a holy war fueled by some peculiar interpretation of religious texts, it's just fun! Warmongers, if you will. Sometimes I'm not even sure if there's some sort of objective behind this war of theirs, it seems to be war for war's sake. I would advise such people to get back to their Playstations, but I fear that's where they picked up their bloodlust in the first place.
I don't think that it will happen immediately, i.e., in Lebanon or due to Lebanon. But I do believe that this is setting the stage, so to speak. But for some very specific reasons, I do believe that it will come.
Well, you're certainly entitled to your beliefs, and humankind will certainly, at some point, end. I just don't think fatalism is a good basis for sound government policy decisions.
Well, when we see "Death to America" and "Death to Israel", and "Death to UK", and "Death to Denmark", and "Europe Your Are Next" posters throughout the Muslim world (as well as protests in the West), one does have to wonder? American, Israeli, and other flags and politial effigies burned daily.
Yeah, my point exactly! When reasonable people with legitimate criticism gets lumped in with the "Death to America"-crowd, simply because one disagrees with them, that's a very bad sign indeed. People have done a lot of very bad things in the cloak of überpatriotism; definitely ground one should thread carefully on!
Terror attacks worldwide, with increasing frequency and ferocity. Daily beheading and bombings, and more on the way.
Well, so much for winning the war on terror then, eh?
The EU still has yet to label Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
I dunno, perhaps trying to encourage the non-militant faction to become more influental? Well, that's moot now though, as there's probably nothing left of the non-militant faction. Probably just as well; it's easier if they're all classified as terrorists.
Also, on 8/1/2006 the French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy speaking to a group in Beirut said this about Iran:
"a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region."
What was that all about? You cannot negotiate with people like that. There is a lot more going on behind the scenes that most folks could possibly imagine. Lebanon is a smoke screen for other, much more horrible things to come.
Well, Douste-Blazy, Sarkozy, de Villepin and Chirac are incompetent fools, and if there's a God Sarkozy will go down in flames in next year's election, but I digress.
For the record, that statement of mine above is what some people would call an "anti-French" statement, but which in reality is a critique of the French government. Just for future reference, I know there's a lot of people who're confused by the notion that critiquing the actions of a government is in no way an indication of some sort of deep held hatred for the nation and its people. No, if I were to make an anti-French statement, it would go more like this: "The French are cheeze-eating surrender monkeys!" And even then, chances are I was making some silly joke or just quoting the Simpsons.
Not saying that's something going on in here, but it has in the past and it's just plain annoying and not particularly constructive at all. A pet-peeve of mine, really.
All that said, Douste-Blazy's statement above is what we in the biz generally refer to as "sucking up." I have no idea if it will do any good, but hey, the French practically invented diplomacy, if they can't fix this, no one can!
On a more general note, and perhaps somewhat irrelevant to the discussion at hand, I don't understand why people seeking peace through peaceful means are to be ridiculed and made fun of, called names even, as if avoiding war was somehow something cowardly and not worth striving for. As if people seeking peace are pot smoking hippies too naïve and without enough knowledge of the world around them to make the right decisions.
I don't understand why people would actively look for war, as if war was an act of nobility rather than one of desperate neccessity. I would except that from Jihadists, sure, but I wouldn't except it from people who are supposedly more level-headed, particularly not from people with at least a rudimentary appreciation of all the lives that have been lost to the ravages of war. I don't get it. If people really are that prone to savage thuggery, then clearly mankind is lost, and we should get started on that World War III pronto and end our miserable existance once and for all.
Oh, also, one thing rather pertinent to the current discussion. "1+ billion Muslims whose goal in life if the elimination of Israel and the West" is a rather unfortunate formulation, I feel. It's strikes me as a bit bigoted, like saying all Catholics are paedophiles or all Evangelicals kill abortion doctors on their spare time. I'd urge you to consider revising that statement.
Moreover, if Hezbollah is still launching rockets, that's because they are not brave at all, hiding themselves among innocents families, using children and women as human shields and israeli army doesn't want to kill innocent people as islamists always do.
