Posted on 08/01/2006 5:15:36 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
The new Lebanon War, like much of the War on Terrorism, has a strange character. It is a war in which everyone knows the enemy's strategy, in which it is child's play to see through all of his ruses and propaganda tricks--and yet our leaders, rather than devising their own counter-strategy, fall for every ruse and play along with the enemy's game.
You hear a lot of talk these days about the "clever" Iranians and what good "chess players" they are in the contest of international diplomacy. But the Iranian strategy is, in fact, crudely transparent and obviously morally bankrupt. Everyone can grasp this--yet our leaders keep falling into the Iranian traps.
Everyone knows that Iran is using Hezbollah's war in Lebanon to distract attention from its nuclear weapons program. The Iranians were given a July 5 deadline to suspend uranium enrichment or face "serious consequences." The contemptuous Iranians declared that they wouldn't reply for another six weeks, on August 22. Then Hezbollah--a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran's Revolutionary Guards--initiated their war in Lebanon, and no one has paid attention to the Iranian nuclear program for the past three weeks. Now, finally, we are sending a new resolution to the UN Security Council--giving Iran until August 31 to agree to talks or face another months-long debate about whether we will impose sanctions against them.
The Iranian strategy to buy time is utterly transparent and not especially clever. It is simple to defeat: declare that Hezbollah's aggression against Israel is proof of Iran's evil intentions and that we don't require any further diplomatic justification to bomb Iran's nuclear sites and bring down its regime.
Instead, Western leaders fell for the Iranian strategy, and the Iranians have pretty much gotten what they wanted.
Everyone knows that Syria is using Hezbollah's war as a way of propping up its security and influence after it was forced to retreat from Lebanon in disgrace last year. By initiating a new war against Israel, the Syrians hope to appeal to the venomous hatred of Israel on the "Arab street," regaining Arab support Syria had lost by assassinating pro-independence leaders in Lebanon. By initiating the war on Lebanese soil, Syria hoped to justify its former military presence there, "proving" that the Syrian withdrawal led only to anarchy and bloodshed--proving it, that is, by causing the bloodshed. Finally, Syria's Baathist regime is using its alliance with the Islamist fanatics of Hezbollah to replace its fading secular ideology with a new, religious foundation.
Again, this is all obvious, and the answer is obvious. By bringing the war home to its Syrian sponsor, we could make it clear that initiating this war will topple the Syrian regime, rather than propping it up.
Instead, American commentators and diplomats have fallen for the Syrian strategy, declaring that this conflict makes it necessary to re-establish negotiations with Syria, offer Syria territorial concessions, and even to compete with Iran for Syria's affections.
Everyone knows that Hezbollah initiated a war with Israel in order to justify its status as a military "state within a state," billing itself as a defender of Lebanon against Israel--even while, far from defending Lebanon, Hezbollah is causing Lebanon to be torn apart. And everyone knows that Hezbollah deliberately operates among Lebanon's civilian population, cynically exploiting the resulting civilian casualties as propaganda.
This has already been ruthlessly dissected by many American and Israeli commentators. See, for example, an excellent editorial in Monday's Washington Times on Hezbollah's use of "human shields," which includes a link to photos of Hezbollah guns and missile launchers positioned in residential apartment blocks. Even better, a hard-hitting column in an Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, quotes an Israeli paratrooper who sums up Hezbollah's tactics: "They are a lousy army. They only win when they hide behind baby carriages."
Both of these articles identify the proper response: point out that Hezbollah is responsible for all civilian casualties in this war, and refuse to allow those casualties to hobble the war effort. Stop rewarding Hezbollah for using civilians as human shields.
Instead, faced with a gory new story about civilian casualties, our own Secretary of State panicked and pressured Israel to agree to a mini-cease-fire, suspending its air war for 48 hours (which Israel, thankfully, did not fully do). According to the New York Times when Condoleezza Rice heard about a new group of Lebanese civilians killed in an Israeli airstrike--with images of the corpses splashed across TV screens in Lebanon and across the Arab world--she "appeared shaken." She then immediately pushed for the Israeli cessation, while "American officials scrambled to try to counter the wrenching TV scenes of the devastation at Qana."
