Courtesy Overtaken by Events, word that the WaPo’s diplomatic correspondent Robin Wright has decided to forego the customary waiting period of at least 6 months and has already begun rewriting history to shape the coming progressivist narrative with respect to Israeli “aggression”. From the Contra Costa Times, “Militant turns beliefs into career”:
Until this eruption of violence along the Lebanese border—the most dramatic cross-border acts of war by Israel since its invasion of Lebanon in 1982—Nasrallah had largely succeeded in being both.
Asks Matt at OBE:
Wait, Hezbollah crossing the border, killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers is an act of war by Israel?
Why, of course it is, Matt. Don’t be silly. The “occupation” of “Palestine” is the cause of every single problem in the world—the blowbacker’s blowbackiest blowback.
Which is why Israel’s very existence is, in some senses, not only an act of war—but THE act of war, symbolic and symptomatic of the designs the West has on a world that would otherwise settle into a blissful utopian combination of peaceful Caliphate and European socialism.
Therefore, every overt action by Israel is, by its very nature, an act of war against humanity—at least, if you happen to buy into a certain utopian fantasy in which a new world order can be willed into its proper shape by the “right” intentions. And, when those fail—as they inevitably do—by ameliorative measures, like, oh, say, removing certain incovenient obstacles. For instance, entire “shitty little” countries.
For the greater good and whatnot.
And of course, if the US electorate would simply help out in this regard by electing the proper adepts, soon enough the world would be enjoying an enormous slice of peace pie.
Which works out well, because after hitting the mid-morning hookah, the world will have a serious case of the munchies.
****
update: (Oh. And please ignore that man behind the curtain. Who isn’t even a man but rather is just an unassuming cedar tree.)
More from Allah, whose pessimism exceeds even mine.
And why not? If Israel accepts an international peace keeping force, Hezbollah will grow stronger for surviving, Lebanon’s government will remain impotent, and Iran and Syria will be ascendent. Olmert had cover to do what needed to be done; but alas, it seems he didn’t have Bibi Netanyahu’s stones.
But who knows? Maybe they’ll be some surprises in store for us in the next 10 days.
This bears an interesting resemblance to the Rodney King case where a jury of 12 was convinced to completely ignore the evidence of their senses. You could, if you wished, write an interesting paper on the inimical effect legal rhetoric and argumentation has had on modern public discourse.
Ok, I understand… wait, let me rephrase… ‘I accept’ that the progresive movement has a large amount of anti-American sentiment in it, but why go with the anti-Israel screed? Have they run out of things to hate here? Do we need to import more hateable material just to keep our little progressives happy?
I only ask because when they muck about in international affairs it gives the US such a escapist, self centered look.
TW, weren’t all the hippies supposed to head north when GWB won the second time?
Get’s old, doesn’t it?
Almost not even worth it to fire up the old Clue Bat and pound the retards…the cranial mass of the average moonbat has thickened like the Vampires in Blade II so that they are impenetrable by usual clue-stakes and clue-bullets, but only by the grace of sweet sunshine can light their asses up.
“Then I fellated him.”
Almost like Walmart? Halliburton? Hmmm.
This is almost too much. Now my head is hurting. Sometimes I wish they would go away, but then if that happened, I would have nothing to chuckle at………
Yeah, I sensed the sexual tension too.
The problem with the warmongers is that they make shit up, like “sustainable cease-fire”. We all know what a cease-fire is and what a truce is, but the neo-con/Zionists keep using double-speak or Big-brother talk, like “sustainable cease-fire”. Peace
If the west succeeds in stifling Israel now, it had better prepare for an all-out conflagration in the future. Because it’s going to get it.
Imhotep
Are you really that stupid?
Or is the pachoulli seeping into your brain?
Imhotep: Go fuck yourself. Peace.
Muhahahahahahahahahahahha…
Imho, do you realize that by sniping at the “sustainable cease-fire” talk, you’re agreeing with Rush Limbaugh?
