http://www.newsdissector.org/blog/2006/07/29/sat-war-special-day-18-bush-blinks/
BUSH APOLOGIZES, RECONSIDERS, RETREATS
WAR AIMS AND REALITIES
A ROUND-UP OF DIVERSE VOICES
There has been a seismic change in the war. It may be ending sooner than we thought. The "Green Light" has turned to yellow. These developments are just beginning to be reported.
The United States seems to have suddenly backed down and modified its policy. Bush Blinked. Condi Rice was dispatched back to the Middle East for a second visit. She arrives today and will muscle Israel tonight. She was ordered to back down on her demand for a stall in a ceasefire in the name of a so-called "sustainable settlement."
That posture suffered a humiliating rejection by the nations meeting in Rome and you can bet there has been growing behind the scenes pressure from among others the UK, Saudia Arabia, China, Russia and just about every Arab state and Muslim Nation.
No one but Israel boosters, neo cons and miitary meshuganers are supporting the bloodletting anymore.
The world is pissed and saying so.
The war to isolate Hezbollah, Hamas and ultimately set up a scenario to attack Iran has, for now, come unhinged.
The plug is being pulled. Who will be standing when the music stops?
Instead, of another great military victory, Israel has been isolated along with its main backer in Washington. Their attitude has gone from "go get 'em" to OY VEY. While John Bolton (or is it Bolthead?) regurgitates the desire that Hezbollah be "defanged," it is his Administration that has had to pull back its own not inconsiderable fangs.
OUT OF CONTROL
In this blog, I have been reporting on Israel's setbacks behind all its macho rhetoric and anti-terrorism correctness. When the world looks at the destruction of a country, the vicious retaliations, the attacks on UN peacekeepers and an ineffective military campaign with no end in sight,
a new signal has been signaled to bring down the curtain on this gang this latest 'gang that can't shoot straight' episode of more US orchestrated and backed unilateralism posing as acting in self-defense.
It is obvious that the Israeli calculation and plan, five years in the making, has come unstuck even as Tel Aviv chose to believe that the lack of support for their war last week was, in effect implicit, support.
Can you believe that "Israel interpreted the lack of consensus at the Rome conference as a "green light" to continue its bloody attacks on Lebanon."
That's called turning a negative into a positive as in: "Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon saying they received "permission" from the world at Wednesday's Rome conference to continue their operation."
www.zaman.com
Now this propaganda-speak Alice In Wonderland logic is catching up with reality. Suddenly, what was unacceptable last week is on the table now. Yes, Yoko, War is over, even as it dribbles on.
We are moving back to the age of imposed big power "diplomacy." The Washington Post reports: "Bush, Blair Seek U.N. Force In South Lebanon as Buffer." Israel, you will recall wanted nothing to do with the UN. It wanted a more politically pliable NATO prence. NATO took one look and said 'thanks but no thanks."
REPORTS ON TV
Last night CNN was praising Hezbollah as an effective military force, reporting on their new rockets, reporting on volunteers arriving from other countries, reporting on the crash of a sophisticated Israeli surveillance craft over Lebanon, of new incidents involving the killing of civilians as they flee in UN-marked caravans, on the call-up of three more Israeli divisions, on Tel Aviv's propaganda leaflets telling Lebanese to leave their homes in the South, on the pull back of more UN observers, on an unheeded UN call for a 72 hour ceasefire to help the wounded and feed the people trapped in the war zone, on Israel's attempt to set up a security perimeter, on the maze of well fortified Hezbollah mines and bunkers defending the region, on the 151 new bombing sorties on Lebanon and the 51 dead in Israel.....on the madness.
The Bang-bang footage is horrific; we are still watching the horror of a war that seems stuck in fast forward. (There was no coverage from Palestine or Iraq!) And by the way, Hezbollah was NOT hiding among civilians as charged, at least not according to Salon:
www.salon.com
The New York Times reports today: "As Israel continues its bombing campaign, environmentalists are warning of widespread and lasting damage."
Yet, at the same time, something approaching belated sanity may be breaking out. Yes, something new is happening to prove once again that war is politics by other means.
ISRAEL "STUCK"
Once again, 'you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.' Every world leader reads the Economist, that slick journal of corporate power, which backed the invasion of Iraq. Look at the headline on the cover of the new issue: "ISRAEL STUCK IN IRAQ." Turn to page12 and you read "Why This War Is Likely To Be Long Unless America Tries Harder to shorten it."
That message has now got through some very thick heads in Washington who pretended that world opinion did not matter. They are taking a second look, not because it is just or right to do so but because Israel did not achieve what it expected and promised to do with anything like the speed of the 6 day war.