Secretary Rice has a reputation as an intelligent, hard-charging woman who doesn't scare easily. Over the past few months, she has blown that reputation, caving in to Iran and its European sympathizers--and now allowing herself to be panicked into appeasement by predictable images of Lebanese civilian casualties. The Iranians have not been playing a sophisticated diplomatic game--yet they have consistently outplayed Secretary Rice.
Just as obvious as the strategy of the Iranian Axis are the destructive consequences of America's diplomatic retreat in the face of Hezbollah's war.
The French government has taken advantage of Rice's abdication and stepped in to assert a leading role in the crisis--as a defender of Iran. The French foreign minister, speaking today in Beirut, hailed Iran as the potential savior of Lebanon, describing Iran as "a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region." If the French are to be part of a "multinational force" in Southern Lebanon, will they be there to disarm Hezbollah--or to protect it?
The joke going around all the blogs recently is that it's not a World War until France surrenders. But it's not really a World War until the French become collaborators.
Similarly, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who sat on the fence for the first few weeks of the war, complaining about Israel but also calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed, sensed the shift in the political winds and threw in with Hezbollah, thanking terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah for "all those who sacrifice their lives for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon.''
And remember that every charge made against the Israelis in Lebanon can be applied equally to the Americans in Iraq--which means that Secretary Rice has just given a green light for Iranian-backed firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr to emulate Hezbollah and orchestrate another uprising against the US in Iraq.
The tirades of the Angry Left to the contrary, our leaders are not stupid or incompetent. If the rest of us can figure out the Iranian strategy and see through Iran's tricks, so can they. But something is neutralizing their knowledge. Something is preventing them from turning that knowledge into corresponding action.
Part of what is crippling Western leaders is the sacrifice-worship of the altruist morality, which programs them, in response to human suffering, to suspend thinking and react emotionally. Natan Sharansky recounts a discussion he had with former president Jimmy Carter about why the Palestinian-Israeli "peace process" kept failing. Carter responded, "You know, you are right, but don't try to be too rational about these things. The moment you see people suffering, you should feel solidarity with them and try to help them without thinking too much about the reasons."
But even more insidious is a kind of cognitive altruism that tells men to sacrifice, not just their interests, but their judgment, subordinating their knowledge to the opinions and prejudices of others. That is what seems to be operating here. Whatever Secretary Rice knows about the Iranians' strategy is discarded the moment lurid images of civilian casualties are splashed across the front pages of European newspapers and the broadcasts of Arab television stations. Just as, in this self-abnegating morality, you have to consider the interests of everyone except yourself--so, in this morality of cognitive self-abnegation, you have to consider everyone's opinion except your own. Thus, faced with the united force of "world opinion," the formerly "tough-minded" Secretary of State was flustered into an ignominious surrender of American interests.
This is a strange kind of war, in which we have more than enough military capability to crush the enemy's "lousy army." Nor do we lack the intellectual power to understand and counteract the enemy's strategy. But we lack the moral confidence to use both our power and our knowledge.
But in the life-and-death struggle with totalitarian Islam, there is no room for Western self-abnegation. On the contrary, what we need is a proud, righteous self-assertion, the unapologetic pursuit of America's and Israel's vital interests, unbowed by appeals to pity or to "world opinion."
In recent months, there has been a rebellion brewing on the right in protest against the Bush administration's appeasement of Iran. Secretary Rice's recent capitulation, if it goes uncorrected, ought to be the event that brings that rebellion to the boiling point, threatening President Bush with the defection of his remaining political "base." It will be a bruising political rebellion, and it should probably require the firing of Condoleezza Rice--a crushing concession for George Bush to make--to satisfy a justified fury against the administration's recent policies.
But if our leaders won't provide an assertive American national defense on their own power, we will have to demand it of them. If they won't lead the way against our enemies, we will have to lead and force them to follow
Excellent article. Spot on. Is anybody listening????
Pay attention!!
Not only is Iran being fought by the world in Lebanon, Iran is losing. The tool used is the IDF that is currently eliminating the Iranian force present in Lebanon.
There is a very broad consensus that includes every body that matters. Iran and Syria will be severely isolated as a result of current events in Lebanon.
