Wouldn't It Be Nice

[filkertom]

The US still isn't backing a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.

Again, apart from the issues and politics of the entire struggle, apart from the ethnic and regional background... WHY ARE WE NOT ENCOURAGING THEM NOT TO KILL EACH OTHER!? Where's your fucking "culture of life", Chimpy, you swine? You can veto stem cell research to no good purpose because you obviously have no clue about the actual issues involved, have your spokesman berate the press corps for trying to nail down your position on it, send your Chief of Staff to make an ass of himself on national TV because he's as stupid and uninformed as you... but you can't be bothered to ask that the Israelis and Hizbollah not blow each other and everyone in their immediate vicinity to bloody wads.

So, tell me, Bush supporters: Why do you support this man, these policies? Do you like the smell of collateral damage in the morning? Does it smell like victory? How aren't you evil, if you keep supporting a man who claims to want peace, but won't push for a cease-fire?

It's a good day to call your Congresscritter and have them kick some warmongering two-faced chimp ass.

Comments

[thingunderthest.livejournal.com]

It's seeming more and more plausible that there are some righteous folks out there that are actually looking forward to Armageddon.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Yes there are.
Much like the comments about "do you really want a nation full of people who believe in reincarnation to have nukes", do you really want a nation of people who think the end of the world is the greatest thing ever to be in power?

[illusionmajik.livejournal.com]

It makes me so sad...
I want to cry.
And my congress critters are die hard rethuglicans :(

[seanmonster.livejournal.com]

...my congress critters are die hard rethuglicans :(

Me too. And one of them is bat-shit loco.

[colinmo.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can see at the moment is that Hezbowassit wouldn't support a cease fire, so having a cease fire that is immediately broken would weaken future cease fire attempts.

I did like the UN head honcho's re-wording of the cease fire, though. A good political attempt at defusing that issue in asking for a cease fire.

I used to think it'd be so easy to just say to people "look at who you're both hurting, just stop to take a look at the kids who are victims of phosphorous attacks, and please stop fighting" and they'd look and they'd stop. It should be. It isn't. It really hurts to realise it isn't.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

As I say, I've been steering very clear of the issues on this one, because I don't feel I'm informed well enough about them. But I truly feel this particular issue is independent of the entire conflict. How can our government not say, "Hey, killing each other may not be the best way to solve this, so KNOCK IT OFF for a minute, can'tcha?"

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

Well said, well said indeed.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

No point talking to my representatives in Congress. I'm from Texas; they're all warmongering chimps, too.

[brainache.livejournal.com]

I got pointed at you by minerva_fan but yeah totally agree. Dont forget Mr Sock-puppet, Blair, our oh so gracious prime minister. There was an awesome front page on The Independent (a UK paper) and it had a big box with all the flags of countries who support a cease-fire, and then a big old box with all the ones who dont. The second was completely empty save Israel, the UK and the USA.

The other great front cover was a picture of Bush and a baby saying "Bush's Domestic Policy - He vetoes stem-cell research bill on the grounds that he wants to protec innocent lives." Then right next to it is a picture of a dead israeli civilian and it says "His Foreign Policy - 500 innocents killed in latest attacks in Israel, yet bush refuses to back a ceasefire."

I'll find the article... here -> http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1190527.ece

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That would indeed sum it up, yeah. Sob.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

I've been steering clear of this one, but . . . . OK, first, I'm not sure about Bush. Yes there are compeling arguments that the man is an idiot. But Perosnally I wasn't that impressed by Gore either. Second, as a Canadian, he's not my President. Anyway . . .

The whole situation in the Middle East troubles me, it bothers me to a dregree that it's always there in the back of my mind. This may be long so please bear with me. I grew up in England. The "troubles" in Ireland were always in the news. I knew people who hated the Irish simply because they were Irish. I knew a few Church of England Irish who loathed and detested Catholics. I asked question of my parents, of other adults who I knew about this. Hating some one simply because of where they were born, or because of their religion seemed so wrong. I didn't like a boy named John Banks, but he was a bully and worse. I had personal reasons to not like him. But I didn't hate him, so I tried to make sense of the whole troubles in Ireland thing. Why would people blow up school buses, or pubs? Why? I never did understand it. It's taken my life time (45 plus years) to reach a cease fire. And there are still people whi hate the Irish, or the English or the Catholics ect.

