Lebanon

It's hard to take sides in the situation in Lebanon right now. I can't find anyone who's position I like. The U.S. keeps talking about Hezbollah having to stop attacking Israel, but with everything I read, it sounds way more like Israel is doing most of the attacking. Hezbollah is mostly on the defense. Sure, Hezbollah triggered the whole thing by kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, but that's not what this war is about, Israel's main objective it disarming Hezbollah, the kidnapping only provided the excuse that Israel needed. This is clear because Israel isn't trying to get its soldiers back. Last week sometime Israel asked Bush not to send Condoleeza just yet because they needed another 10 to 14 days to do the damage they wanted to do to Hezbollah. If they were really interested in getting their soldiers back, they would have begun negotiating for them from day 1.

The Lebonese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, says that Hezbollah acted without the Lebonese government's support, but his proposed "solution" for this problem is a cease-fire, then a prisoner exchange, then negotiations. Hezbollah captured the soldiers in the first place in order to negotiate the release of Hezbollah prisoners in Israel, so Siniora's solution is basically the same as saying "just let Hezbollah win". If that's not supporting Hezbollah, I don't know what is.

The U.S.'s claim of wanting to negotiate a lasting solution before the fighting starts is just plain stupid. Negotiating a long term solution will take months, meanwhile people are dying and infrastructure is being destroyed that will result in thousands starving over the next year or so. Clearly the threat of resuming the war should be sufficient incentive to continue negotiating.

And what's with Bush's statement that Israel has the right to defend itself? How stupid does he think people are? Does he think people are going to hear that and not automatically think the Hezbollah and Lebanon also have a right to defend themselves? Doesn't everybody have a right to defend themselves? The whole reason we have laws and police in this country is to stop people from defending themselves, and then have their enemies defend themselves, in an endless cycle.

And another thing, Hezbollah kidnapped the soldiers in the first place in order to negotiate the release of Hezbollah prisoners in Israel. Doesn't that kind of imply that Israel captured Hezbolla soldiers first? Was Hezbollah merely defending itself when it kidnapped the soldiers in the first place?