"Catch Us Before We Fall Into the Death Spiral"

[Coexist]

If you have the time, please read this entire entry and follow the links. It is that good. I could not choose four paragraphs that represent the entire thing, so I went with the first few and linked to the rest.

I join those urging that the Bush administration bring in highly experienced mediators like James Baker, Madeleine Albright, George Mitchell, Bill Clinton -- add, or substitute, names to the list -- to stop this Middle East madness before it is too late:

"ISRAEL’S air, land and sea blockade of Lebanon, which includes jet fighter strikes against the airport in Beirut, presages a new era in the Middle East, one in which the center has collapsed and Muslim and Jewish extremists, capable only of the language of violence, determine the parameters of existence. These strikes, like the suicide bombings carried out by Islamic militants in Iraq or Israel, expose the Ahab-like self-immolation that now inflects the region. And unless it is halted soon, unless those fueling these conflicts learn to speak another language, unless they break free from an indulgence in collective necrophilia, the Middle East will slip into a death spiral. -- Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter for the New York Times and author, "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.”

I am not optimistic. Hedges says the Bush administration has an extremely limited, "binary worldview" and has "never had any interest in helping to broker Middle Eastern peace agreements." The administration's binary worldview is further limited by its reliance on force: Yesterday, on Democracy Now!, Ron Suskind explained that "what you see throughout the book is the administration's belief in the value in almost the mystical kind of power of the use of force."

more...

if you don't have time please just read this article by Chris Hedges, which is quoted above - it is stunning.

[radfringe]

1. going to take some time to get through all of it

before I make comments - but from what I've read so far this is definitly worth a kick

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Great piece, and Chris Hedges is one of the...

clearest thinkers out there.

[PA Democrat]

3. Have you read his book,

War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning? It provides great insight into how ordinary people get caught up in the tidal wave of war and how humans beings can justify the commission of horrible atrocities by dehumanizing the enemy. Well worth the read.

[Coexist]

5. I have ordered it.

I can't wait to read it.

[gratuitous]

9. I've read that book

And recommend a short little book by Dale W. Brown called "Biblical Pacifism." Don't be scared by the title; it's quite short. But one of the themes Prof. Brown develops a little bit is one he cribbed from Walter Wink called the Myth of Redemptive Violence. Like polarized lenses for a fisherman looking through water, understanding the Myth of Redemptive Violence makes a lot of things much clearer.

Hedges' statement that the corrupt Bush administration has an almost mystical belief in the power of the use of force is part and parcel of this idea, and shouldn't be missed.

Go this site:

http://www.brethrenpress.com/store/bpress

and plug biblical pacifism into the search engine.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. I've been seeing Wink's name popping up in...

the most interesting places lately.

He's becoming required reading in some circles.

[Coexist]

13. sounds interesting.

I love to read - I will definitely check it out.

[PA Democrat]

12. Thanks. I will check it out.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Haven't read it yet, but have heard him talk about it. As a...

war correspondant for so many years, he's one of the few who's managed to balance his personal experience of war with an outsider's objectivity.

He despises the uselessness and destruction of war, but understands its popularity.

[unhappycamper]

4. That is a really good read - thanks!

:kick: & R

[PA Democrat]

6. K & R. Both links are recommnded reading.

[librechik]

7. tears

Chris Hedges is effin scary.

[OneBlueSky]

8. "We cannot ascribe equal amounts of moral blame to all sides,". . .

says Chris Hedges. "Israel is the oppressor in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon. America is the oppressor in Iraq. And there can be no hope for a peaceful resolution to these conflicts until Iraqis are freed from American occupation and Palestinians are allowed to build a viable state."

how true . . .