It looks at the Western dimension only, that we are to soft to go in hard to wipe out the terrorists even if it means higher civilian casualties.
None of these articles address a major concern out a major operation will play out on the Arab streets.
The fact is crushing Hezbollah will be an empty victory if it means new Hezbollah type movements in pro Western Arab states.
Already these states have been warning Israel and America of increasing problems from their own populations.
Iran is the key, and does need to be dealt with one of the main weapons in our armory will be a stable pro Western Iraq on Iran's borders.
We need to pour more effort in to stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq
Excellent! BTTT
BTTT
Excellent article and, sadly, summed up by the words "we lack the moral confidence". I am severly disappointed in the weak response given by Rice, is she uninformed about the staging of the incident by the terrorists? We have allowed so many destructive policies by the left and "world opinion" to damage our Country that I wonder if the politicians in Washington are trying to destroy America?
He is so right about all of this.
The Western world is afraid. They have been "wussified" by Marxist regimes and the media within their own countries. They are more concerned about what the Arab street will say then what is right.
IMHO, Radical Islam is a tool being used by the Communists to eradicate western culture and democracy. When we talk about good and evil, we really mean individual liberty versus the state. There is a two pronged effort to destroy us. The first is with Radical Islam. The second is by destroying from within Judeo/Christian values. Go back to 1963. I posted the "Current Communist Goals" for review.
There needs to be a reversal of what is happening to us. We, as a nation of Judeo/Christian values needs to stand up to the left and to let Americans know that the final battle is fast arriving and by putting our heads in the sand will only result in our defeat.
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS:
U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushehev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free election under supervision of the U.N.
Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
Allow all soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
Do away with all loyalty oaths.
Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
Get control of schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers, associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
Gain control of all student newspapers.
Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness,repulsive, meaningless art."
Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity, as "normal, natural, healthy."
Infiltrate the churches and replace repealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture-education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition: that students and special interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
Internationalize the Panama Canal.
The same logic applies to the Syrians.
The United States could end the conflict in Lebanon right now, and pretty much secure Israel's borders for at least a decade, if we find the guts to take out every single target of Military significance in Syria. The President has already said that "Syria must be held to account"; just what in hell are we waiting for??
The best help we could provide the Israelis?? Around the clock B-2 strikes, with cruise missiles to fill in the gaps in the air coverage, until every single significant military capability inside Syria is reduced to a smoking hole. We don't need ground troops, because we have decades of satellite pictures of everything the Syrians ever had or wanted.
If we unilaterally disarm Bashar Asssad, he won't last 24 hours. If his regime collapses, then the Iranians have absolutely no way to get arms into Lebanon, and Hezbollah will collapse as well. I figure the only people who defend anything in Syria is either an idiot, or a fascist Baath Party member, so fire at will.
This is why - as of today - The West is in serious danger of losing the War with Islam.
I mean that in all seriousness. It won't happen in our lifetimes, at least here in North America. It probably _will_ happen for Western Europe during the lifetimes of the children living today.
The West has "the power" to win. By "power", I mean well-equipped armies (though not currently "well-manned" enough to put enough boots on the ground to win - that cannot happen with out widespread conscription of most able-bodied males of the Western World). We have field weapons blatantly superior to those of the Islamics. And, last but not least, we have the power of nuclear weapons (although Islam now has the bomb, read: Pakistan).
But, we lack the will to win, with all that that implies.
What IS "the will to win"?
The West - particularly Western Europe - seems to have lost or forgotten ANY sense of it's cultural superiority, its national identity (read: European Union), its [well, yes, I'm going to say it] moral superiority over the other, inferior cultures of the earth, Islam in particular.
Even though I was a few years from being born back in 1945, I daresay that after the bombing of Hiroshima was first publicly announced, that many (if not most) Americans rejoiced that we now had a weapon capable of crushing the Japanese (and saving the lives of American soldiers in the process). And the same response after Nagasaki: defeat them, totally!
I also daresay that - at the time - few Americans agonized over the loss of more than one hundred thousand civilians. Plainly stated, they were THE ENEMY, and anything we could do to damage them and force their surrender was OK with most folks.
