Subject: Lebanon
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 17:52:43 -0400
From: Richard Partridge
To: Robert V. Keeley
Of interest.
N. P.
* * * * *
July 22, 2006
The Shame of Being an American
by Paul Craig Roberts
*G*entle reader, do you know that Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing
in southern Lebanon? Israel has ordered all the villagers to clear out.
Israel then destroys their homes and murders the fleeing villagers. That
way there is no one to come back and nothing to which to return, making
it easier for Israel to grab the territory, just as Israel has been
stealing Palestine from the Palestinians.
Do you know that one-third of the Lebanese civilians murdered by
Israel's attacks on civilian residential districts are children? That is
the report from Jan Egeland, the emergency relief coordinator for the
UN. He says it is impossible for help to reach the wounded and those
buried in rubble, because Israeli air strikes have blown up all the
bridges and roads. Considering how often (almost always) Israel misses
Hezbollah targets and hits civilian ones, one might think that Israeli
fire is being guided by US satellites and US military GPS. Don't be
surprised at US complicity. Why would the puppet be any less evil than
the puppet master?
Of course, you don't know these things, because the US print and TV
media do not report them.
Because Bush is so proud of himself, you do know that he has blocked
every effort to stop the Israeli slaughter of Lebanese civilians. Bush
has told the UN "NO." Bush has told the European Union "NO." Bush has
told the pro-American Lebanese prime minister "NO." Twice. Bush is very
proud of his firmness. He is enjoying Israel's rampage and wishes he
could do the same thing in Iraq.
Does it make you a Proud American that "your" president gave Israel the
green light to drop bombs on convoys of villagers fleeing from Israeli
shelling, on residential neighborhoods in the capital of Beirut and
throughout Lebanon, on hospitals, on power plants, on food production
and storage, on ports, on civilian airports, on bridges, on roads, on
every piece of infrastructure on which civilized life depends? Are you a
Proud American? Or are you an Israeli puppet?
On July 20, "your" House of Representatives voted 410-8 in favor of
Israel's massive war crimes in Lebanon. Not content with making every
American complicit in war crimes, "your" House of Representatives,
according to the Associated Press, also "condemns enemies of the Jewish
state."
Who are the "enemies of the Jewish state"?
They are the Palestinians whose land has been stolen by the Jewish
state, whose homes and olive groves have been destroyed by the Jewish
state, whose children have been shot down in the streets by the Jewish
state, whose women have been abused by the Jewish state. They are
Palestinians who have been walled off into ghettos, who cannot reach
their farm lands or medical care or schools, who cannot drive on roads
through Palestine that have been constructed for Israelis only. They are
Palestinians whose ancient towns have been invaded by militant Zionist
"settlers" under the protection of the Israeli army who beat and
persecute the Palestinians and drive them out of theirtowns. They are
Palestinians who cannot allow their children outside their homes because
they will be murdered by Israeli "settlers."
The Palestinians who confront Israeli evil are called "terrorists." When
Bush forced free elections on Palestine, the people voted for Hamas.
Hamas is the organization that has stood up to Israel. This means, of
course, that Hamas is evil, anti-Semitic, un-American and terrorist. The
US and Israel responded by cutting off all funds to the new government.
Democracy is permitted only if it produces the results Bush and Israel want.
Israelis never practice terror. Only those who are in Israel's way are
terrorists.
Another enemy of the Jewish state is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a militia
of Shi'ite Muslims created in 1982 when Israel first invaded Lebanon.
During this invasion the great moral Jewish state arranged for the
murder of refugees in refugee camps. The result of Israel's atrocities
was Hezbollah, which fought the Israeli Army, defeated it, and drove it
out of Lebanon. Today Hezbollah not only defends southern Lebanon but
also provides social services such as orphanages and medical care.
To cut to the chase, the enemies of the Jewish state are any Muslim
country not ruled by an American puppet friendly to Israel. Egypt,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the oil emirates have sided with Israel
against their own kind, because they are dependent either on American
money or on American protection from their own people. Sooner or later
these totally corrupt governments that do not represent the people they
rule will be overthrown. It is only a matter of time.