A push for an cease fire in the Middle East won't work. First of all it's not Lebanon fighting Isreal it's Hezbollah. A terrorist army, while they no longer use suicide bombers they were the first to use them, way back in the late 70's. They have an AK47 on their flag. Their stated aim is to Destroy Isreal. They have a huge social infrastructure, a highly trained army, money from Iraq (or Iran, I can't keep the two straight to save my life) Hezbollah has no interest in peace, they are a fanatical group who believe they are on the side of God. Why are they going to come to the table to disscus peace? If Hamas is to be belived they may moving towards some understanding of leaving Isreal alone, but they have found themselves as governers and in charge of a country, they have reason to listen to reason and try for peace. Hezbollah has none of these reasons. Isreal has reason to defend it's self, remember the Holocaust? fanatics have been trying to kill Jews for a long time. Yes there is suffering, yes there is pain, but calling for a cease fire will do nothing to end those, they would be empty words, worse than usless, because Isreal would be far more likley to listen than Hezbollah simply because they have done so in the past, have made concessions in the past. It's a complex problem, with history going back 50 years or so. I don't think I'm evil for thnking that a call for a cease fire is useless. If I've rambled I'm sorry, but you can't leave out "the issues and politics of the entire struggle, apart from the ethnic and regional background..." they are there, they are real and they are they whole reson that fighting is going on. If you think I'm evil fine, you are entitled to your opinion. Just as suicide bombers think they are dying in a righteous cause and will go to heaven, many young crusadors thought the same thing in the dark ages. It's an opinion. That's all.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're evil. Saying you don't think it'll work is a perfectly valid position. I'm not sure it would work either. However, my government not supporting it is evil, on the simple basis of You Should At Least Fucking Ask.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

That's easy. The "culture of life" extends only to the pre-born and people in persistent vegetatives states, and the ultra-rich. Everyone else? Eff off and die. Preferably by blowing each other up and starting World War III.

Stephanie Miller said this morning that she found a great term for the neocons who're chomping at the bit for more war: They're having a wargasm.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

My cynical side notes that is isn't as if any cease-fire in the past has really accomplished anything other than keeping enough of them alive to keep fighting.

My pessimistic side expects that ultimately the only way to deal with this is to unequivocably demonstrate our willingness to turn the whole area into a crater of radioactive glass if peace is not reached. If they can't learn to share it, they don't get to have it at all.

You are, however, quite correct. Bush is a noodle.

[nefri.livejournal.com]

We want isael to destroy Hamas because Hamas is backed by Russia, as is Iran. Russia wants the oil of the middle east as badly as we do. So does China. If WE step in to fight there, Russia and China will gang up and kick out overseas ass. If we let Israel do it, Russia and China will wait. America can't attack Iran, or Russia and China will freak the fuck out. So we have to use this indirect approach of letting Israel destroy Hamas. That gives us another year or so to get ready for wwiii.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason for energy independence.

[batyatoon]

I keep hearing "A ceasefire is not the solution."

And you know what, they're right. A ceasefire won't actually solve anything long-term.

But you can't reach a long-term solution without a ceasefire. It's not a solution, it's a prerequisite to a solution. It's like getting enough food and sleep when you're having a nervous breakdown. It's like making sure the computer is plugged in and turned on when you're having a software problem. It's something you have to take care of FIRST, even if it won't solve the real underlying problem.

And if no solution to the real underlying problem is ultimately found, well, at least if there's a ceasefire it might make a short-term difference to the individual people NOT GETTING KILLED in the meantime.



It'd be nice, yeah.

[antongarou.livejournal.com]

The proble is that as has been proven by their track record that with Hizzbullah ceasefires that don't change the rules of the game simply mean we'll end in the same place some time in the future(be it a 1 or 5 years from now), with Hizzbullah regrouped, and up to its old tricks again.The main goal of not having a ceasefire just yet is to have enough leverage on them that we *can* change the rules when negotiating for a ceasefire.

[naja-pallida.livejournal.com]

Just because any cease fire is unlikely to stick is no reason at all for other nations to not stand up and say that they condemn such actions. The situation there is much more complex than anyone not living there can possibly understand, but that doesn't mean we should all turn a blind eye. The very least we could do is say "Hey, killing each other is bad, ok?"

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

As others have said, a cease-fire agreement will not end hostilities.

However, countries BACKING a cease-fire agreement--particularly countries with big, nasty weapons and a disturbing propsensity for using them--has the potential to lead to a pause that will bring about greater good. By not backing such a demand, a country implies that it does not desire such an outcome. And the biggest player in the pack should be screaming for this.