Yet look at The West's response to the Israeli strike against Hamas a couple of days' back that resulted in some civilian deaths. For that matter, look at _American_ wrist-wringing.
This is the reaction of a culture that wants to win?
Our enemies harbor no such pangs of grief when they attack us. They are in this for something called "victory", and they are prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.
So long as The West is unwilling to respond in kind, it is in danger.
- John
Just a few. Two groups. One is on FR, the other is in office and has to deal with this and everything else. The rest, the 98%, are planning their next weekend.
Now watch: I expect a Lebanese Israeli alliance against Hezbollah.
Syria is between US forces in Iraq and Israel.
Iran is between Nato forces in Afghanistan and US forces in Iraq.
Both are feeling like the meat in the sandwich. Syria has the chinless ophthomologist. Iran has Amanutjob as president.
Now don't get me wrong, some of the buggers will go down fighting. Syria is run by a Shiite (alawite) minority that can barely keep their own Sunni population under control.
The whole reason for the Shiite branch of Islam is a crooked Caliph was assassinated for corruption. The Shiites felt that murder was justified to restore virtue to the Government. That is taught to the little Shiites beginning at birth. It would be hard think of a culture less amenable to bullying by a corrupt government.
I believe this would significantly improve our strategic position in the War on Terror.
We should destroy the Iranian oil industry. By Bombing all oil transportation facilities, pipelines, storage tanks, tanker trucks, rolling stock, refinery’s etc… we can cripple the funding of numerous terrorist organizations, Hezbollah, Hama’s, Sadr’s militia, Syria, as well as make it more difficult for Iran to buy missiles and such from North Korea, China, and Russia.
It would remove Iran’s threat that if we attack they will shut off the oil. Making the threat ridiculous and demonstrating that they are a single product state and without oil, and no other product that the world wants, they are nothing. Additionally, by declaring that we will destroy any reconstituting oil industry as long as the Mullacracy remains in charge, we can focus the Iranian’s blame for the situation, on the Theocracy and their support of Terrorism.
This will also bring home to all the other oil producing countries like Venezuela, Libya, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, etc… that they are very vulnerable to the same tactic.
In addition, this will gain us time for the Iraqi’s to stand on their own, and free up troops we would need if we have to go into Iran, North Korea or somewhere else.
Sure the price of gas will rise, but this will also demonstrate to the world that the USA is not in Iraq for the Oil, and the onus can be shifted on to the Democrats for not allowing more domestic production.
“It’s not the control of the spice but the power to destroy the spice that is the real power.”
It has recently been said that the nuclear production facilities in Iran are so deep underground that we can’t reach them with conventional weapons. Perhaps so, but maybe we can starve those facilities of funds. Nuclear weapons are terribly expensive to build, and if Iran now needs all its money to repair vital life supporting infrastructure, it may have to slow or stop its attempt to build an atomic bomb.
Finally, Iran is a state sponsor of Terrorists, it must be punished, and it must be seen to be punished. Iran’s continued sponsorship of terror is a slap in America’s and President Bush’s face, and it must be answered.
The following was written in response to an objection I received about having to pay more for fuel if this strategy was followed.
I think you are overly concerned about the economic considerations, and not concerned enough about the need to prosecute the War on Terror to the utmost.
1. The US has a full Strategic Petroleum Reserve of 700 million Barrels, and we aren't the only nation with an SPR. What good is it if you never use it? The average price paid on that 700 million barrels was $27, so the nation would actually make a profit selling it now.
2. The only reason the US isn't energy independent now is because of political factors. 2 Trillion Barrels of oil in oil shale (see www.oiltechinc.com). Any organic matter can be turned into fuel (see www.powerenergy.com). The US would and should be using much more Nuclear power if it wasn't for the Ecofreaks. There are also many areas in the US that are now off limits to drilling. All it takes is the political will to develop all of these. Higher fuel prices will provide that political pressure.
3. Iran is using diplomatic processes, just like the Nazi's before them. Talking is a waste of our time.
4. Iran subsidizes gas at $.10 a gallon, so by destroying the Iranian oil industry not only do we instantly remove 20% of their GDP. We put them all on foot, and in the dark.
5. The mullahs want to take their world back to the 7th century, we should assist them.
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