A Plague of Madness

Is this the beginning of the end?

I refer, of course, to the ever-widening circle of war, murder and stupidity in the Middle East. I point no fingers, because every force actively involved in the violence seems to want to inflame the other side as far as possible. Naturally, Israel has the big guns, but that's not the problem. Unsurprisingly, the various terrorist groups who want to destroy Israel are targeting its military, but that's not the problem either (military targets being, you know, legitimate). No, the problem is that both sides seem intent on inflicting as much misery, fear and death to their foes' civilian populations as possible. This is an unprecedented escalation for both sides, but especially Israel, which (while guilty of collective punishment et. al. in the past) has always maintained at least some restraint.

It would seem to me that the wisest course of action for the United States, given our vulnerable position in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be to stay as aloof from the actual fighting as possible while trying to end the violence diplomatically. I'm genuinely, pleasantly shocked that this appears to be what the Bush administration is trying to do, though their politically idiotic statements of unconditional support for Israel aren't helping.

Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone wants to give peace a chance. While browsing the blogs, I found this highly disturbing report on the neocon attitude at Glenn Greenwald's site:

In the past, neoconservatives have danced delicately around the notion that Israel's conflicts should be viewed by the U.S. as its own conflicts. But, to his credit, Bill Kristol yesterday came right out and candidly put his views on the table. In the Weekly Standard, Kristol's column -- entitled "This is Our War" (by "Our" he means the U.S.) -- argues explicitly what many have contended for some time is an unstated belief of neoconservatives: that the U.S. should view the threats to Israel as threats to the U.S., because the enemy is the same, and should join Israel in the destruction of these enemies. Kristol actually argues that President Bush should immediately abandon the G-8 summit in Russia and fly to Jerusalem in order to stand by Israel, in "our" new war, which should be waged against Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, for starters. This article is very significant and I am quoting from it at length:

What's happening in the Middle East, then, isn't just another chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict. What's happening is an Islamist-Israeli war. You might even say this is part of the Islamist war on the West--but is India part of the West? Better to say that what's under attack is liberal democratic civilization, whose leading representative right now happens to be the United States....

Bill Kristol is one of the most influential neonconservative pundits in the country, if not the most influential, and the fact that he is openly advocating this world-view means that we will be seeing much more of it from the neoconservative precincts which led us into the invasion of Iraq.

Mr. Greenwald is measured and quite civil in his assessment of Kristol's position. My take is somewhat less measured: are they effin' nuts?!?

Let's take out the morality question for the moment; I consider both sides of the conflict equally psychotic (this does not, of course, include the majority on both sides who would rather not kill anyone), so the only moral question in my mind is how best to end the killing while being as fair as possible to everyone involved. From a purely strategic standpoint, then, I have to ask: are they effin' nuts?!?

Our military is stretched to the limit. Boots on the ground are out of the question, given we don't have enough troops in Iraq and our forces in Afghanistan are present in laughably low numbers. Providing air support is a joke -- does anyone reading this think Israel needs any help on that front? -- and will only serve to make America that much more hated in the region. So our military assistance is irrelevant for various reasons and all we could do is make our own situation (not to mention Iraq's) worse without helping Israel. What possible reason could America have for getting involved?

Hmm... could it be our own home-grown lunatics who see a chance to "make" the Second Coming happen? Obviously, none of these people have any real representation in the administration (except the increasingly irrelevant Bush), but Rove knows he has to keep them happy, and with Republican poll numbers tanking across the board, he needs a rallying point with the only real base the party has left. The horrific implications make the Iraq debacle look like a slight misstep, but when has something as inconsequential as possibly destroying the world ever stopped the Architect?

I end this post with hope: Gush Shalom, a peace organization in Israel that seems to be making more headway than I would have thought. May your G-d bless and watch over you.
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(/) Roland X
Hope is a phoenix