I have committed several outright acts of war in the last couple of weeks:
1. I have written comments on several blogs supporting Israel and condemning Hezbollah, its supporters, and its related groups.
2. I have donated money, albeit American money, to Gush Katif and similar charities for relief of Israel.
3. I have purposely sought out products “Made in Israel”, e.g., recently in need of a longer carpenter’s level, I chose one “Made in Israel” because it was of superior quality and, mostly, because it was “Made in Israel”.
4. I intend to continue warmongering activities like those above for the forseeable future, and any others which I am capable of perpetrating. I will persist in asking God to bless Israel and those who support her.
Can I please have my fatwa now? Condemnation by the Misery Spreading Media, the United Nitwits, and the Dhimmicrazy Party would be nice also, and it will look good on my Curriculum Vitae.
Evidently not, but Imhotep WANTS to agree with Hamas/Hizbollah, so he’s got that going for him…
Open bounty needed. 10 mil for Nasrallah’s head in a basket. 10 grand a head for his playmates. No questions asked.
Cheap at the price. Let’s get them bounty hunters on the job.
You’re not up on your Daily Kos and Air America. They are blaming the conflict on Israel going into palestinian territory to grab terrorists. It’s all the fault of the jooooooooooos you see, the palestinians were only responding in kind! Besides they admitted to shelling a beach full of kids!
-courtesy Air America and the Daily Kos commenters.
I’m all in favor of a sustainable cease fire, like the one America got with Germany, Japan, and Italy following WWII.
Maybe I’m stupid on this one, because I’m not seeing it on the first quote.
I don’t see that as stating Israel started the war, but merely that they are involved in cross-border acts of war. Which they are.
Tell me where I am wrong, because I’m not seeing it.
The revisionism is all over the MSM. This morning I looked at one of the headlines on my local MSM rag only to see “Anger at U.S. rises in Mideast”
(Because afterall, it is Bush’s fault and if only Kerry had been elected, this whole mess could have been avoided don’t cha’know.)
Further down we are treated to what the Columbia School of Journalism would consider stellar reporting and analysis like this, “Many are also furious with the US-backed regimes of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which have failed to denounce what is widely seen as the Israeli military’s indiscriminate killing of Lebanese civilians.”
Many? Perhaps the author, Shashank Bengali, with the McClatchy Newspapers, is referring to our leftist brethren here in this country who must be choking on their lattes over what’s happening in Lebanon.
Nevermind that many of Hezbollah’s military installations are deliberately situated in the midst of civilians precisely so that if attacked, civilian casualties would be inevitable. But hey, that doesn’t jive with the prevailing narrative that the left leaning progressive reality based community is trying to craft.
Nevermind that Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, not to mention several other states in the region have denonuced Hezbollah for it’s crossing the border into Israel, killing several Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two others, which started this mess.
Never mind that those same states are no doubt far more worried about Iranian adventurism via their Syrian and Hezzbollah proxies, than they are about Israel defending itself right now. Nah, doesn’t fit the narrative.
As disgusting as that is, what really bugs me is that I couldn’t fit Shashank Redemption in there somehow.
I get the sense that many observers want this battle to go off of script. For instance, for Olmert to tell Bush “thanks, but no thanks…..we’re going this one alone”; for Bush to drop some bunker-busters on Damascus, if not Iran; or for Hezbollah to bomb Tel Aviv so that Israel could really open a can of whoop ass on the whole fucking region. But it ain’t gonna happen, and I doubt it ever will.
This story is going perfertly to script, just like it has for eons. Very soon, there will be a cease fire, “peacekeeping” troops will come in to maintain a buffer zone on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, Hezbollah will claim victory amidst the bomb aftermath, and the puppetmasters Syria and Iran will regroup for the next time, when the script will get dusted off so everyone can begin at Act I. The icing on the cake will be that we get to endure more years of peaceniks protesting “Zionist occupiers!!!” and whatnot.
