Bush defends Israel, EU, Russia condemn attacks

[DoYouEverWonder]

Jul 13, 2006

PARIS (Reuters) - Russia and the European Union condemned Israel's strikes in Lebanon on Thursday as a dangerous escalation of the Middle East conflict but the United States said Israel had the right to self defense.

President Bush spoke up for Israel's attack on Beirut airport, but warned the Israelis they should be careful not to weaken the fragile Lebanese government.

"Israel has the right to defend herself," Bush told a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

His comments contrasted with comments from Russia and the European Union, which said there could be no justification for Israel's air and sea blockade on Lebanon.

"Actions, which are contrary to international humanitarian law, can only aggravate the vicious circle of violence and retribution," the EU presidency said in a statement.

The comments came as a three-strong United Nations team headed to the Middle East to seek to defuse the crisis.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-07-13T170224Z_01_L13833873_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-REACTION.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L3-International+NewsNews-2

[dubeskin]

1. They took two soldiers. Couldn't they have just talked about it?

This guy is an a**h**e.

[rodeodance]

2. he Israeli attacks have killed 52 Lebanese civilians.

......Israel struck three airports including Beirut's on Thursday and began enforcing a naval blockade of Lebanon, intensifying reprisals after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in cross-border attacks on Wednesday.

The Israeli attacks have killed 52 Lebanese civilians.

[thereismore]

3. 52? That's nothing. Remember when there were 52 Americans

killed in Iraq? The number just grows and grows. This is how it starts. I am crushed by the disregard for life, on all sides.

[muryan]

8. that number is disputable

a hezbullah member was cited as the main source for the dead 52 civilians, where as IDF claims that almost all 52 killed were terrorists. I have a feeling the number is somewhere in the middle, unfortunately way more civilian deaths than I would have wished.

[Scurrilous]

18. Israel intensifies attacks, 3 killed

<snip>

"Israeli air raids on suburbs of the Lebanese capital where Hezbollah has its strongholds, killed three people and wounded 55 overnight, police said on Friday.

Israel's widening military offensive brought to 50 the number of Lebanese killed since Wednesday, when Israel attacked Lebanon to rescue two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrilla, said Lebanese security officials.

An Israeli civilian and eight Israeli soldiers have also been killed since Israel launched its offensive, one of its heaviest in Lebanon when invading the country and occupying the capital 24 years ago.

The overnight raids on Friday appeared to target Hezbollah's leadership, which is based in the densely Shiite Muslim neighborhoods to the south of Beirut that are practically an extension of the Lebanese capital."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1750320.cms

[Monkeyman]

4. Opec is talking avout an oil imbargo if we don't stop this now

[cliss]

13. Really? OMG.....

this is going to escalate into .......

Do you by any chance have a link? I know sometimes it's hard to remember where we've read things.....but I would really like to see this.

I'm willing to bet you're right. And look at Iran...how hostile they are towards Israel.

Not looking good.

[whistle]

5. Bush is following orders from Dick Cheney who wants WW III to begin

...and once it begins to be able to get puppet-boy to order nuclear warheads dropped on Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and any other state which resists American Imperialist ambitions

[Kagemusha]

6. Oh I think bombing an international airport weakens a government.

Don't you?

[liberalmuse]

7. I condemnt it, too.

I know this is a touchy issue, but I don't see revenge as an effective foreign policy. This is not an 'eye for an eye', since responses from both sides are becoming grossly and increasingly disproportionate. I'll be honest-I do not care for the way the state of Israel has displaced the Palestinians over the last half century. I can't condone their government's treatment of the people who have been living there for centuries, but neither do I condone murdering civilians because you do not like their government's policies. I also have a problem of the way Fundamentalist Christians salivate over Israel. They could give a sh*t about the people living there, they just want the land for their Armageddon, and it looks like they may have it. All of our most incindiary issues in the world today stem from the actions of the more fanatical followers of the Abramic sects. This is utter insanity.

[muryan]

9. This was the straw on

the camels back. Hezbullah has been responsible for almost half the of the suicide bombings over the past few years and they drew first blood in this conflict. I would support no president who would allow civilians to be killed on american soil without striking back at those responsible.

[tabasco]

15. You mean like Bush forgetting about Bin Laden?

Sort of like that?

