Hooray for World War III

Hooray for World War III ~ Chris Pirillo

A couple of tech bloggers who I admire and follow, Chris Pirillo and Dave Winer, have blogged a bit about the current war between Hezbollah and Israel. Two totally differnt tones, but both point up the utter hoplessness of the situation. As people die, innocent or no, in this latest Hatfields and McCoys fracas, (I

mentioning Lebanon

Hooray for World War III ~ Chris Pirillo

Wow!

Lot’s of links to your blog!

Both sides have been capturing each others soldiers for years too, that’s nothing new.

Yes, we are looking into the abyss.

I’m an antiwar organizer. When nonpolitical blogs this this one starting mentioning Lebanon, then the whole world is watching. And hoping it doesn’t spiral into a regional war or worse…

Chris,

2 things amazes me about the video.

First and foremost the courage of the lady who speaks out so openly, so bravely. I wouldn’t do that thinking when a sharia will passed to behead me…you never know.

Secondly, this was telecasted in an Arab network. How was that possible?

I don’t think myself that any religion says that you should respect other faiths. That I reckon will never be the case. What any human needs to realise that he is a human first before a member of any religion and need to respect other humans for who they are.

Thank you for that video, this whole thing just keeps me thinking about that movei, The Kingdom of Heaven and the ending.

As I get older, I spend more and more time saying “Just stop it. You’re being stupid. Just stop it.”. Mostly at politicians where it goes further, “Just leave me alone. I don’t want protecting, saving, or whatever. just back off and leave me alone.”. But especially at localised war zones that are stuck in a spiral of “you killed my father”, “yes but you killed my cousin”, “yes but you killed my uncle”. N Ireland, Kosovo, the Kurds, Basques, Iraq, Afghanistan all come to mind. Just stop it guys, it’s stupid.

And then we get to Israel. they’ve been in a precarious situation since they started. They only have one strategy to survive which is rapid escalation. Hit me with a stick, I’ll blow your house up. Much as I hate it, I find this inevitable. And I’m deeply embarrassed about the UK’s past in drawing ink on paper that lead us here. And deeply embarrassed about the UK’s and USA’s response which seems designed purely to perpetuate a bad situation.

But really. It’s time to just stop. The only route to long term peace is economic interdependence and these disputes are bad for business and hence bad for long term peace. Just stop it guys. It’s stupid.

There’s a very good video on the whole misrepresentation of the Israeli-Palestinian (which obviously extends to Hezbollah) thing called Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land. It is extremely insightful and is well worth investing time in watching. Especially if you get your news from a US MSM source.

It is available here on google video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7828123714384920696

My thoughts on it here.

-dg

Come on Chris! Everyone knows that if we sent bombs to each other, the aliens would just shoot them down. Why do you think they shut down Cheyenne Mountain? :)

I agree with the idea of peace and it should end on both sides. But funny thing, when Israeli’s kill civilians it’s because of Hezbollah putting rocket sites or bases near civilians and getting collaratal damage. Hezbollah is aiming AT civilians in Israel. There is something to be said about tactics.

Unfortunately, your friend Dave has misinformation. Hezbollah started the war by launching missiles into Israel. Israel then tried to speak with the Lebanese government about getting Hezbollah to stop attacking. Lebanon did not or could not do anything. The missiles kept falling into Israel, so Israel was forced to defend herself. Thomas is right, and Hezbollah has violated international law by placing dangerous weapons directly in civilian zones. Their plan worked. Hezbollah has more use for dead Lebanese civilians than life ones. Hezbollah family members, of course, have all been evacuated from the area. Israeli pilots fly over Lebanon before an air strike to warn civilians, but Hezbollah refuses to help civilians because the numbers are too impressive and do a great job of garnering sympathy. We should all open our eyes to what is going on here.

The occupied territories are used by Israel as buffer zones to secure Israel. What can a country do when all its neighbors wants to annihilate them and remove them off the map because that is what their religion and leader wants them to do? Violence begets violence, vicious cycle eh, it’s easy to say that this is wrong or they are wrong, but as long there is hate, there is no solution. Stop the hate, stop the violence.

No NO!

You’ve completely lost the whole concept!

We have to blow up EVERYBODY. It ’s the only democratic way to ensure freedom! You can’t have real freedom unless no-one is left to enslave. Let’s all pave the way for Mutually Assured Self-Destruction!

Now, I don’t have an eye-witness handy, but if someone started lobbing rockets my way, I’d be more than a little inclined to try to do something about it. Probably to the point where the guys doing the amateur rocketry weren’t in any shape to continue doing it. For a LOOOONG time.

But that’s just me. Dodging rockets before breakfast makes me testy. Must be old age coming on.

p.s. I really do feel sorry for the “innocent civilians”, if there are any. Based on the interviews I saw on the news last night, I think they may be hard to find. As an aside, it makes me wonder about the average IQ in that region. The Lebanese KNOW that Israel is punding their butts into the sand because of Hezbollah, but they continue to support them openly. If one of my friends was aggravating MY neighbors to the point of doing that, I’d think twice about my choice of friends. Again, that just doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone there.

And their government isn’t helping matters. Sitting there saying ‘Oh, yes, we are against Hezbollah’ and doing nothing about the situation. Of course they may not be ABLE to do anything, which is sad.

I do feel sorry for the younger kids, who aren’t there out of choice. I don’t think they’re old enough to hold an informed opinion on matters.

All the posters/postees should read the book:Paris 1919 by Margaret (I think) Mc or MacMillan. After World War I, the powers that be met in Versailles to carve up what was left of the Ottoman empire, and the Brits, with their usual flair, assigned the same land to 2 groups of people. A bit of background: Chaim Weitzman was a terrific chemist who was able to create a version of acetone (which was used in military ordnance) and in effect, saved Britain’s you-know-what in the war. What he wanted as a reward was a homeland for the Jews. Anyway, the chapter in Paris 1919 that deals with these events is a “must read”. The book is available in paperback. Also, books by Benny Morris, a “revisionist” Israeli historian, who used to be pro-Palestinian and who has recanted this view in his most recent works. Unfortunately, the Arab world has never given up its mantra that Israel should be eliminated, driven into the sea. And nobody mentions that along with the Palestinian refugees, the Arab countries expelled all their Jewish residents and Israel took them in. Should the expellees from Morocco, Iran, Iraq et al be given the right of return? Nothing is exactly as it seems in this situation.

You have rigth solution! Basically. Good thing is that we are not able to finish it completly because war eats itself.

For more information about this idea read Edward N. Luttwak “Strategy. The Logic of War and Peace”.