A Tale of Two Resolutions on LEBANON

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CALL, CALL AGAIN, CALL SOME MORE, AND KEEP

CALLING

 

CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS NOW AND DEMAND THEY

CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN LEBANON

 

TOLL-FREE NUMBERS: 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498

ACTION PAGE:

http://www.peaceteam.net/cease-fire.php

 

For a version of this piece with full annotation

links, please go to:

 

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_thepen_060721_a_tale_of_two_resolu.htm

 

No student of history can escape the parallels

between what is going on in Lebanon now and the

start of World War I. The question is, do we have

political will, and the sanity, to stop it. Those

who are not interested in history are at the mercy

of the present, so we might as well review.

 

In 1914, a relatively obscure member of the

Austro-Hungarian royal family was assassinated by a

bunch of bumbling Serbian extremists when, after

the plot had already failed, one of them was given

by fate the opportunity of an easy, close up

shot. Weapons had been provided to them by a secret

society calling itself Black Hand, some of whose

members were part of the Serbian government.

 

In response the Austro-Hungarian government

delivered to the Serbia government an ultimatum,

described by british Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey

as " the most formidable document that was ever

addressed from one state to another " . The ultimatum

was written to be unacceptable on its face, to

serve merely as a pretext for war, threatening

invasion and collective punishment on Serbia. And

even though Serbia AGREED to 9 of the 10 demands,

Austria-Hungary still declared war.

 

Because of the various mutual defense

commitments, Russia hurriedly mobilized in support of their

ally Serbia, the Germans (backing

Austria-Hungary) invaded Belgium to stage an attack on the

French, who were Russian allies, and Great Britain

declared war on Germany because of the violation of

Belgian neutrality. Thus it was, within two weeks

all of Europe was at war, though the United

States did not enter the conflict until a German

submarine sunk some of our ships in 1917.

 

[Timeout 1]

 

Now let us examine for comparison what is going

on in Lebanon today.

 

It is pointless to bicker like five year old

children about who " started " it, in a 50 year old

conflict that has never stopped smouldering. As an

immediate provocation, or excuse for one, members

of Hezbollah attacked some Israeli soldiers and

kidnapped two, taking them back to Lebanon. Other

members of Hezbollah occupy positions in the

Lebanese government, and the group has admittedly

been supported by militants in Syria and Iran. There

are strong parallels here with the Black Hand

militants of pre-World War I and their tangential

ties to the 1914 Serbian government.

 

But in response, Israel did not just THREATEN to

invade and impose collective punishment, they ARE

invading and have been bombing Lebanon for a week

already. Already over 300 people have been killed

there, mostly innocent civilians. Even more

devastating have been attacks on civilian

infrastructure. Most people in this country have no

comprehension of the scale of the destruction. They are

well on the way to leveling South Beirut already.

 

For its part Hezbollah has been firing wildly and

mostly ineffective rockets at Israel, much like

Saddam's willy-nilly anti-aircraft fire during the

first Iraq war, though an Israeli ship was hit

and damaged.

 

While this military distraction has been going

on, violence in Iraq itself has continued to

escalate, with report of militants streaming into

Baghdad as if to prepare for an even larger offensive.

 

[Timeout 2]

 

All of this has nothing to do with Hezbollah,

kidnapping, Israel, rocket attacks, self defense,

terrorism or anything else.

 

The Bush administration, who is green lighting

Israel's every action, is manipulating public

opinion at home to escalate this into a nuclear first

strike on Iran, to try to regain the dominance

lost in Iraq. Until you understand this nothing

else will make sense. And in this they have the

willing cooperation of Hezbollah and their

supporters, who believe they will win the whole game if we

do so, and they have our misadventure in Iraq to

give them confidence.

 

They are both wrong. Such a conflagration in the

Middle East will end human civilization as we

have previously known it. BOTH sides will exchange

nuclear weapons strikes. The restraint which has

kept the nuclear monster in check since 1945 will

be vaporized. Perhaps the other side will only be

able to muster dirty bombs, or perhaps a

revolution in Pakistan will put fully operational

warheads in the hands of Islamic militants at once, and

this is assuming they have not already acquired

some of the many loose nukes out there, or maybe

it will take them a while longer to acquire them.

But it will happen.

 

That is all unless we find a way to break the

cycle of revenge and insanity.

 

[Timeout 3]

 

CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS NOW AND DEMAND THEY

CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN LEBANON

 

TOLL-FREE NUMBERS: 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498

ACTION PAGE:

http://www.peaceteam.net/cease-fire.php

 

So what will the United States do? Bush

apparently believes that all he has to do is smirk his way

through the next couple weeks and he'll be back

on top as something even bigger and better than a

war president. Now he wants to be a " nuclear war

president " . He will not willingly save us. But if

we can get Congress to act there is still hope.

 

There are two resolutions before Congress. The

first, H. Res. 921, introduced by John Boehner ®

sides with Israel completely, condemns Hezbollah

only, and excuses Israel from any fault or blame

in their response to the provocation. The only

thing it doesn't do is demand Hezbollah surrender

in pink dresses. It is in essence a declaration

that the U.S. will support Israel in ANY war of

THEIR choosing, much like the kind of pacts that

precipitated the cascading declarations of war in

World War I.

 

The second, H. Con. Res. 450, introduced by

Dennis Kucinich (D) calls on both sides to immediately

end hostile actions, and to engage international

cooperation to mediate the crisis. The prime

minister of Lebanon, a democracy, is pleading for a

cease-fire. The U.N. Secretary General is

demanding a cease-fire. And only the passage of this

second resolution, and a cease-fire, can disrupt the

spin of the wheel at the hand of George Bush.

 

The testosterone-fed macho types on Fox news,

along with too many of their bar fight mentality

supporters, are all gung ho to unleash the nukes.

But let us address their primary contemptuous

argument, that you can't have a cease-fire because the

" terrorists " won't respect it.

 

At an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers

in Cairo this last Saturday, moderate Arab

governments, some publicly and some privately, were

prepared to condemn Hezbollah for the provocation.

They might be in a position to pressure Hezbollah

in various ways, but they are being undermined by

the graphic images of wanton killing and

devastation coming out of Lebanon.

 

Though not to minimize the 30 or so Israelis who

have been killed so far, most of the actual

destruction raining down is by Israel's hand. If this

continues much longer there won't be a Muslim

population in the Middle East not screaming for

Israeli blood.

 

Only a cease-fire can save Israel from itself.

They have demonstrated they can launch a military

strike any time they choose, and could presumably

with impunity resume hostilities any time they

would wish. But if moderate Arab governments start

falling like dominos to militants in their own

populations, any opportunity for diplomacy will be

lost forever.

 

CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS NOW AND DEMAND THEY

CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN LEBANON

 

TOLL-FREE NUMBERS: 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498

ACTION PAGE:

http://www.peaceteam.net/cease-fire.php

 

Please call your members of Congress in support

of the Kucinich resolution, H. Con. Res. 450. We

lose nothing by taking a step back from the brink.

Otherwise, George Bush will have his World War

III. But he still may not go down in history as the

nuclear war president, because there may not be

any more history when the nuclear fallout clears.

 

Please take action NOW, so we can win all

victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this

message to everyone else you know.

 

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" To be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to

make me everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being

can fight, and never stop fighting. " -e.e. cummings-

 

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