The Bush cabal allowed Bin Laden to escape to Pakistan because we held back US forces to invade Iraq.

I guess Rumsfeld thought it was a keen idea to have the Pakistanis "guard" the border area.

[IndianaGreen]

10. The Decider is knee-jerking like the fundie that he is

I'll bet he hasn't even bothered to pick up the phone and call PM Olmert on the phone and find out what he is up to.

[God Almighty]

11. The new Nazis. Most Jews of conscience oppose what Israel is doing

The government should be brought up on war crimes charges.

[kurth]

12. Yep, we need the Rapture

[Monkeyman]

14. Do you wonder if this is how we go to war in 2006

I would not put nothing pass Rove and boys. We Can Not Replace Congress While we are at War sounds like Rove and boys

[Catchawave]

16. My first thought exactly !

World War III is not a good time to "change teams" :tinfoilhat:

[flordehinojos]

17. No Sage Advice or Calming Words from Bush the Warmonger

(permission from author to paste here, granted)

July 14, 2006 at 01:07:41

No Sage Advice or Calming Words from Bush the Warmonger

by teresa simon-noble


http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_teresa_s_060714_no_sage_advice_or_ca.htm



No sage advice or calming words from Bush the war monger this evening. No Peace offering. No arm twisting for Israel, or Lebanon, or Syria, or any other country to stop their bombing and ballistic killing of innocent life. No calls for a stop to the destruction. How can he when he won't call for an end to his own occupation of Iraq? And on what moral ground would he be able to call for any country to stop their bombing and killing of innocent life? He would first have to stop his own occupation of Iraq.

No setting of any examples from George Walker Bush that would lead to any semblance of striking any peace in the Middle East. No taking of any bull by the horns and saying this has got to stop. Instead, the war monger stands on a platform in Germany; sounding more like an 8 year old than a full grown man and a world leader, he says, "Every country has the right to defend itself from the killing of innocent life and terrorists who want to stop the progress of peace." (Was Bush referring to his invasion and occupation of Iraq here?)

Translation: Let power and munitions reign. Let dynamite be the law of the region. Let not, reason, or good will take a step forward. Let destruction loose.

What a foggy patch of quick sand to step on!

Bush's words can come back to haunt him. He is killing innocent life in Iraq. His insistence on invading Iraq and going after a man who was not interested in any sort of war with the world, unsettled much of the region and set the Middle East on fire, and if Bush can strut his supremacy, so can Israel. Why not?

Dangerous things happen to little boys who are allowed to play with fire and dynamite.

Dangerous things happen as a result of little boys being allowed to play with fire and dynamite.

World War I started with a single shot fired in Sarajevo. The kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in Lebanon has ... triggered ... the kind of Israeli might which could be the start of WW-III and Bush's words have that unsavory ring, that same powder keg flavor of, "Bring it on," that they had on that destroyer off the coast of California when he declared Mission Accomplished and said, "Bring it on."

I did not hear Bush calling for sitting down at the round table of Peace to talk about bridging the differences of the Israeli, or Lebanese or Syrian people; nor did I hear Bush call for any cease fire. No.

Honor. Nationalism. Supremacy. Are all wrapped up in Bush's Glorification of War.

But, whose honor, nationalism, or supremacy does Bush uphold? That is a big question to which the sad answer is his' and that of Israel. No one else's.

Bush meets fire with fire--there is no need for logic, reason, or dialogue...but fire with fire for Bush is a thing of duality.

Bush meets fire with fire so long as he is not on the front lines, so long as there are people who can seal in advance the manholes of any American, or foreign city his feet happen to need to step on; so long as barb wire fences can separate him from the people who despise his wars, his policies, his invasion and occupation of an innocent country; so long as he does not have to listen to one single bomb dropping, one single shot being fired, so long as he doesn't have to look at the dead, Bush meets fire with fire-from the safety of his bubble, with his pork filled mouth and from his cake eating parties.

It is hard work, Bush like to say. Yes. It is hard work for those who have to live through the bombs, and the shots, and the loss, and the destruction.

For Bush it is easy, press the trigger from the moat that will start fire on the land, which will start the war that will bring the rapture.

[Acadia Blue]

19. this could start WWIII