Every day as I turn on the TV, it hurts to see the images of dying children and my contention is that many of these people who are dying are poor people who have nowhere to go. It appears that the rich folks are either sipping hot chocolate in cafes in northern Lebanon or Southern Israel or have dual-citizen ship and have fled to America or Europe. How is Hezbollah gaining anything by indiscriminate killing of civilians? What is Israel gaining by bombing bridges and power plants?
When are the countries going to realize that war on terrorism cannot be won by massive air and ground attacks with big military machines? You cannot win a war on ants by simply sending in elephants. The war on terrorism must be fought on two fronts; a strategic front that focuses on the issues of the poor, the needy and the unfortunate and a tactical front that focuses on infiltrating, exposing and slowly destroying the extreme elements. Just the tactical approach without a long term plan will only succeed for a short time.
The media coverage of the recent conflict has its pros and cons. Unlike the “embedding garbage†imposed by the US in Iraq, it is refreshing to see the IDF giving free access to the reporters so they can objectively do their job. CNN clearly has a better coverage than the more US-centric FOX news. Unfortunately, overall the coverage is broad but lacks the depth. AC 360 had a special called “Inside Hezbollah.” I was hoping to see some new facts and details about the movement instead it was a rehash and repackaging of the coverage from the past week. I yearn for a more in-depth look at the conflict. I am still not clear about several issues.
- The Hezbollah spokesman claims that Israel needs to return their territory and their prisoners. I was under the impression that Israel had returned all the territory they gained during the war.
- How many Lebanese, Palestinian prisoners are there in Israel? I have heard numbers as low as 4 to as high as 4000.
- What does the Lebanese army do? They do not have an air-force and are nowhere to be seen in Southern Lebanon.
- What right does Israel or the US have to tell an army in a sovereign nation to disarm?
- If the nations in the middle -east are so proud of their cultures and heritage and religions why do they seek constant help from the US? Something tells me that many of these nations are being ruled by dictatorial regimes that are preventing these nations from being truly independent.