Definitions

[The Deacon]

cease-fire n (1859) 1: a military order to cease firing 2: a suspension of active hostilities

peace n <snip> 4 a: a state or period of mutual concord between governments b: a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity - Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition

I know that Bush barely passed at Yale, earning a degree in history mainly because his father & grandfather were Big Medicine, and I realize Condi Rice earned her degrees in Sovietology mainly because her father was Associate Dean at the University of Denver at the time, but one might expect that one of them might have a passing acquaintance with the difference between "ceasefire" and "peace (treaty)" - Junior's Daddy was, after all, Ambassador to China. And that at least some of the DINOs and Talking Heads polluting our television screens might have come across the differences in their reading.
Well, that's the tyranny of low expectations, I suppose. So let me spell it out for you: ceasefire (which is what all the moral people in the World are calling for in Lebanon) means everybody stops, in place, and the killing pauses. No one gives up any territorial gains, no one disarms, no one agrees to anything except to stop killing each other, at least for the present time. Some people who might have died in the fighting will end up living, at least for a little while longer. These people are frequently civilians. Among good & moral people this is considered a Good Thing.
Ceasefires often fail, sooner or later - its the nature of the beast.
Unless, of course, the breathing space gained by the ceasefire leads to a peace treaty - which is when both sides make their desires for permanent solutions known. One side gives up its territorial gains in exchange for the other side disarming, for example.

Condi? Junior? DINOs? You simpletons got it now?
1. You call for permanent solutions as part of ceasefire: people continue to die.
2. You announce unwavering support for Israel: people continue to die & the entire Muslim world sees you (and by extension, us) as bloodthirsty thugs.
3. You demand ceasefire & suspend any more shipments of arms to Israel until ceasefire is in place: people stop dying & the possibility of negotiating a peace treaty, with our Muslim allies helping, becomes real.

By the way, this WILL be on the Exam.

[pooja]

1. send this to olberman... he might put up the definition tonight.

[The Deacon]

2. Keith's On Vacation

AND I don't have his email.

[pooja]

3. oops... my in-laws have been in town, and sadly, i've missed it

all week.

[Boojatta]

4. From "unwavering support" to "bloodthirsty"

2. You announce unwavering support for Israel: people continue to die & the entire Muslim world sees you (and by extension, us) as bloodthirsty thugs.

What principle are you applying to conclude that the entire Muslim world sees him as bloodthirsty?

Assume for the sake of argument that the US showed unwavering support for South Korea in the war between North Korea and South Korea. Does the entire Muslim world see the US of that era as having been bloodthirsty? Perhaps the entire Muslim world is simply not interested in bloodshed unless it is Muslim blood?

Whatever the principle is, can you apply it to the Iran-Iraq war?

Would you say that a politician who didn't call for a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war was displaying thirst for Muslim blood?

If you consider both Iran and Iraq to have been part of the Muslim world, then potentially all of the blood spilled in that conflict was Muslim blood. So a willingness to see the conflict between Iran and Iraq continue might have seemed to be a willingness to see Muslim blood spilled.

[The Deacon]

5. Expedited

Arms deliveries to Israel. We show utter lack of concern for the fate of the civilians the Israelis are bombing. This is, by definition, bloodthirsty in the eyes of our Muslim allies.
I fail to see how the Iran-Iraq War is germane, however, Ronnie Raygun did play both sides against the middle by supplying (illegally) arms to Iran and intelligence to Iraq. That was when Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld regularly visited Saddam to tell him what a great guy he was.

[Boojatta]

6. Expedited delivery of arms that are more or less accurate than

what the Israeli government has been using?