(NOTE: This column No. 14 is the logical crux of my disagreement with Sean Hannity in this series. It explains that, since terrorism cannot be subdued by overwhelming military force, the "War on Terrorism" is unjust, illogical and defies common sense. Recognizing and addressing the popular grievances that fuel and encourage terrorist crimes--in other words, getting to the heart of the matter--is necessary for a genuine eradication of terrorism.)

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as the Independent Bloggers Alliance and the Peace Tree.

Trying to make sense of tribal politics in the Middle East can't be done with simple bumper sticker slogans. The history, entangling relationships, religious dimension, shifting alliances, geography and multiple cultures are a Byzantine maze of complexity. Specifically, the Muslim world is often regarded by people in the west, especially Americans, as a large bowl of alphabet soup. As a result, policy makers who look for quick and easy fixes by force in the region overreach and miscalculate.

One tragic example of miscalculation and overreach is Lebanon. Once regarded as the "jewel" of the Middle East, Lebanon endured a brutal civil from 1975 to 1990. Surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Syria and Israel, this small country the size of Connecticut has flummoxed leaders in Jerusalem and Washington for two decades.

Global warming and Israel are two of my most important issues. I am an American Jew who was raised with the question, "Is it good for Israel," though we also were none too keen on the right wingers in Israel and the first invasion of Lebanon. I am an avid history buff, including, but not exclusively, Jewish history. Much of my historical reading leads me to the conclusion that my survival and my son's survival are improved significantly by the existance of Israel. That is important to me. But I also recognize that much of what I feel about Israel can apply to Palestine as well. I have written about this in the past and will not review it here. That is not my purpose.

ALL of us are faced with global warming. This will cut across all borders, all divisions, all people. We must all address it. United we have a chance. Excessively divided, we will find ourselves screwed by our own stupidity. THAT is what I am writing about: a more united approach to dealing with economic and environmental problems, with the ancient/modern land of Canaan as my focus.

There's something about Bush declaring a smackdown of Hezbollah that reminds me of the Pharoah Ramses II and his truthiness version of the battle of Qadesh. In 1273, Ramses declared victory over the Hittites despite massive Egyptian casualties and the loss of Syria. Lo and behold, as Bush does his hamster dance of hegemony, here comes Hezbollah's announcement of historic, strategic victory.

In another example of the idiocy of using air war against targets mixed in a civilian population, Israel has announced a policy of bombing everything that moves.  

The Israeli military stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah militants in an area of southern Lebanon on Tuesday, dropping leaflets that warned people not to drive or their vehicles would be shelled.

Dateline, August 5, Baghdad:

200,000 flood the streets, shouting their backing for Hezbollah in downtown Baghdad.  Now Israel and the United States are being denounced in Iraq, while the U.S. has forced taxpayers to fund the Republican Administration's colossal, deadly civil war debacle.

It would seem as if every choice George Bush makes, every political decision, is the wrong one.  If he resigned today he no doubt would still go down in history as the worst White House resident in the history of the U.S.A.

I refer to George as the "White House Resident" as there is every reason to believe that Bush never legitimately won either presidential race.  The first time around the Supreme Court gifted the presidency to him.  

AFP/File/Nicholas Asfouri

A crime of immense proportions that will now see more blowback. That is, unless people of conscience stand up to this terrorism on all sides, and soon.

Doctors Without Borders In Southern Lebanon

July 25, 2006

Christopher Stokes, MSF Director of Operations:

Relief materials needed in south Lebanon, but supplying is almost impossible

Listen to full report [mp3 - Running time 3:06]

Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Director of Operations, Christopher Stokes, describes over the phone from Beirut what he has seen traveling to the south of Lebanon and back.

When an unplanned event happens once, it can rightly be considered an accident.

56 Die in "Mistake" at Qana.

Mistake kills Four UN Observers.

Fleeing Civilians Hit by Mistake.

US Bomb Hits Wrong House by Mistake.

US Bombs Wedding Party by Mistake.

Bombing Mistake takes 14 lives.

US Bomb Kills Adghan Civilians by Mistake.

US Bombs Journalists by Mistake.

Canadian Soldiers Bombed by Mistake.

US Bombing Mistake Kills Afghan Civilians.

To paraphrase Ian Fleming, once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, but when you kill the wrong people over, and over, and over, that's depraved indifference.  And it's time for it to end.

From the White House press briefing July 27:

Q In terms of world opinion, you keep saying the "what if" game, if it seems as though the strategy is to isolate Hezbollah. Is there a risk with the United States and Israel gets isolated in terms of world opinion by not saying, let's cut the shooting now, cut the rockets now, and work it out? I hear what you're saying about --

MR. SNOW: Let me counterpose.  &nb; sp; There's an even greater danger that if the U.S. looks ineffective in doing this, that you not only have a loss in terms of world opinion, but credibility.  And you cannot -- we've said it many times, you cannot run foreign policy on the basis of public opinion polls.    Quite often there are perceptions that people may get from fractional coverage of the situation that don't expose the real realities on the ground.    We are in very constant consultation with people in the region to try to find out exactly what the facts are.

The AP reports:

"Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an 'anti-Semite' for failing to denounce Hezbollah for its attacks against Israel. ... 'The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite,' the Democratic leader told a gathering of business leaders in Florida. 'We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion dollars bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah.'"

As the Washington Post reports, Maliki "declined to disavow his critical comments on Israel's incursion into Lebanon or denounce Hezbollah's killing and kidnapping of Israeli troops that precipitated the fighting, handing Democrats a wedge that they eagerly used." In addition, President Bush's "promise to fortify troop presence in Baghdad virtually foreclosed major troop withdrawals before November's midterm election."

The strangest thing happened while I was on BART (the San Francisco commuter train) on Friday. The girl standing next to me, who had been complaining loudly about the over-crowded train, spit at the people standing on the platform right before the door closed. Her friends immediately started doing a victory dance, singing "Boo-boo-be-doo - we spit on you!"

The fact that all these kids immediately knew how to celebrate the spitting on random commuters made me wonder if this is part of an evolving subculture. It's probably not that far a leap from spitting to the pyrotechnic subculture. Random violence seems to be bubbling up from the ground. Yet because it's happening in a familiar setting, we're striving for labels other than "terrorism". Our children aren't terrorists. They're just confused by hormones. Only "other people" are terrorists.

Thirty-six years ago, Peter Arnett interviewed an anonymous US officer in Vietnam who provided the famous quote "we had to destroy the village in order to save it," after an artillery barrage that laid waste to a tiny hamlet.  That quote served as another illustration of just how misguided American policy had become in Southeast Asia.

Now -- three years after Arnett was fired from his positions at NBC, MSNBC, and even National Geographic for daring to give his honest opinion about the nascent war -- the same America that was once shocked by the words of that anonymous soldier, has adopted those words as the core of our foreign policy.  We've accepted the idea that it's perfectly fine to destroy a village, a city, a nation, or a region.  We've institutionalized the concept that peace can only be achieved through absolute obliteration of those who oppose us.

When Bush says "stay the course," what he really means is "let it burn."

Yesterday, while I was standing in line in the post office, people who had never previously met were arguing passionately about the slaughter in Lebanon. It reminded me of 9/11, except the conversation had flipped over somehow. On 9/11, the Muslim family that owns the corner grocery was practicing community diplomacy, handing out free sodas and assuring nervous neighbors that terrorism wasn't part of their culture. Yesterday, non-Muslims were promising their Muslim neighbors that the U.S. doesn't support the murder of civilians.