If democracy means that you cannot blame someone else for troubles caused by your own government,  then the good old USA sure as hell ain’t a democracy.  Not as long as we blame Iraq for 911 when the root cause of that catastrophe was our government’s unwavering support for the settler-state Israel over the native peoples of the Middle East. 

We’ll be a democracy only when we impeach our president and his cronies and ship them to the Hague so that they can be put on trial for their crimes against humanity.  And if at the same time we support a just peace plan with and for the people in the Middle East, we’ll not only be a democracy, we’ll have changed the world.  Nice going in advance.

I have trouble with this “piercing essay.” Infused throughout the paper are suggestions that the Bush Administration, after having altered the playing field - supposedly pushing for true democracy throughout the Middle East - is now taking a “hands off approach” and is choosing “to stand aside and let destabilization and the democratic spirit do their slow work.” Hold the phone… isn’t it the U.S. that is currently sending Israel, on an expedited basis, hi-tech weapons for use on the Lebanese. And, isn’t it the U.S. which continues to formally state that Israel is only defending itself and not using a set of brutal, disproportionate tactics? The Bush Administration’s approach is neither benign, nor is it “hands off.”

There is more to democracy than voting.

There was an OpEd column in the NY Times, July 29, regarding the ideas Baruch Spinoza introduced in the 17th Century:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/opinion/29goldstein.html

We—I mean, us ... the good old vaunted USA—have abandoned reason in our pursuit of what we ought to be, and with it our posture of a rational broker of the world’s future. We can only hope that somehow, someway we will escape from under the grinding power of concentrated wealth imprisoning us.

The “strategy” of punishing a civilian population with death and destruction in an attempt to turn them on Hamas or Hezbollah is arrogant, unethical, and will never work in a billion years.  People are innately self-determined.  No one likes being told what to do, especially under a gun. 

Forcing someone to be free is an oxymoron.  The attempt to force democracies in the Middle East will not work.  To show you how much they appreciate being forced into voting, they will promptly vote for the party you don’t like, because the act of forcing them immediatly violates the priciple of self-determinism.  Allowing someone to have the oppotunites to make these self-determined choices is a different matter, not within the range of comprehension of current world leaders.

What’s happening is Israel, Lebanon and Palestine could be chalked away into more stupidty in among governments with big guns, if these games didn’t have such a potentially catastrophic end game.

It’s too late to tolerate stupidy and arrogance.  We must get our leaders sorted out.  We need visionaries with strength and compassion and a resonable high IQ.  The conequences are too high otherwise.

All this also conveniently takes the world’s eyes away from the new “strategy” in Iraq. More than three and a half thousand new soldiers will be deployed there, several thousand who were supposed to return home have had their tours unilaterally extended (I thought they called that conscription) and several more units (two infantry in Texas and one Marine) have been told to prepare to leave for Iraq.

If I were cynical (who me?) I’d say the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon was a deliberate tactic to cover activities elsewhere.

Israel simply took advantage of the kidnapping of 2 soldiers to accomplish its real goal of weakening its enemies by its barbaric ‘collective punishment’ strategy it has used in Palestine. What we’re talking about is war crimes, with the US providing cover under the guise of promoting ‘peace talks’, while Bush and Co. spin it to rev up their Christian Conservative followers with talk of ‘end times’ and ‘WWIII’. It’s all so convienient. While Americans keep the wool pulled over their eyes with the help of corporate media taking Isreal’s side, the rest of the world is well aware of this ruse. The Israeli-American axis and their frauds are well known throughout the rest of the world…..and their reputations are already in the toilet. I don’t see how the author of the article can claim that Lebanese and Palestinian’s are going to evaluate the situation….they have already. It’s sickening to see Israeli officials claim they don’t target civilians, they didn’t target those two UN outposts and that they believe in peace. They believe is bullying and pushing everyone around until they retaliate, and then calling those fighting back ‘terrorists’. The US looks impotent as usual (where’s the roadmap to peace?) These events simply confirm and verify the paper from last spring which which showed the Israeli lobby has the US Congress terrorized to do what the pro war, militaristic Likud types want to the detriment of US strategic interests. Now I will wait for the coward’s cover/obsfuscation default response of ‘anti-semitism’

bush & condi have been encouraging israel to bomb lebanon to smithereens—it’s their idea of a negotiating card

There is nothing democratic in any effort to destroy otherness.  When members of our great three religions quit demonizing the others, we will then and only then begin walking the path of peace among Christians, Muslims and Jews. 

Hamas and Hezbollah are effective political parties largely because they work to take care of their political base.  If these two radical political parties want to be accepted among the democratic nations of the world they will have to unconditionally repudiate violence as a vehicle of change. Can they do it?

On the other side of the coin of destruction, Israel must not continue its foray into Lebanon or it risks looking as if it is waging aggressive war on an innocent population. Not good! 

Also, Mr. Bush has no credibility in the region largely because he seems never to be able to offer any type of policy that does not speak to his political base.  What the world needs is someone to step up and offer substantive redress to all parties in this international quagmire, not dillydally with legislative polemics involving flag burning and gay marriage.  Get a clue neocons!

Finally, even if Condi plays a serious number on her piano because of the violent events in the Middle East, I can’t quite get that image of Nero with glee fiddling on the hillside while the seat of “civilization” burned.

My best to the bums who have brought us the fine mess their policies have wrought.  I cannot but hope their political viability will, on the other hand, rot.

Vote the Rascals out in ‘06 and ‘08! -Kevo