We are on Day 18 with no victory in sight. No wonder the realists at the Economist say in no uncertain terms:
"Call A Stop Now, Without Conditions."
Suddenly the much ridiculed plan floated by Kofi Annan and Tony Blair is back in play. The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported yesterday:
"Bush apologizes to Blair over arms shipments to Israel via U.K.
Bush: Multinational force must be sent to Lebanon quickly; Blair: This can only work if Hezbollah agrees".
AP reported last night that Hezbollah has agreed!
"BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah politicians, while expressing reservations, have joined their critics in the government in agreeing to a peace package that includes strengthening an international force in south Lebanon and disarming the guerrillas, the government said.
THE DEAL THE US REJECTED AND ISRAEL DISMISSED IS BEING DONE
Beirut's Daily Star reported Friday: "International meeting on Lebanon force to be held at UN MONDAY"
"Potential donors to an international force in Lebanon will meet at the United Nations on Monday to start preparations, officials said. A ministerial meeting could be held at the UN headquarters later in the week to discuss a possible resolution on Lebanon, which has been the scene of bitter conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militia since July 12."
PRESSURE FROM THE MUSLIM WORLD
"Five major Muslim countries, including Iran, denounced Israel on Friday for its offensive in Lebanon, saying an immediate and unconditional cease-fire was necessary to halt the crisis.
Meanwhile, Iran insisted it was only providing "humanitarian, political and diplomatic support" for Hizbullah, arguing that Israel would have been "defeated sooner" if Tehran had given military backing to the movement.
At the end of hastily called talks in Kuala Lumpur, the foreign ministers of Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan discussed "their grave concern over the deteriorating situation and unabated violence" in Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, according to a joint statement.
"The ministers strongly condemned Israel's military actions and indiscriminate and excessive use of force," the statement said, adding that the countries also "called for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire."
The ministers also discussed a planned emergency summit of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, the world's largest Islamic political grouping, on August 3.
PUBLIC OPINION IS MOBILIZING....
And what's behind all this, and really driving it along with the military setbacks: a big shift in Arab opinion which had not been totally supportive of Hezbollah when the fighting began. At that time, many Arab governments blamed Hezbollah for starting it. They don't any more:
The New York Times reports:
..."the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.
informationclearinghouse.info
SAM GARDINER'S ANALYSIS
Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner assesses the developments:
"We've not heard much about the Arab Street for a few years. That's changing. Hezbullah is the only force that has ever been able to stand up to the Israelis. It's a proud event. We're hearing about volunteers going to Lebanon from Malaysia. Volunteers were sent off yesterday from Iran. Medical teams are being sent to Lebanon from Egypt. Al Qaeda said yesterday that this is the central battle of the war of terrorism.
"Tehran has not yet found its full policy voice. Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was in Damascus yesterday. He is an important quiet power center in Iran. I expect we'll see something come from this visit. The former Iranian President Rafsanjani sounded an important new theme. Referring to the situation in Lebanon, he said the US is seeking to control the Middle East.
In a parallel horizontal escalation, President Bush said: "Hezbollah attacked Israel. I know Hezbollah is connected to Iran. Now is the time for the world to confront this danger." You can see the parallel between this and the Gulf II argument. Terrorists attack on 9/11. There are terrorists in Iraq."
PROTEST GROWS IN ISRAEL
The Guardian reports:
"The government of the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is facing a barrage of criticism over its handling of the war in Lebanon, with questions being raised about the decision to attack Hizbullah, mounting military losses, continuing missile strikes on northern cities, and disquiet about Lebanese civilian casualties."
THE CONTEXT AND GOALS
Tania Reinhardt, an Israeli writer, brilliantly dissects the goals of Israel and the US:
"For the United States, the broader goal is to strangle the axis of Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran, which the Bush administration believes is pooling resources to change the strategic playing field in the Middle East, US officials say.
"For the US, the Middle East is a "strategic playing field", where the game is establishing full US domination. The US already controls Iraq and Afghanistan, and considers Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and a few other states as friendly cooperating regimes. "But even with this massive foothold, full US domination is still far from established.
"Iran has only been strengthened by the Iraq war and refuses to accept the decrees of the master. Throughout the Arab world, including in the "friendly regimes", there is boiling anger at the US, at the heart of which is not only the occupation of Iraq, but the brutal oppression of the Palestinians, and the US backing of Israel's policies. The new axis of the four enemies of the Bush administration (Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran) are bodies viewed by the Arab world as resisting US or Israel's rule, and standing for Arab liberation.
"From Bush's perspective, he only has two years to consolidate his vision of complete US control of the Middle East, and to do that, all seeds of resistance should be crushed in a devastating blow that will make it clear to every single Arab that obeying the master is the only way to stay alive.