I for one wish this would go off script for once, but it won’t. This is all a very predictable dance.
I think that depends on the force and who commands it. If it’s more blue helmets, then it’s more of the same. A NATO force could well kick Hezbollah ass while relieving Israel of another occupation albatross, forcing the Lebanese to take responsibility for keeping their turf jihad free, and keeping the old stink eye pointed at Syria.
The primary question is whether the force will put up (or ally with) a Hezbollah presence.
It’d be nice if that were the one the diplonuts seem to have in mind…
With all respect, Defense Guy, I read it several times since I first saw it yesterday and haven’t been able to turn it any other way. This was a cross-border act of war by Hezbollah, not Israel.
Then again, maybe my Jew-love is blinding me to her deeper meaning.
Love of Jews or otherwise, we all know that Hezbullah started this conflict by murdering and kidnapping Israeli soldiers on their initial act of war. My point is merely that after that fact, and after Israel declared war, the language used in that snippet is correct. I don’t read that statement as a judgement that Israel started this, just that they are in fact crossing the border in acts of war. Which, again, they are. Since they are at war and all.
Again, I may just be a moron on this.
The quote labels this one of those “acts of war by Israel.” Not a declaration of war after the act of war by Hezbollah.
I think you give people too much credit if you think they all know Hezbollah started this conflict.
I even agree that it is a dead certainty that what is being discussed here is going to occur, I just don’t think that is happening based on that one quote. I do believe it will happen, and I do believe that among the left many will take it as truth.
In the meantime, when I do discuss on the left o sphere, which is rare, you can bet the fact that Hezbollah started this is among the salient facts I include. Not that it will matter, much.
In any case, I’ll let this alone. Given my now third assertion that I may be incorrect.
Last thing, because I’m stubborn.
Once you are at war, many things you do will in fact be acts of war. It’s descriptive, not judgemental.
Anybody notice this?:
Who wants to bet Hizballah doesn’t do something really stupid and lob a couple of those fancy anti-ship missles at the USN? And can you say casus belli?
tw: schools, as in, we’ll see who does it to whom.
Two things are egregiously wrong, Defense Guy, with the vanilla interpretation of this quote:
Israelis have conducted most of their campaign through the air and not ground troops. Try as I might, I can recall no one referring to air campaigns as ‘erupting along borders’ and being cross-border, mostly because it is inaccurate. Israel is bombing deep into Lebanon, not just along the borders and so localize the response is simply not accurate.
So she could be refering to Israeli commando and armored probes, but there is no mention of the kidnapped soldiers nor Hezb rockets. She mentions Israeli ‘acts of war’ alone. There is no other party to these acts of war.
Sloppy writing aside, look at the context…
Wright is not exactly bare-knuckle with Nasrallah or Hezbollah. I think that it is just her failure as a writer to enunciate properly cause and effect, BUT at no time in the article did she mention the causus belli of the cross border raid by Hezbollah, nor in her archeological survey of Hezbollah’s past did she mention the torture murder of Americans and she glossed over the Beirut bombings almost as being bloodless; 220 Marines died, 241 service men in all. Details like that matter.
But I just don’t buy it. She said what she said and she meant it. She
More from Allah, whose pessimism exceeds even mine.
If you’re feeling pessimistic, here’s a nice big glass half full of good cheer: at least Newt Gingrich is wrong when he says this is World War III.
It can’t be WWIII; France hasn’t surrendered yet.
“I think you give people too much credit if you think they all know Hezbollah started this conflict.”
– Oh they know it alright. they’ll just abdurantly refuse to aknowledge it, and move right along with the usual revisionism. By this time next month the Left will be calling this “Israel’s second war of aggression”, and forever more that’s how they will refer to it in any discussions. They’ll insist that is the case in every word, sentence, chapter, and book. In fact they’ll use this as the core of all “updated anti-Jooooooo rhetoric”.
