there is way too much dying going on.
it's been twelve days of nonstop fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. i didn't feel confident commenting on the situation until i had studied it in some detail, but now that i have, a word is due.
by killing a bunch of israeli soldiers on routine patrol and kidnapping a few others, hezbollah has managed to pinprick arguably the world's most unstable nuclear power (or, that in the most unstable region) to the brink of a two-front war that cannot be won. first point - nice going, hezbollah. you pissed one of the most militarily powerful nations on earth, and there is a shabby fellow in office who has no military stars on his belt and who is just itching to blow shit up to prove that he's mighty when it comes to security (sound familiar america?) now israel has retaliated by destroying lebanon, a third party to this conflict that just fucking happens to be occupied by more than just Hezbollah!!!! HELLO!!!
anyway it's less than two weeks and we have several hundred civilian casualties and no goddamn end in sight. of course more people are dying in lebanon than in israel. and gosh darn it, these random, sporadic wars have done a lot of good, killing some threatening little buggers like this:
granted this is a complicated situation. hezbollah, which israel identifies as "terrorists" along with the USA, is actually a political party in lebanon with a military wing, sort of like sinn fein in ireland. the lebanese army doesn't go near southern lebanon; hezbollah is in charge down there. the lebanese government is weak and can't stand up to hezbollah, which many people view as defending their southern border from israeli occupation, which seems to happen anyway.
my take is that we need to avoid taking sides and swoop in to keep the peace. this conflict has the unruly potential to escalate to cataclysmic proportions, especially if iran is feeding Hezbollah chemical agents and Israel is revving up the engine on a nuclear warhead. all parties involved need to be drawn into multiparty talks (which never happened in the first place) to sort out a compromise. lebanon has to grow some balls and shut down hezbollah's militia so they are in compliance with international law. and somebody needs to tell john fucking bolton to dye his mustache the same colour as his hair, or not to dye it at all.
jackass -->
This post is a political tirade. Bitchin'.
