"Learning From Hezbollah"

[Emit]

Learning From Hezbollah

By Brian E. Humphreys
Saturday, August 12, 2006; Page A21

From my first day in Iraq as a young infantry officer, I was struck by the huge perceptual gulf that separated us from the Iraqis ... At a deeper level, the motives of the local populace remained largely invisible to us, as people smiled one minute and attempted to blow us up the next. We knew little or nothing about their grievances and aspirations, or where the political fault lines ran in the cluster of small cities in the Sunni Triangle we were tasked with pacifying.

~snip~

Now, watching the latest news dispatches from Lebanon, I find myself comparing our efforts to introduce a new order in Iraq with Hezbollah's success as an effective practitioner of the art of militarized grass-roots politics... Using the grass-roots approach, Hezbollah has been able to convert the ignored and dispossessed Shiite underclass of southern Lebanon into a powerful lever in regional politics. It understands that the basic need in any human conflict, whether or not it involves physical violence, is to take care of one's political base before striking out at the opponent.

As many informed observers have pointed out, Hezbollah has engrafted itself to the aims and aspirations of the Lebanese Shiite community so completely that Israel cannot destroy it without also destroying the community, with all the attendant political and moral costs. It is the willingness of women, children and old men to support Hezbollah and its political program at the risk of their lives that gives the organization power far beyond its military means.

Whatever the objective truth of Hezbollah's motives, its many supporters in southern Lebanon believe fervently that it is their organization, not an Iranian surrogate. Few if any American units in Iraq have achieved anything close to this level of success in winning the support of the local population. (Of more concern is the fact that few Iraqi security units or political leaders appear to have done so, either.) Commanders have come and gone, elections have been held, Iraqi soldiers trained, all manner of strategies for dealing with the insurgency attempted -- but with only limited and localized successes. Hezbollah's success among civilians in Lebanon, which is only reinforced by a ruthless pummeling from a reviled enemy, contrasts sharply with the continued fragility of the much more modest U.S. gains in Iraq, achieved at a much higher price.

~snip~

The writer served in Iraq as a Marine infantry officer in 2004.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/11/AR2006081101398.html

[EVDebs]

1. Since the coming Peak Oil will naturally create the end result

that our current war-based adventures in the Middle East seek, it is suprising to me that our war colleges (West Point, Annapolis, etc.) would seek to constantly inject our presence into the area that clearly does not want our infidel secular Western selves in.

If Luke 9 : 5 were to be practiced in a similar fashion

(And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them)

Peak Oil shows us that by, say, 2031, there will be no more oil left to prop up the "islamofascism" conservatives are ranting about. The fascism part of that Islamofascism is actually the oil companies complicity.

If green and conservation minded neocons would only wake up to the fact that every dollar spent on oil in the ME goes to a percentage of the propping up of the caliphate/world-domination via Islam (the fear factor that the neocon's use to control power), then a future vison can be shown to that part of the world that may actually change minds based on practicality, not ideology.

It's only common sense.

[Emit]

2. I guess their in the race to get that last drops of oil come hell or ...

Thanks EVDebs, for your words of wisdom. Had the masses ever had a choice in the matter, I think common sense and reason would've prevailed and we would have put our best minds toward creating smarter alternative solutions to this chaotic war of destruction. The war profiteers have much to gain from their tactics. The masses are the losers.

[Emit]

3. "A military solution to an ecological problem..."

I'm listening to this interview with Richard Heinberg. I read his book a while ago (actually just posted a quote from it a minute ago: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1897968&mesg_id=1897968 ) and came across this interview.

08/07/2004 Interview - Real Audio | MP3

Richard Heinberg, from Santa Rosa, CA, has been writing about energy resources issues and the dynamics of cultural change for many years. A member of the core faculty at New College of California, he is an award-winning author of three previous books. His Museletter was nominated for its "Best Alternative Newsletter" award by Utne Reader in 1993.

If the US continues with its current policies, the next decades will be marked by war, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political elites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation and have in mind a punishing game of "Last One Standing."

The alternative is "Powerdown," a strategy that will require tremendous effort and economic sacrifice in order to reduce per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, develop alternative energy sources, distribute resources more equitably, and reduce the human population humanely but systematically over time. While civil society organizations push for a mild version of this, the vast majority of the world's people are in the dark, not understanding the challenges ahead, nor the options realistically available.

Finally, the book explores how three important groups within global society-the power elites, the opposition to the elites (the antiwar and antiglobalization movements, et al: the "Other Superpower"), and ordinary people-are likely to respond to these four options. Timely, accessible and eloquent, Powerdown is crucial reading for our times.

http://www.energybulletin.net/1548.html

[EVDebs]

4. Powerdown mimics Lester Brown's Plan B 2.0

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm

and also see Amory Lovin's Winning The Oil End Game

www.oilendgame.com

I've read Heinberg's other book The Party's Over so I guess I'll have to check out his website at museletter.com for more on his new book. Thanks !

[scarletwoman]

5. It's nicely written and all, but the guy is TOTALLY missing a very salient

point: the fact that Hizbullah arose OUT of the Lebanese Shiite community that the writer says they have "engrafted" themselves too. Is he really not aware that the members of Hizbullah are native-born Lebanese?

"...its many supporters in southern Lebanon believe fervently that it is their organization, not an Iranian surrogate." -- that would be because for the southern Lebanon Shiites Hizbullah IS "their organization".

It's a shame, because this is a thoughtful piece of writing in many ways. But he either -- a) does not know that Hizbullah is a native Lebanese Shiite organization, or -- b) does not understand that there is a glaring difference in terms of community support between a native group and the occupying forces of a foreign power (and that would evince an absolutely absurd level of naivite).

sw