...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
One part of me thinks that there's a real opportunity for peace in the middle east if the international community would only do one thing: Nothing.
The reason I've been hearing the phrase "Mid-East Peace Process" all my life is mainly because there has been a Mid-East Peace Process. If the world would just let both sides go at it, winner take all, I think we might see an end to this decades long circle-jerk.
After victory comes peace. So I want to advise Israel: don't bow to international pressure. No cease fires. No negotiations. No more bullshit. Roll up Hezbollah like Stonewall at Chancellorsville. Crush Hamas like Sherman on his way to the sea.
But another part of me senses danger.
The two Palestinian terrorist organizations want to see Israel destroyed. There's no chance in hell that they could accomplish that militarily, so they're trying to provoke this confrontation into a full on Arab Israeli war. Iran wants to see this happen too. They want Israel to attack Syria, so that Iran can jump in. Then, they hope Israel strikes Iran's nuclear research plants, which would be real bad.
For the last few months I've been casually researching whether Israel could successfully attack Iran's nuclear sites. I am now convinced that they have the technical capability to pull it off. They have the right planes, and Iran's air defenses would be no match for the Israeli Air Force. They also have an aerial refueling capability and they recently acquired the BLU-113, which is the most bad-ass of all the bunker buster warheads.
On the downside, Israel really has no good route to Iran. Any way they go would cause political problems that I don't like. The route that makes the most sense would be straight through Iraq, but that would completely fuck up what we're trying to accomplish there by inflaming the Shia. If the Israelis went south through Saudi Arabia, there would be refueling issues, and they could not avoid pissing off the Saudis. Going north might piss off the Turks. I don't like any of those choices, which is why I've always believed that we should be the ones to knock out the Iranian facilities, if it has to be done.
And if we get involved in this thing, well... I don't like to think about it. You all remember where the plains of Armageddon are, don't you? I'm serious, this is scary.
Today Hezbollah's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah went Scarface on the Israelis: "You want a wahh, you got a wahh." One might wonder how he intends to actually win it. Without an army or air force, he's either an idiot, or he knows something I don't. Maybe he's rolling the dice, or maybe he knows big brother Ahmadi-Nejad is his ace in the hole.
With Korea and India and now the Middle East burning up, I think this is the most dangerous global situation to exist in my lifetime. And of course I picked this time to go travelling. And to Denmark no less!
Annika
I agree with you that these are perilous times. I remember the height of the Cold War. It was nothing like this. We as a world seem to be spiraling towards world wide war. With N Korea and Iran developing nukes, it may be sometime soon when they give, or sell, one of these devices to a jihadist nutjob who wants his 72 virgins and will blow himself up and take out a major city with him.
By the way, Have a Great time in Denmark. Say 'Hi' to Hamlet. Or is there something rotten in the state of Denmark?
Posted by: JJJet on Jul. 14, 2006Have a great trip, Annie, but don't draw any cartoons.
And, when you return, get the Hell out of mu.nu and get on to one of the providers that know how to screen spam without having to shut down every other day.
Posted by: shelly on Jul. 15, 2006Try not to have too many lesbian trysts with big boobed scandinavian girls. (Well I have my fantasies ok)
Posted by: kyle8 on Jul. 15, 2006Good points, all, Annie. Puts the US in a tough position. Not to mention the impact on oil prices. Lots of variable.
The Euros and the UN are so fucking predictable and pathetic. "Disproportionate response," blah, blah, fucking blah. (Have any of them blamed Haliburton or Cheney yet?) Chirac needs to kiss the asses of all the Muslim pond scum his effete country let in its borders. Well, there's that and just the plain, rampant anti-semitism prevalent in the far European Left and Right.
Posted by: blu on Jul. 15, 2006All good points but i think that fear inside you is more or less the female inside you talking. Im not a nutjob warmonger but militarily defeating those insane islamists would be easy. What I dont like is my stock holding downward spiral and high gas prices. If there is a real threat to the whole idea of all out war in the mideast it would be with Russia. China depends on America too much economically and wouuld colapse into a depression. It can be done but once again the europeans...... Have fun in Denmark, I just got back from Norway....well I'm back physically anyways.
Posted by: Jeff on Jul. 15, 2006Putin is as bad as the rest of the Euro pussies. His comments today are beyond hypocritical considering his country's response to its own Muslim fanatics. How do these clowns get up there and say the crap they say with a straight face? Once again, Israel is attacked and the world blames the victim.
Posted by: Blu on Jul. 15, 2006Have you noticed that no one is blaming George Bush for the price of oil for a change?
Posted by: NOTR on Jul. 15, 2006NOTR, He will be blamed trust me......ellection 06 ads will be all over it. blu I couldnt help but to think the same thing. But lets not forget that Russia doesnt sell arms to the chechnyans.....they sell them all over the middle east though. Did you know the biggest export out of russia is their AK47? Look it up.
