WHAT TO DO IN THE MIDDLE EAST!

Guess I should say something about the situation in the Middle East. The situation has caused some pretty heated discussions in my household.

The images of innocent civilians, especially children, being blown to bits is not pleasant to view. Also, remembering that Lebanon in general and Beirut in particular were totally destroyed some years ago and then totally rebuilt into a new and thriving community and now TOTALLY DESTROYED AGAIN is a little hard to take.

To understand the situation you really have to know the history of this conflict but that would take volumes to bring everyone here up to date and we know how Americans hate to read about history. So we have to talk about the here and now BUT you still NEED to know WHY!

Lebanon is divided into Muslim, Christians and Druze. After Israel became a nation, they kicked out the Palestinians and about 300,000 of them headed for Southern Lebanon, where many still remain including Hezbollah. The country went through a devastating CIVIL WAR from 1975-1990 which left it in total ruin.

Syria brought its troops into Lebanon in 1976 and basically ruled the country until just recently, when they were kicked out – things were starting to finally look good for Lebanon until now.

Hezbollah, just like Hamas, have only one mission in life; to destroy Israel and take the land back. They are not interested in stabilizing the lives of their citizens and creating a new national and political entity.

For this reason, Hezbollah invaded Israel and kidnapped some of its soldiers. The last time they did this, Israel agreed to release many Hezbollah prisoners to get the bodies of their soldiers back – NOT THIS TIME – they blew the living shit out of the country and are continuing to do so as we speak.

Why? Israel realizes that Hezbollah is not going away and will not stop attacking Israel – so, the only thing to do is to wipe them out. Why destroy Lebanon? - Because Lebanon allows Hezbollah to live and grow in Lebanon and allows them to continue to attack Israel. Why does Lebanon do that? Lebanon is divided itself and is not strong enough to kick Hezbollah out of Lebanon PLUS Hezbollah is supported by SYRIA and IRAN.

You notice Hezbollah was VERY prepared for this conflict.

Totally confused? – So is everybody else!

We need to get a couple of things straight before we can formulate ways of fixing this thing.

1. This conflict has been going on for thousands of years ever since Abraham came on down from the land of UR (Mesopotamia).


2. The Jews have only one goal; survive against all odds – they are a small country.


3. The Palestinians (Hezbollah and Hamas) have only one goal: wipe out Israel and reclaim their ancestral land.


4. Hezbollah is Shiite and Hamas is Sunni; both groups are Muslims but REALLY hate each other.


5. Syria is Sunni, Iran is Shiite.


6. The insurgency in Iraq is led by the Sunnis against the majority Shiites.

Are you starting to get some kind of picture here – yes? – It’s hopeless?

1. Get U.N. or NATO peace keeping forces into Southern Lebanon with permission to shoot?


2. Disarm Hezbollah by force.


3. Strengthen the Lebanese army so they can be a force to be reckoned with.


4. Offer Sunni Syria so much economic aid (Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc.) that they will quit being such aggressive assholes.


5. Isolate IRAN.


6. Divide IRAQ into Kurdistan, Sunni and Shiite parts. Let them be independent. Put NATO there to guarantee peace. Disarm all religious militias.


7. Force Hamas to disarm and form an independent Palestine out of the West Bank and Gaza. Have the U.N. be the internal police force until they are capable of showing they can handle things.


8. Iran, at this point, would have to acquiesce to the demands of the rest of the world and quit building an atom bomb.


9. Use the peaceful ARAB nations to make this thing happen – it is in their best interest!

Too complicated? Well, you have to start somewhere and if you have the big picture in mind, it may happen.

The problem with the current US strategy of doing nothing and hoping Israel will wipe out Hezbollah is that it will NOT happen – it has not in thousands of years – remember?

The US should take some decisive steps into herding everyone in the right direction and realizing that they will not go quietly or without a fight. I am not sure the current administration is capable of handling this situation but something must be done or this shit will keep happening and more and more innocent people will suffer and die and BLAME EVERYTHING ON THE UNITED STATES and we will have millions of these people willing to die blowing us up!

More later…

Janusz