– By re-writing the facts they can turn every “event” to a positive flow of narrative propaganda. Gird yourselves for yet a new round of Leftist/Marxist talking points, Centered around “We should be negotiating a cease fire immediately”, “Its all Bush’s fault for his weak international affairs track record”, “Clinton would have….”, “Evil Warmonger NeoCon’s in conjuction with the Zionists”, etc etc etc.
– The talking heads are all over the media, hard at it already. The Left is scared shitless this might actually turn out to be a stabilizing event in the ME in time, if things work out well for Israel and Bush, so they are going to be desperately ratcheting up the attack dogs.
Only in the pendant’s way, Defense Guy.
In Robin Wright’s article, there is no other reciprocating partner to these acts of war. That is dishonest in itself and disqualifies the innocent interpretation in accord to the rest of the puff piece.
They’re crazy, but they’re not stupid. It would be needlessly provocative. These players have no intention of drawing America into this conflict. They won’t admit it, but they’re afraid of what this administration would do to them if an attack like this went down.
On 13 July, many pundits said this war would be over in a week. After nearly 2 weeks of combat—they are saying it will be over in 10 days. The MSM pundits don’t have a clue.
Any bets that a month from now: there will not be a “peacekeeping” force, and Israel will have completed the destruction of Hezbollah?
Man, don’t leave setups like that lying around. Someone could put an eye out.
DG, just by the way, I do think your interpretation is at least plausible. I suspect it’s a subconscious thing that led RW to sorta forget he place where the rockets are coming from.
here’s what gets me…each and every arab/muslim representative uses the invective “occupation” in at least every sentence. why does nobody have the balls to question the occupation being referred to? gaza? the west bank? lebanon? the golan heights?? Because i think when pressed, we may find that they (accidentally) will tell us, in very polite conversation, that they DO in fact mean the occupation of “Palestine”.
If the good libs at CNN and MSNBC were to follow through and get that answer from said spokesperson, even they might reply “Oh, you mean you have a problem with the mere existence of Israel???”
…and perhaps then it would seep into their mushy heads that not even embryonic stem-cell research funded by Johns Kerry/Edwards could solve that intractible problem, if that in fact is the “occupation” being referred to.
Verc
I agree with you that the article lies by ommission. It’s a hit piece, not unbiased journalism. Painting Nazrollah as anything other than the terrorist he is criminal in the harm it could cause. The author should be ashamed.
Hezbollah has rightly earned the label of terrorist, and as such must be destroyed or rendered impotant to do harm to others.
DG,
The hang up is in the connotation. If the author had wnated to simply say that this was the largest military move by Israel involving Lebanon (since 1982)…they could have simply said it that way. Instead, we get “eruption of violence” rather than “Hezbollah provocations” or “Hezbollah’s attacks”, etc. The only words used assigning responsibility for any portion of this “violence” is directed toward Israel.
BECAUSE OF THE INSINUATION!
pike: Right you are.
Depends on whether the Palestinians have any say in on-the-ground tactics in Hizballahland. After all, the history of Palestinian leadership is one unending series of “don’t try this at home” teachable moments.
tw: “took”, as in the entire history of the Palestinian non-leadership.
I too doubt they’d pull that, but if they do, the left has all their talking points in a row already.
Do we have a stock rejoinder for the tired old “Israel shouldn’t exist” talking points? All I have is a frustrated head shaking.
Wright’s treatment of the leader of Hezbollah is consistent with her treatment of the leaders of Hezbollah’s chief sponsor, Iran:
More on the treatment Wright gets from Iran here.
Have a one-minute movie for Israel. It arrived in my inbox from the J-Post today.
Send NATO as a peacekeeping force? Germany?! France?! Poland?! Does anyone remember the really good record Poland has (had) with its Jews? The British?! Does anyone remember how they tried to rig this rat’s nest in the first place?
Who are you going to send? The US and the Danes, maybe.
So how come ‘God, Guns & Guts’ is supposed to be a put-down of American Rednecks?