Posted by: jeff on Jul. 15, 2006"Did you know the biggest export out of russia is their AK47? "
No, thanks for the information.
"But lets not forget that Russia doesnt sell arms to the chechnyans.....they sell them all over the middle east though."
Another thing they have in common with the hypocritical French.
Posted by: Blu on Jul. 15, 2006BTW, Michelle Malkin has a post ("I Stand With Israel")that includes an essay by Oriana Fallaci that should be read by all. It's powerful and does an amazing job showing the anti-semitism prevalent amongst(duh)Muslims, but also the Left -especially the Euro Left. It also calls out the Catholic Church for its shameful moral relativism in regard to Israel. I'm not Catholic, but generally find the Church a force for good in the world. But it is dead wrong on this issue. And in its stance, I think, it aids the enemy.
Posted by: Blu on Jul. 15, 2006As a Catholic, I agree with Blu.
Posted by: reagan80 on Jul. 15, 2006Have you noticed that people who talk a lot about "process" are generally not very smart? There are exceptions, of course (as in industries like chemicals which are called "process industries") but in general, blathering on about "process" is an attempt to hide an individual's lack of substantive knowledge and real ideas.
Posted by: david foster on Jul. 15, 2006Nice blog. I like your writing.
Posted by: Imperial Logic on Jul. 16, 2006Good opinions Annika. In mind the world should have learned the lesson of Munich (this was the 1938 Munich/appeasing Hitler thing) the first time. Oddly enough its the people involved with that conference who are once again with their heads in the sand. New words and new issues but the same results. Give us territory or we'll make your life a living hell, maybe.
I hope your trip to Dennmark goes well, my family is going in the opposite direction this summer.
Drake
Posted by: drake steel on Jul. 16, 2006Make sure you get some religion while you are in Copenhagen. It's called Christiania.
I don't know what state you live in, but I wonder how you'd feel if the Gypsies moved in and took over all but about 25% of your land. Then took your water. Then got themselves armed with nuclear weapons by the rest of the world. Took away your rights to work. Made you wait at checkpoints for hours just to travel.
I think anyone who looks at this situation rationally and fairly sees that Israel is just as much to blame, actually more so because they more than the other side have more power to change things for the better. They just choose not to because they are as much terrorists as the Arabs.
Don't misunderstand me, I think what the Muslems are doing is horrible and I do not support their agenda either.
I truely believe as Martin Luther King, Jr. did that there is always a non-violent answer.
Posted by: Rastaman on Jul. 16, 2006I'm about as pro-Israel as a person can be, so might as well save your breath.
Posted by: annika on Jul. 16, 2006Rastaman, the "moral equivalency" bullshit that is spouted by you and the NY Times, LA Times, and most of the mainstream media is incomprehensible to normal folks.
The Hezbollah and Hamas thugs are murderers and suicidal maniacs who want to kill Israelis (and us) for living our lives the way we choose, nothing more.
There are millions of acres in the Mid-East and all of them could move to another Arab controlled land and live happily ever after, but they choose to live next to Israel and bedevil it at every turn.
There is no living in peace with these maniacs; they don't want to be left alone, they want to tell us all how to live.
You'd be one of the first to go, as you handed them the olive branch, they'd cut your arm off and beat you to death with it.
Get with it; we are in a global conflict and it is them against us.
Can we all just get along? Ha, they respect nothing but the fist, so Israel is giving them some cause for respect, and if necessary, we'll join in.
Go find another blog where some liberals hang out; none around here.
Annie, I thought you were gone; I was going through withdrawl. Can't you get a laptop?
Posted by: shelly on Jul. 16, 2006Good Gawd, why do you people parlay with the nidgits?
And now for something completely different. I bought a BMW K1100RS this weekend. What a fucking teutonic whore of a machine... OOOOOOAAAAAAA! I'll be busy for a while.
PS Drove it from LA to SD, and those fucktards in LA can't fucking drive to save their fucking lives. It's time to return to public hangings for radical last minute lane changes, and chicks applying makeup, and all fomos yaking in traffic on their mobiles. Yes, I'm entirely serious.
PPS The Israelis have shaped the battle area Next week they'll be driving North. This from Casca Jr, and I quite agree. Just don't let the water get into the wine.
Posted by: Casca on Jul. 16, 2006How disappointing; four paragraphs, plus adolescent auto erection masturbation in public.
What is this world coming to?
Posted by: shelly on Jul. 17, 2006Shelly,
You're right, you're all right. MLK was an ignoramous. The right thing to do would be to nuke them Arab freaks into a parking lot then expand the Jewish state until it covers the whole of the middle east.
There you are, problem solved. Next. Global warming? Left wing propaganda. Next. Global hunger? They're poor because they want to be poor.
I just hope I'm dead before you get the world you want.
Posted by: Rastaman on Jul. 23, 2006