Both Hamas and the Israeli government bear some of the blame, but the Israeli slaughter of civilians far exceeds that inflicted by the ragtag rockets fired from Gaza.
The craven response by the American political class to the use of American planes and weapons to slaughter civilians is what any reasonable cynic should have expected. Obama is maintaining his silence – perhaps because there is little hay to be made from victims outside of Darfur.
This conflict may be even more ludicrous than the typical Mideast carnage. The New York Times, in a front page story headlined, “Israel Reminds Foe It Has Teeth,” noted, “Israel’s military operation in Gaza aims to expunge the ghost of its flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli deterrence.”
“Teeth”?
Blasting the hell out of an overcrowded prison-like slab of land that has no anti-aircraft defenses? This is the New Macho??
Whom does Israel think that this will deter? Other groups of hungry and discontent convicts throughout Eurasia?
For Israel to “flaunt its strength” by using airstrikes against Gaza would be like the Bush administration seeking to regain its military swagger after Iraq by having the U.S. Air Force blast the hell out of a few Indian reservations in Arizona.
“Blasting the hell out of an overcrowded prison-like slab of land that has no anti-aircraft defenses? This is the New Macho??”
Of course it is. You don’t want them (or Americans) to actually have to fight somebody who might shoot back, do you? Good Guys™ could get killed doing that! It’s much safer to kick the snot out of crappy little countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Belgium, and so on than it is to take on the varsity!
So. How long have you hated America? 😀
Well, judge, I admit – it’s been a long time since I recited the 12 Boy Scout laws about being loyal and obedient.
There is “hating America” and then there is hating this thing that likes to say it is America while acting like a mongrel of all the worst and most ineptly run empires in history. The type that were on top for a couple generations and so lost the burn in its gut and thought it could beat the grim reaper with printed money and mercenaries. This is the imposter we hate now….the real America still exists but somebody has it duct taped in the basement of some abandoned factory out by the abandoned train tracks….to far from any Target Store for anybody to notice.
Nice job on comparing the Gazan farrago with the Injuns……the difference here is that the numbers game was over for the American Indian and in the Palestinian Territories as well as Israel, the numbers game is now over for the Israelis. Watch as their media pit bulls ratchet up their rhetoric as the Israelis burn down the Middle East to prove the Old Testament was right and that the little population issue is a minor point.
Unless the poll besotted leadership of the lapsed-Republic comes to its senses and recalls that powerful thing called Liberty…the thing that once sustained us, the going from here on out is going to go from bad to worse , particularly when the printing presses lock up.
But….Happy New Year Ladies and Gents!
Dirk – the printing presses might lock up???
Holy shizam, folks might have to find and rely on honest money in such a case.
This is the same lapdog media that reported that Russia attacked Georgia, when the rest of the world knows it was the other way around. Why should we not be surprised about this.
Indeed, it will be Israel who will suffer because of the empire we have. Most if not all her neighbors will turn on her sometime down the road. This will only expidite if Iran is attacked, which to me still is a possibility since the situation know has very similiar characteristics of what happened when Hoover was next followed by FDR.
Even overlooking the immorality of it (which is overlooking one hell of a lot), I don’t see how this works from either a tactical or strategic viewpoint. Using high-dollar munitions to chase rockets slapped together in muffler shops strikes me as futile and wasteful, and losing the moral high ground is the best way to lose against an insurgency.
So I’m wondering what the hell the Israeli government is thinking. I’ve read that this may be for the sake of upcoming elections, but yikes.
Here’s the start of a column by Israeli Ran HaCohen on the political profits of the Gaza carnage:
Defense Minister Ehud Barak (the Hebrew surname means “lightning,” German “Blitz”) did it again: a historic record of over 200 Palestinians killed in a single Sabbath’s blitz (Dec. 27). Polls now predict five additional Knesset seats for his Labor Party in the coming February general election. That’s 40 Palestinian corpses per seat. No wonder he promises it’s just the beginning: at this pace, it will take Labor just about two thousand additional corpses to go from rags to riches, from a dead political party to an absolute majority in parliament like in the good old days.
http://antiwar.com/hacohen/
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Looks like the Israeli leaders are following the same logic that LBJ used in 1964, clobbering North Vietnam to boost his election prospects against Barry Goldwater.
Jeez.
Again, staying in cold-blooded mode (so they can understand) why don’t they think past the next election? Sure, they’ll win seats–then what? Look at the dung heap they’re creating for themselves. For example, your example of LBJ and Vietnam.
And people expect us to get involved in this?
Happy New Year, Jim
As usual, your words are wise. You can bet that when this thing is finished, nothing will be resolved.
Like has been said above, the Israelis are on their last legs. They are outnumbered and losing their population position by geometrical proportions. They don’t have the tenacity to stay on a god-forsaken spit of land when their enablers’ treasuries in the West dry up. All they can easily do is kill rock throwing, disenfranchised kids and teenagers whose peers will surely follow suit. When’s the last time these brutes actually won a tactical battle anyway? 1982 in Lebanon? And look at what they gained…
In regard to the previous comment, their “enablers treasury”, or what can more accurately be described as credit issued from China and future generations of American tax Helots, will take a major hit when the dollar loses its reserve currency status. Many experts consider that dire and well deserved event a near term probability. I suspect that some additional printing presses will be needed if it occurs.