United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah

[Sam Odom]

Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources

Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Patrick Wintour
Wednesday July 19, 2006
The Guardian


The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.
The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1823817,00.html

[rodeodance]

1. deadlines set by the WH????????

[Radioactive]

5. Never mind that a massive evacuation is going on

US to Israel: Hurry up and bomb more places dammit!!

[Herman Munster]

27. We should have listened to Bob Graham

When he was head of the intelligence committee, he made a strong argument that we should have focused our attention on the terrorist organizations - Hezbollah and Hamas, and NOT go to war with Iraq.

[saigon68]

30. Whoopee lets kill some guys who wear "FanBelts" on their Heads

Congressman John Cooksey of Monroe an arch-conservative Republican, is planning to run against Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat nearing the end of her first term. Cooksey made news last week for some bone-headed comments about airport security and racial profiling in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"If I see someone comes in that's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over," Cooksey said during an interview with Louisiana Radio Network.

Cooksey's comment came last Monday, the same day that President Bush, a fellow Republican, visited an Islamic mosque and praised mainstream Islam as a religion of peace.

[existentialist]

2. and,

and, of course, any other Lebanese who just happen to be in the way, or for that matter any other people that just happen to be in the way, like the Canadians . . .

[shaniqua6392]

3. Israel is killing innocent women and children in Lebanon.

Hizbolla is alive and well.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. No, Israeli jets may be doing it, but Hezbollah is *really* doing it

:sarcasm:

(That's been the spin all afternoon: if a civlian dies in Lebanon, it was hezbollah who killed him or her, even if the proximate cause was - say - an Israeli bomb. It's all quite complex, see, having to do with the number of angels who can perform algebra on the tail of a giraffe.

[Igel]

22. Hard to criticise that kind of spin.

It's common enough reasoning, here, there, and everywhere. Must cast blame where it scores the most political points.

Israeli civilians' deaths aren't really murder because they support a government and the suicide bombers are forlorn resistance that lack sufficient ability to inflict greater death tolls. Attacks in Iraq for a long time were resistance, because of the occupation. But all of the deaths in Iraq are *'s fault, since he started the entire mess, whether or not it's a Sunni fanatic killing a farmer by having a beheaded girl's head explode, or gunning down shoppers (with "Sunni" chosen pretty much at random, and no Shi'ite example will be given because it's a waste of time).

[alcibiades_mystery]

25. Not that hard

Given that it's total bullshit.

But that's just me. I've always been suspicious of people who try to absolve themselves of responsibility while making concrete choices. Call me crazy.

[Ragin_mad]

20. And Hizbollah is killing innocent women and children in Israel

So what's the point ?

[Jazzgirl]

21. I believe only 12 Israeli citizens have been killed.

What about the 130 or so Lebanese citizens????

JG

[alcibiades_mystery]

26. Actually, it's 25 and counting

But comparative numbers is a piss-poor argument, and you do yourself a disservice by bringing it into play.

[bennywhale]

31. Try 230

[progressivebydesign]

23. amazing how this conflict has brought so many to DU...

I've never seen so many people, than in the past week, defending the bloody iron fist of Israel. You'd almost think it was.. I don't know.. coordinated?

[Ragin_mad]

29. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot

you can't be a democrat unless you attack Israel. I read that in a manual somw where.

[TheWatcher]

33. Did you also learn how to spell in that manual?

I'm sure it was in there SOMEWHERE.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. That the Israeli government are efficient psychopaths supported by Bush

where Hizbollah are less efficient psycopaths supported by Iran? Maybe the point is that US taxpayer dollars go towards killing innocent Lebanese, while US lawmakers and the administration hypcritically condemn Iran for supporting Hizbollah?

[whistle]

4. Dimson knows how to set deadlines for killing, but not peace

[KamaAina]

6. And if they should fall a couple of days behind,

they'll have to play "catch-up".

With :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: .

:scared:

[MichiganVote]

7. As anyone knows...curfew a teenager and what's likely to happen?

[rastafan]

8. Iran and "Second 9/11": Cheney's "Contingency Plan"

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20060222&articleId=2032

"Second 9/11": Cheney's "Contingency Plan"

While the "threat" of Iran's alleged WMD is slated for debate at the UN Security Council, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan "to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States". This "contingency plan" to attack Iran uses the pretext of a "Second 9/11" which has not yet happened, to prepare for a major military operation against Iran.

