Condoleezza Rice - AFP Photo
Posted on 07/14/2006 12:34:19 AM PDT by familyop
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is calling on Israel to exercise restraint in its ongoing military offensive to free kidnapped Israeli soldiers. She says Syria and Iran must stop backing terrorists.
Condoleezza Rice - AFP Photo
Secretary Rice would not comment specifically on the Israeli bombing of Beirut's airport, repeating the Bush Administration stance that Israel has the right to defend itself against missile strikes launched from Lebanese territory.
But as Israel exercises that right of self defense, Rice says it is important that Israeli leaders exercise restraint and avoid civilian casualties.
Click here to see map of conflict
Rice says the Bush Administration understands that Israel is launching attacks so far inside Lebanon to prevent those who kidnapped two Israeli soldiers from moving them beyond Israel's reach.
Speaking to reporters traveling with President Bush in Germany, Rice said some countries, including Egypt, have been playing a very positive role in working to resolve the crisis by bringing parties together.
She says there is no doubt that others, namely Syria and Iran, are encouraging those responsible for the kidnappings and missile attacks on Israeli territory. "We have to remember that both the external leadership of Hamas and a number of the Hezbollah activities are carried out from the territory of Syria, and Syria needs to act responsibly and stop the use of its territory for these kinds of activities and it needs to bring all pressure on those that it is harboring to stop this and to return these soldiers and to allow this situation to deescalate," he said.
Following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Bush expressed concerns about how Israeli attacks inside Lebanon will affect the stability of the democratically-elected government in Beirut.
National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley says Israeli authorities understand the risks facing Prime Minister Faud Siniora. "We have had a number of comments and conversations about the need to try and shore-up and not destabilize the Siniora government in Lebanon. This is a good government that is trying to bring greater democracy and freedom to Lebanon. It has a lot of challenges. This is one more challenge that they do not need," he said.
Rice says the best opportunity now to deescalate the crisis is through a three-member United Nations delegation heading to the region.
Because there is no front line there, there is no army confronting the IDF, and every so called civilian on the other side, nine year old girls and ninety year old grannies including, has couple of Russian or Chineese made handguns and won't hesitate to fire them (when you show them your back, of course).
This is new... no, very old type of war, not between two nation states with all the respect to the Geneva convention. This kind of war was the only one during the biggest part of the 30 thousand years of written history, and surely for numerous millennia before that. The only way for Israel (and the West as a whole) to survive under the Islamic assault is to stop pretending that we have an army (militants?) of sorts against us as opposed to civilians. We just have an enemy. From the stone age. We need to act accordingly. Full-stop.
Kinda makes one wish for a Secretary of State who says something like, "Makes one contemplate when we firebombed Dresden!", doesn't it.
They do what they can:
This is a leaflet dropped by the Israelis that is asking civilians to stay away from Hisbollah buildings.
Anyway the innocent citizens of Lebanon deserve our prayer and support. As I said - they are the ones who have to pay the bill of Hisbollah and other scum. War is sometimes nessecary but it will stay a imperfect solution to punish terrorists due to the fact that not only the guilty are being beaten.
Correct. "Murder" is a legal term, none of which is here nor there. The poster I was replying to is apparently a turn-the-other-cheek pacifistic religious zealot who thinks the Israelis should just stand there and willingly be blown off the face of the earth by a bunch of religious zealots of a different stripe.
**SHRUG**
They can do as you say and continue to be assaulted for the next thousand years or get it over with.
That's a damn lie. I didn't say all Arabs. I said the Islamofascists. Try honing up on your reading skills before you join a forum.
Hezbollah has a large footprint in the government of Lebanon and they are entrenched in southern Lebanon. The innocent lebanese have an obligation to rid their country of terrorists just as we do. If they don't do it, and they lose control of such terrorist organizations, they should be prepared to either defend themselves by running the terrorists out (killing them from within their borders), get the hell out of the way, or stand ready to go down with them.
It would not matter one iota if the Israelis carpet-bomb or nuke the bastards. The simple fact is that about 40% of the ragheads in the ME want to blow Israel off the face of the planet, and it's been that way for fifty years. Playing nice with them doesn't work, and getting tough doesn't work. The only thing the Islamofascists understand is death and destruction, and that's the only way to deal them - wipe them out. i hope Israel hits them with everything they've got.
Since nukes and carpet bombs do not differ between Islamofascists and innocent civillians you was speaking indeed about all Arabs. I am no liar.
Depends on how quickly we can build the refineries and begin drilling our own oil as promised by the republicans, I suppose.
Hopefully this will all be done by Nov. 2006.
Americans vote with their pocketbooks. If the republican controlled government fails to deliver us oil from our own backyard, many Americans will vote democratic on this issue.
BS. "Islamofascists" is right there in my post you quoted and it's perfectly clear as to who I'm speaking of. If the innocents around the terrorists are too cowardly or too dumb to rid themselves of the terrorists or to realize they're being used as human shields, the current bombs whistling through the air and notices dropped should be their first clue to get out of the way. They've been warned. There's only so much compensation for stupidity and tacit approval Israel should be responsible for at the risk of their own lives.
Or maybe some will figure out that the obstacle to domestic drilling and developing refineries are Senate RINOs and Democrats.
lol thanks for recommendation - ordered it.
.. but you cannot turn the tide without the public opinion in a democracy - that's why you need media professionals and all that lowlife.
There's a lot of people seeing it that way - war = evil - that's an easy equation. To bad that easy equations don't always summ up to something useful.
I guess Israel takes the opportunity to not only defend but escalate this one or two steps furhter to show that they can play the mad shooter, too.
Maybe that's related to their willingness to abandon the occupied areas. Somehow they seem to make the point that they're dead serious about their borders of post WWII times.
The bill for this is paid to 50% by the wrong people - and maybe the IDFs cammand is to careless. Sure the public is often not willing to see that Hizbolah rarely succeeds in attacking any military targets - so they make civilians accountable for their crude struggle against humanity in 90% of time.
Still I think Israelis are shooting their own feet, too by having to much colateral damage. Ahmedinedjad may be pleased with what he maybe arranged - probably noone discussed his bomb program at g8.
As Bush put it - "you got to make Hizbollah stop with that shit" (stated in a moment of (obvious?) unawareness that microphones where around on G8 summit - talking to Mr. Blair.) - The true problem is Iran/Syria not Lebanon.
I hope this is contained soon and these folks have a plan to stop Hizbolahs shit.
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