Sunday, July 23, 2006

Condi's Diplomacy Equation: War + War = Peace

Germany's Deutche Welle reported Sunday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is entering the Middle East arena with "few friends for company," and described the United States as "increasingly estranged from European and Arab allies" over the Israel-Lebanon crisis.

On Friday, Rice said, "I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and starting shuttling around and it wouldn't have been clear what I was shuttling to do."

It's not clear what she's going to do now. European and Arab nations are increasingly calling for an immediate ceasefire, which the Bush administration is dead set against. Even our British lap dog balks at playing ball with us, criticizing both Israel's tactics and America's intransigence.

Rice won't be "shuttling," per se. In fact, the won't actually be entering the "Middle East arena." She'll be setting up a regal residence in Rome, largely because our Arab "allies" balked at hosting her visit. She's scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Monday. On Wednesday, Condi will entertain Europeans, UN officials and Arabs, all of whom are "dismayed" by the U.S. strategy. There's no word what she has planned for Tuesday. Maybe she'll go shopping for a nice pair of Italian pumps.

She won't be talking to anyone from Syria, Iran or Hezbollah. That's par for the course in Bush diplomacy, which Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) accurately described Sunday on CNN's Late Edition as "juvenile" because we refuse to talk to people we don't like.

War + War = Peace?

Rice will reject pleas for America to demand an immediate ceasefire because she says that will lead to a "false promise," one sure to foment future conflicts. This attitude sums up the false promise of the neoconservative philosophy--that war produces peace, an assertion that flies in the face of the entire history of humanity. War only produces more war. The only thing that produces peace is, um, lack of war. You'd think that having been a professor of political science at Stanford University, Condi might be aware of that tidbit of knowledge. Maybe she forgot about it, what with the busy schedule she's been keeping since she started hitting the gym every day with young Mister Bush.

Early rhetoric exhorted the Israelis to "remove" Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. One has to ask where these "removal" proponents were suggesting Hezbollah be "removed" to. Historically, removals of peoples and groups in the Middle East have only removed the problem to a different location.

The truth be told, "remove" is a politically correct euphemism for "annihilate." And it's as plain as the thousand-yard stare she exhibits whenever she talks in front of a camera that Condi's delaying strategy is designed to give the Israelis time to do just exactly that to Hezbollah.

To annihilate Hezbollah will take a heck of a lot more that a couple weeks of aerial bombing and ground combat by the Israelis. It will take killing every man, woman and child who ever is, or ever was, or might conceivably ever be a member, supporter or sympathizer of Hezbollah. And the more America and its proxies try to achieve that goal, the more members, supporters and sympathizers of Hezbollah it will create. It will also serve as a better recruiting program for al Qaeda and every other anti-western radical Islamic group than they themselves ever could have created on their own.

As Condi gads about Rome not really talking to anybody and shopping for shiny shoes, she'll be setting a course for a global genocide so massive as to make the holocaust seem like a rush hour fender bender.

As political scientists go, I'll take songwriter Randy Newman over Condi Rice every time.

I get Randy Newman's joke about dropping "the big one" on everybody. I get the sick feeling that Condi and her Dutch uncles in the Bush administration take him seriously.

Afterbrow

Bravo Zulu to the U.S. sailors and Marines who evacuated (and continue to evacuate) U.S. citizens from Lebanon. Carry the hell on, shipmates!

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Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Read his commentaries at ePluribus Media and Pen and Sword.

(This article also posted at Kos. If you have the time, please stop over there and recommend.

Thanks,

Jeff)

4 comments:

  1. This may (or may not) sound incredibly naive but as a Muslim youth I never understood why people used to say these kind of "wars/battles" would drive young muslims into the hands of so-called terrorist organisations or into violent acts of frustration/desperation. As to me there was never any excuse for violence; and Islam never ever justifies the killing of innocents.
    But the more killing and bloodshed I see happening to my brothers and sisters the more I want to go there and do something to stop it all. What, I dont know.
    The point is, I am able to judge for myself what would be acceptable or not; what about all those, Muslim or not, who see that same injustice, that same bloodshed and decide to go there, to do something. A lot of youth, especially, are sympathising with Hamas and Hezbollah over this, even if they didnt before.
    Thats scary. Not because I think Hamas or Hezbollah are wrong - but because as you have just stated, violence begets violence.
    Will it end???

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  2. I think everybody has to decide to end it.

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  3. Re Condi giving them time, Peretz went on BBC last week (Wednesday, I think) and admitted, to camera, with a smug grin of his face that Condi had delayed her trip to Friday (and actually went yesterday) to "give us time to annihilate Hezbollah".

    Much as I don't believe in End Times, I do believe in self-fulfilling prophecy.

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  4. WB,

    "No, you first."

    "No, you first."

    "No, you first."

    "No you first."

    In my experience, it takes an adult to step into this kind of thing. Too bad we're substituting Condi for an adult.

    Gridlock,

    I think there's little doubt of that.

    How's that grab you for a "hearts and minds" move?

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