"If Israel is willing to do the job and crush not only the Palestinians, but also Lebanon and Hezbollah, then the US, torn from the inside by growing resentment over Bush's wars, and perhaps unable to send new soldiers to be killed for this cause right now, will give Israel all the backing it can. As Rice announced in her visit in Jerusalem on 25 July, what is at stakes is "a new Middle East". "We will prevail," she promised Olmert.
"But Israel is not sacrificing its soldiers and citizens only to please the Bush administration. The "new Middle East" has been a dream of the ruling Israeli military circles since at least 1982, when Sharon led the country to the first Lebanon war with precisely this declared goal. Hezbollah's leaders have argued for years that its real long-term role is to protect Lebanon, whose army is too weak to do this. They have said that Israel has never given up its aspirations for Lebanon and that the only reason it pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000 is because Hezbollah's resistance has made maintaining the occupation too costly.
"Lebanon's people know what every Israeli old enough to remember knows: that, in the vision of Ben Gurion, Israel's founding leader, Israel's border should be "natural", that is, the Jordan River in the East, and the Litani River of Lebanon in the north. In 1967, Israel gained control over the Jordan River, in the occupied Palestinian land, but all its attempts to establish the Litani border have failed so far.
As I argued in Israel/Palestine, already when the Israeli army left southern Lebanon in 2000, the plans to return were ready. But, in Israel's military vision, in the next round, the land should be first "cleaned" of its residents, as Israel did when it occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967, and as it is doing now in southern Lebanon. To enable Israel's eventual realization of Ben Gurion's vision, it is necessary to establish a "friendly regime" in Lebanon, one that will collaborate in crushing any resistance.
To do this, it is necessary first to destroy the country, as in the US model of Iraq. These were precisely Sharon's declared aims in the first Lebanon war. Israel and the US believe that now conditions have ripened enough that these aims can finally be realized."
williambowles.info
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
But,we must ask, have
these plans and imperial ambitions been realized? I don't think so. They
have just been made more transparent and may now not be achievable, given the building backlash and resistance.
MEDIA STUPIDITY
Also ask yourself: how much of this analysis have you heard or seen in our media? How much of it do our simpleton politicians or pundits know or raise? The short answer is very little which is why the American public is so misinformed.
A prominent African journalist asked me yesterday, "Danny what will it take for Americans to understand what's happening in the world and how the policies pursued by their country contributes to this mess?"
Good question-complicated answer. We clearly need more global literacy education in school and a better media to keep us informed. We need to understand why people are fighting to defend their country and why policy after policy and war after war backfires.
Why is Hezbollah so popular in parts of Lebanon. Dahr Jamail sought to find out:
"'Everything In My Life Is Destroyed, So I Will Fight Them'
"I am in Hezbollah because I care," the fighter, who agreed to the interview on condition of anonymity, told me. "I care about my people, my country, and defending them from the Zionist aggression." I jotted furiously in my note pad while sitting in the back seat of his car. We were parked not far from Dahaya, the district in southern Beirut which is being bombed by Israeli warplanes as we talk."
informationclearinghouse.info
THE FACTS ARE IN DISPUTE
Are we even getting the facts? What are facts when the fog of war shrounds everything? There is an ongoing debate about the sequence of events that led to this war including
the forgotten killing of a Palestinian family which may have led to the kidnapping of an Israeli family there and then events in Lebanon.
Here's a challenge to the conventional wisdom that claims Hezbollah went into Israel to seize soldiers. (Bear in mind that the borders themselves are disputed in a region with as many maps as countries.)
"The total falsehood that may become known as the catalytic event after 9/11 that started World War Three: Hezbollah started this conflict by invading Israel and killing and kidnapping soldiers...
In reality it is the exact opposite that is the case. Israel sent troops over the Lebanese border into the South of the country and then claimed the captured invaders were "kidnap victims" and launched their attacks.
The Associated press reported this, The AFP reported this, the Hindustan Times reported this, the Bahrain News Agency reported this, The Deutsche Presse-Agency reported this, The Asia Times reported this, voltairenet reported this. in fact every foreign media outlet reported this, yet the US media reports that the exact opposite happened.
"It has also now been revealed that Israeli spy networks, long in operation in Lebanon, were on alert, scoping out targets to be destroyed four days before the two Israeli soldiers were captured in Lebanon."
I am not endorsing this totally because I thought I read comments by Hezbollah downplaying this incident as if it was a common occurrence but then admitting the soldiers were seized in Israel. I am not sure about that.
CLICHES ABOUND
HA'ARETZ Offers new words and sentences from the dictionary of war clich
