President
Bush Uncut
By Joshua Frank
20 July, 2006
Countercurrents.org
It
was a candid moment. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony
Blair were chatting over lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg
on Monday when a Russian microphone sitting in front of Bush was unknowingly
live. After almost three minutes of Bush/Blair uncut (we saw Bush eating
with his mouth open and found out he prefers Diet Coke), the focal point
of their conversation took a turn toward the Israel/Lebanon conflict.
Bush confided in Blair that
getting Syria to intervene would end the conflict immediately. "See,
the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbullah
to stop doing this shit and it's over." And how’s he going
to do that? By threatening Syria I’m sure.
Hearing Bush tell it, one
would think that the latest bloodshed in the Middle East is the result
of Hizbullah’s barbaric habits, not Israel’s. But the entire
reason Hizbullah even exists is because of Israel’s invasion of
Lebanon in 1982. As Lebanon based writer Bilal El-Amine writes in the
forthcoming print edition of Left Turn:
“An amalgam of political
party, armed resistance and social movement, Hizbullah (“Party
of God”) was born of a perfect storm that saw the convergence
of several factors in the early 1980s: 1) the long-term changes inside
the Shia community, described at length above, 2) the 1979 Islamic revolution
in Iran, and 3) the 1982 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Although
Iranian support was certainly critical to the emergence of the party,
the Israeli invasion appears to have been the decisive factor.”
Hizbullah has remained a
popular organization throughout Lebanon and much of the Middle East.
Putting resistance before radical Islamic beliefs, Hizbullah has garnered
great support from diverse sects in the region, which is quite rare
among radical Islamic movements. After fending off Israel’s invasion
of Southern Lebanon in the early 1980s, Hizbullah again grew in popularity
when Israel’s military aggression in April of 1996 resulted in
the massacre in the village of Qana where 108 innocent civilians were
mutilated.
Bush’s off-the-cuff
remark to Tony Blair in St. Petersburg deliberately ignored the deep
history of Hizbullah, which is deemed a terrorist organization by the
state of Israel and the US State Department. And lest you forgot, it
was Israel who first marched forces into Lebanon in the 1990s, not the
other way around. Hizbullah came about as a result of Israeli’s
invasion. Since then, Hizbullah has tightened their relationship with
Palestine, which likely has struck fear in the Israeli government. The
latest chapter of this saga came about when two Israeli soldiers were
captured by Hizbullah inside Israel last week. But of course only Israel
has the right to defend themselves. Israel has imprisoned thousands
of Hamas and Hizbullah members.
Unfortunately, there aren’t
any leading Democrats standing up to Bush’s unapprised diplomacy.
Senator Hillary Clinton says she’ll support “whatever steps
are necessary” for Israel to prevail. I wonder if she’ll
support another slaughter like that in Qana?
Rep. Nancy Pelosi took Clinton’s remarks a bit further, clarifying
the Democrats’ position, “The House Democratic leadership
strongly condemns the seizure of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah terrorists
operating from Lebanon ... Israel has an inherent right to defend itself,
and the United States supports our ally." Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid also chimed in, “Hezbollah must be dismantled, and
all nations have an obligation to cease any and all assistance to this
terrorist organization. Israel has a right to live in peace and security,
and the United States will stand by our ally in this difficult time."
One would expect such perverse
language from the neocons, but sadly the Democrats are just as heinous
when it comes to supporting Israel aggression. How are these clowns
going to end the war in Iraq if they continue to support hostility that
is only escalating the tension between the West and Arab countries?
If the Bush administration
and their Democratic enablers were truly serious about ending the violence
in the Middle East, the first honest step would be for the US to cut
off all funding to Israel. But I think we are more likely to see Syria
step in than for that to happen.
Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out! How Liberals
Helped Reelect George W. Bush and edits http://www.BrickBurner.org