For fuck's sake, when my dad threatened to kick my ass for doing something or other, I didn't actually BELIEVE he'd do it (my father is one of the most gentle men on the planet, but he does not suffer fools gladly), but the tone of voice and the "knock it the hell off" aspect of it certainly made me stop long enough to be reasoned with.

Or grounded.

[antongarou.livejournal.com]

The main problem?You'd be right, if we were talking about sane people instead of fanatics-but then we probably would have been deep in peace talks since last year.Unfortunately the Hizzbullah are fanatics, realistic fanatics, but fanatics nontheless.They believe in the virulent garbage they spew, and as long as someone doesn't weaken them considerably, the Lebanese forces won't be able to disarm them.About the backing:Hizzbullah will thumb its nose gladly at the US, since they know the US doesn't have the will, especially with the Iraq mess still ongoing, to go to the ground fighting that is needed to find and destroy them, and in addition they feel quite safe, being backed by Tehran,that has been thumbing its nose at the US for the last 30 years or thereabout- and thumbing its nose at the "greater devil" will earn them points in the more radical Arab public opinion.

[barbara-the-w.livejournal.com]

I saw a cartoon in the paper the other day that had Bush saying, "The problem with that country is that it's being held hostage by religious extremists"...while a doctor in a stem cell research lab is staring at his empty lab.

I thought, "Takes one to know one."

[glitchphil.livejournal.com]

I called all my congresscritters, in all three places I take residence (Philly and Rockville & Glenelg, MD). I basically said this:

"I need _________________ to support me against the president's position against a ceasefire in the middle east. He wants to veto stem cell research in the name of preserving innocent lives, while at the same time not backing a ceasefire, which is compltely hypocritical. While I understand and agree with the president's notion that a ceasefire is a temporary solution, which it is, it it still the first step in initiating peace talks."

About four of their secretaries seemed to take me really seriously out of the four Senators and three Representatives, which ain't bad. A couple of them simply said "Thank you for your comment." Three of them got my mailing info for a response letter. Most of them told me they'd pass my thoughts along.

Here's hoping that does something.

[contessa-maggie.livejournal.com]

minerva_fan alerted me to your post.

How aren't you evil, if you keep supporting a man who claims to want peace, but won't push for a cease-fire?

I've said all along that anyone who voted for him either time is stupid at best and evil at worst....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Hi there and welcome.

When Chimpy got elected, I thought, "Ho-kay, here come four years of political humor and ineffective government." I joked about it. I decided to ride it out, no harm, no foul. Little did anyone imagine what these folks would wreak.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I'm back.

And I don't know how anyone can read this (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/23/perry.tyre/index.html), and watch the associated video, and not think that supporting a call for ceasefire is THE FUCKING LEAST SOMEONE, ANYONE CAN DO.

I also don't know how someone can watch the video without having to bite down hard not to start crying. My gods.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

Georgito Busholini is basically playing to his base, both on stem-cells and on the Middle East. His core of supporters are more anti-abortion than the Pope, and most of them feel that anything at all Israel does is right, good and proper because Israel Is Good And Them Awful Ay-rabs Are EEE-VILLE.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

Bush is staying out for two reasons.

One, the Israelis are killing terrorists (along with civvies). To stop their war maes his look hypocritical.

Two, the Israelis don't want or need our help. They will win, as they have done in the past, and when the problem is cleaned up, they will leave. Israel has a history of taking over territory and then giving it back.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Ummm... How does asking them for a cease-fire constitute "aiding" Israel's offensive against Lebanon?

[armb.livejournal.com]

Today's Doonesbury (http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2006/db060724.gif)

Word.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

And yes, there are rally high up people who think blowing up the world is what God told them to do. Bring on Revelations a little bit early, boys.
Sorry, it's not Hezballah--that'd be our own Two-Faced Chimp Ass.
And the interesting expanation about superpower maneeuvering by Russia and China behind the pawns in the area, vs. our own rook, Israel, in the pursuit of oil is interesting, but not entirely helpful. For one thing, there isn't oil in that particular area, and I'm too ignorant to know if there's something else critical in the area. So how does inciting violence and distracting Israel a little bit (you'd be surprised how hard it is to get Sabras to stop watching where the bullets are actually coming from) help give strategic advantage over the actual oil fields in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait?