The Middle East

ItтАЩs amazing how superficial some folksтАЩ analysis is of whatтАЩs going on in the Middle East. The knee-jerk reaction is to treat this as just another episode in the long-running Arab-Israeli soap opera. The difference this time is that Saudi Arabia has roundly condemned Hezbullah тАУ thatтАЩs right, Hezbullah тАУ for starting this one. ThereтАЩs been nothing said about Israeli provocation. There have been no street protests.

This isnтАЩt an Arab-Israeli conflict. ItтАЩs a ShiaтАУIsraeli conflict. Hezbullah is an Iraq-funded Shia organization. In other words, itтАЩs a proxy for the US-Iraq conflict over IraqтАЩs nuclear ambitions. ThatтАЩs why the Sunni countries are content not to intervene. And itтАЩs why the Bushites havenтАЩt called for a ceasefire. George II probably doesnтАЩt know what to do next. ThatтАЩs typical of the entire gang, Condie included.

The joker in the pack is Syria, a Sunni country. The Bushites by naming Syria as part of the Axis of Evil have forced it into the Shia fold. An intelligent US foreign policy would prise Syria out of that embrace. Unfortunately intelligence isnтАЩt what the Bushites have to spare.

[Smiles]

Oh Hedda dear, I wish you wouldn't always be so damn, er, twee.

And it's Hisbollah, not Hezbullah. Some also say it's Hezbollah, but they're wrong. Lovey, you know the kind of trouble you can get into on this Board by not getting the spelling right.
By the way, anyone know if you can off boys in Damascus gay bars? How much would an off be, in that case?

Cheers ....

I think all that Arabic script is as hard to transliterate into standard Western script as is Thai, Smiles - http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20ed ... 0Hamod.htm (http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/March/14%20o/Understanding%20Hezbullah%20of%20Lebanon%20for%20W hat%20it%20Really%20Is%20By%20Sam%20Hamod.htm) for example

The more important question for Hedda must be - is the bar smoke free?

I have decided that engaging in tit for tat responses with you, Smiles, is rather too much like George Bush's foreign policy.

"itтАЩs a proxy for the US-Iraq conflict over IraqтАЩs nuclear ambitions"

Surely you mean Iran? I thought that with Iraq busy with sectarian violence that all their nuclear ambitions were on the back burner.

"By the way, anyone know if you can off boys in Damascus gay bars"

Not having been to Damascus I can't comment on the exact situtation there but I based on what I know about the rest of the Middle East, finding willing partners is easier than finding a McDonalds. Damascus is quite famous for it's Hammams (Turkish Baths). Not to worry Smiles....there won't be any off fees.

I visited Damascus in 2001, and confirm that boys are available, and so sweet you could eat them with a spoon.

No it is not another Israeli Arab conflict, is just another Israeli American Arab conflict. Layer upon layer upon layer of complication due to American greed, it's foreign policy and lack of the "little grey cells". Is there a way for a nation to be polite, even likeable and be so extraordinarily needy and wasteful at the same time?

Yes. They are fighting the same war, will there ever be a time, Democrat (and I had too say that) or Republican when this will be different? America has simply once again removed itself from the peace process, if there were ever, even the slightest semblance of them ever being a mediator in the middle East. What a pity the little baby Jesus was not born in Washington swaddled in oil , the world would have been such a very peaceful place.

An artists point of view perhaps. Only the little baby Jesus might rather appear 'smothered' in oil, forever the turd of hope. A true symbol for the wacko masses that collectively make up the USA. A little Jewish prince, like road kill, trapped in hot tar.

"itтАЩs a proxy for the US-Iraq conflict over IraqтАЩs nuclear ambitions". Surely you mean Iran? Hedda does not admit to mistakes so there is no reason to point them out.

Hate to be such a Cassandra, but does anyone see any of this ending well?

Iraq is a disaster (from whatever political standing you come from) and even if broken up into three divisions, there is still going to be the need for an international force to be in place to make sure that one of the factions doesn't wage war on the other over land or religion. Israel wages war on Hezbollah (ok, who wants a group of radicals lobbing bombs over the border at you) but then goes on to bomb the innocents for having the audacity to have elected representatives of these terrorists in open elections. The Americans (Bush) stand by and do nothing, waiting over a week before sending in the big guns (Condi Rice), happy to have another country wage war on terrorism and, as there is no great Islamist political force in the US, there are no real votes to be gained or lost, so what the hell. The Brits (Tony Blair) fawn and cow tow to whatever the Americans have to say.

In the meantime Iran sets about it's nuclear programme, the Brits decide to re-build their ''defenses' with new nuclear weapons, the North koreans edge closer to insanity, Afghanistan falls back into turmoil, more radical extremists are created everyday and western civil liberties are reduced in the name of security.

We are paying the price of having an Empire (Britain), we along with the French set up modern day Iraq, setting up borders without concern for religious and ethnic claims. We also, interestingly, bombed and gassed inhabitants prior to this, something a more recent leader of Iraq learned and built on! The Brits also had a hand in the formation of Israel. America is the one world power right now, it can do what it wants and we Brits hang on to the coat tails for the ride thinking we still have a voice to be listened to, despite cocking up the world in the past.

The War on Terror is a myth, it can't be won. So what is the real plan? Just as Muslims have the obligation to try and convert the world to their faith, the west and the US tries to convert the arab world and what it sees as rogue nations to it's own doctrine. However, to be honest, I don't think there is a real plan. I am coming to the conclusion that there is no great conspiracy, there is no great plan, the leaders of the world stumble and fumble down blind alleys hoping against hope that what they do is the right thing. In the meantime, 'dirty bombs' and other destructive weaponry becomes available to terrorists. It's no conpsiracy, it's the great 'cock up' theory that appplies now.

Perhaps when it is all over and we start again, the next inhabitants of this planet will make a better job of it.

... Fatman - we'll muddle through, we always do. That's what makes human beings so interesting. Maybe you didn't live through the Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction?

Conspiracy? No. Cock up yes. Propaganda? Yes. Intelligence? No. Oil? Yes. Lots of it. Baby Jesus? Just the one. Neo conservatives? crawling with them. Neo facists? The same. Jewish vote? Must be important, you tell me?