The contingency plan, which is characterized by a military build up in anticipation of possible aerial strikes against Iran, is in a "state of readiness".

What is diabolical is that the justification to wage war on Iran rests on Iran's involvement in a terrorist attack on America, which has not yet occurred:

The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections. (Philip Giraldi, Attack on Iran: Pre-emptive Nuclear War , The American Conservative, 2 August 2005)

Are we to understand that US military planners are waiting in limbo for a Second 9/11, to launch a military operation directed against Iran, which is currently in a "state of readiness"?

Cheney's proposed "contingency plan" does not focus on preventing a Second 9/11. The Cheney plan is predicated on the presumption that Iran would be behind a Second 9/11 and that punitive bombings would immediately be activated, prior to the conduct of an investigation, much in the same way as the attacks on Afghanistan in October 2001, allegedly in retribution for the role of the Taliban government in support of the 9/11 terrorists. It is worth noting that the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan had been planned well in advance of 9/11. As Michael Keefer points out in an incisive review article:

"At a deeper level, it implies that “9/11-type terrorist attacks” are recognized in Cheney’s office and the Pentagon as appropriate means of legitimizing wars of aggression against any country selected for that treatment by the regime and its corporate propaganda-amplification system.... (Keefer, February 2006 )

(continued)

[melnjones]

10. this deserves its own thread. eom.

[nguoihue]

34. Cheney's contingency plan

is PNAC's plan for world domination and looks like it is preceding on schedule. The end justifies the means for these thugs.

[AlamoDemoc]

9. This proves what the rest of the world thinks of us....

that we allow Israel to commit genocide on our own terms. WOW!

[Poll_Blind]

11. Well said. Painfully true. Conflating U.S. interests with Israel up...

...to a certain point is fine and healthy, even, given the fact that they do deal with the horrors of terror much more frequently than we do.

  But beyond a certain point, and that point is crossed when we continue to give it billions to buy military hardware back from us which they use in black-letter-law war crimes.

PB

[AlamoDemoc]

19. mind you, most of the money we give to Israel is not used only by military

purpose, but some are used against us, and our media as solidarity of what Israel is doing in the Middle East. I doubt many realize this, as well as what you have stated above.

[MrPrax]

12. The US can't control Israel...

but the Clown figures that Syria or Iran can pick up a phone and tell Hizbullah to knock it off.

If the US can't demonstrate 'control' over Israel, then what incentive does Syria, Iran or anyone else has to bother with negotiating with Israel, if their major supplier can't gaurantee 'performance'.

That's always been one of the problems - Israel is never pressured and so there really isn't any point in talking, which is precisely what Israel wants to show the world and that 'negotiations' are impossible. Impossible of course because Israel would be required to give up something and would be tied to an enforceable agreements. That't the deceit--there is a large section of opinion in many important places that thinks Israel borders should be whatever Israel decides.

The peace talk is strictly something to mollify liberals.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Bush to Israel: You are not killing people fast enough!

Perhaps Bush will lend Israel an entire B-52 wing to flatten Beirut. No one can match America when it comes to mass killings, not even Israel at her worst!

[VegasWolf]

16. Exactly, they're amateurs when it comes to killing civilians - the US

is much better at killing innocents.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Fuck around, and get your "Kill Civilians" pass revoked

:eyes:

[Binka]

32. Holy Shit Not That! How MF Harsh!

:eyes:

[cantstandbush]

17. Green light to kill as many Lebanese and destroy as much infrastructure

as possible. And one week to try out the latest bunker busting bombs made in the USA.

Reaping the whirlwind.

[progressivebydesign]

24. Yes, cuz they are dismantling the country.

It's pretty bad when the leader, that we helped install, is choking back tears begging for help, and Bush is dicking around. Some have said that it's lebanon's fault for not engaging with troops.. but they are trying to keep from plunging into another deadly civil war, from which they WERE starting to recover. So much for the fucking peace in Lebabon, eh Bush? Must be quite an accomplishment for him to know that the families in Lebanon are being killed with our military equipment, aid, and training.

[daleo]

18. Bush is supervising and permitting a massacre

Like Sharon did in the Shabra and Shatila refugee camps.

[Name removed]

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