Indeed Bush and Israel may be hastening the process in their frantic
effort to overthrow the governments of Syria and Iran. Both governments
have more popular support than Bush has, but the White House Moron
doesn't know this. The Moron thinks Syria and Iran will be "cakewalks"
like Iraq, where ten proud divisions of the US military are tied down by
a few lightly armed insurgents.
If you are still a Proud American, consider that your pride is doing
nothing good for Israel or for America.
On July 20 when "your" House of Representatives, following "your" US
Senate, passed the resolution in support of Israel's war crimes, the
most powerful lobby in Washington, the American Israeli Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), quickly got out a press release proclaiming "The
American people overwhelming support Israel's war on terrorism and
understand that we must stand by our closest ally in this time of crisis."
The truth is that Israel created the crisis by invading a country with a
pro-American government. The truth is that the American people do not
support Israel's war crimes, as the CNN quick poll results make clear
and as was made clear by callers into C-Span.
Despite the Israeli spin on news provided by US "reporting," a majority
of Americans do not approve of Israeli atrocities against Lebanese
civilians. Hezbollah is located in southern Lebanon. If Israel is
targeting Hezbollah, why are Israeli bombs falling on northern Lebanon?
Why are they falling on Beirut? Why are they falling on civilian
airports? On schools and hospitals?
Now we arrive at the main point. When the US Senate and House of
Representatives pass resolutions in support of Israeli war crimes and
condemn those who resist Israeli aggression, the Senate and House
confirm Osama bin Laden's propaganda that America stands with Israel
against the Arab and Muslim world.
Indeed, Israel, which has one of the world's largest per capita incomes,
is the largest recipient of US foreign aid. Many believe that much of
this "aid" comes back to AIPAC, which uses it to elect "our"
representatives in Congress.
This perception is no favor to Israel, whose population is declining, as
the smart ones have seen the writing on the wall and have been leaving.
Israel is surrounded by hundreds of millions of Muslims who are being
turned into enemies of Israel by Israel's actions and inhumane policies.
The hope in the Muslim world has always been that the United States
would intervene in behalf of compromise and make Israel realize that
Israel cannot steal Palestine and turn every Palestinian into a refugee.
This has been the hope of the Arab world. This is the reason our puppets
have not been overthrown. This hope is the reason America still had some
prestige in the Arab world.
The House of Representatives resolution, bought and paid for by AIPAC
money, is the final nail in the coffin of American prestige in the
Middle East. It shows that America is, indeed, Israel's puppet, just as
Osama bin Laden says, and as a majority of Muslims believe.
With hope and diplomacy dead, henceforth America and Israel have only
tooth and claw. The vaunted Israeli army could not defeat a rag tag
militia in southern Lebanon. The vaunted US military cannot defeat a rag
tag, lightly armed insurgency drawn from a minority of the population in
Iraq, insurgents, moreover, who are mainly engaged in civil war against
the Shi'ite majority.
What will the US and its puppet master do? Both are too full of hubris
and paranoia to admit their terrible mistakes. Israel and the US will
either destroy from the air the civilian infrastructure of Lebanon,
Palestine, Syria, and Iran so that civilized life becomes impossible for
Muslims, or the US and Israel will use nuclear weapons to intimidate
Muslims into acquiescence to Israel's desires.
Muslim genocide in one form or another is the professed goal of the
neoconservatives who have total control over the Bush administration.
Neocon godfather Norman Podhoretz has called for World War IV (in neocon
thinking WW III was the Cold War) to overthrow Islam in the Middle East,
deracinate the Islamic religion and turn it into a formalized, secular
ritual.
Rumsfeld's neocon Pentagon has drafted new US war doctrine that permits
pre-emptive nuclear attack on non-nuclear states.
Neocon David Horowitz says that by slaughtering Palestinian and Lebanese
civilians, "Israel is doing the work of the rest of the civilized
world," thus equating war criminals with civilized men.
Neocon Larry Kudlow says that "Israel is doing the Lord's work" by
murdering Lebanese, a claim that should give pause to Israel's Christian
evangelical supporters. Where does the Lord Jesus say, "go forth and
murder your neighbors so that you may steal their lands"?
The complicity of the American public in these heinous crimes will damn
America for all time in history.