"A flimsy reed" (editorial from Haaretz)

[scarletwoman]

A flimsy reed

By Yossi Sarid

This war is, first and foremost, an Israeli tragedy. It is also a Lebanese tragedy and, in fact, an international one.

When the Israeli cabinet decided to respond to the abduction of two soldiers by launching a war, it did not take into consideration the fact that no one would stop it. Once started, there would be no element in the world today with the authority to stop it, whose call for a cease-fire would cause the warring parties to lay down their arms. The world of the early 21st century is one of total license, without discipline or authority.

<snip>

The election of George W. Bush as president of the United States was a terrible calamity for the world and all its inhabitants. We all know the world is a big place, and leading it is too big a job for Bush. He is not the one who can ease its pain. Ever since he was born again and his eyes opened, he views the world as flat. In a confluence of fundamentalist Christian and Texan cowboy traditions, he divides the world into good people and bad people, the sons of light against the sons of darkness. The division is sharp and clear, all black and white, with no shades of gray. What a pity it is that the American president has inherited the earth and not the skies, which are divided so clearly into heaven and hell.

The messenger-president never has and never will have any truck with those not on the "good path" laid down by evangelist preachers and the Pentagon's "new world order" prophets. And so, the only empire on the planet is feuding with half the world. It isn't speaking to North Korea or Iran or Syria or to their satellites and emissaries - Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban and the like.

<snip>

Who would have believed it? Sometimes a normal human being finds himself missing the old world of blocs and the Berlin Wall. True, the fate of humankind in those days depended on the restraints imposed by what used to be called the "balance of terror," but it was a balance nonetheless that mandated serious thought before action. When the terror of the Cold War disappeared, that balance disappeared along with it, and the omnipotent American hegemony became impotent. The world is heating up and spinning out of control. In this unconstrained world, we are the victims-of-the-month.

sw

[Drum]

1. kick & recommend

:kick:

[Swamp Rat]

2. k&r

Thank you scarletwoman. I'd like to see more posts like this in GD.

:hi:

[scarletwoman]

3. When I read it, I could feel the writer's sorrow - it's the same as mine.

Why are so many people at the mercy of madmen?

sw

[struggle4progress]

4. "Our Fathers and ourselves sowed dragons teeth. Our children know ..

.. and suffer the armed men."

-- Stephen Vincent Benet

[Karmadillo]

5. Thank you for posting this. K & R.

nt

[Tom Joad]

6. As much as I hate how Bush responded, the responsibility rests with Olmer

olmert. Yes, it would have been better if we had a president with enough sanity to say to Olmert enough is enough.

Most of us have done things we regret (launched bloody wars have not been one of them, but still). We wonder why no one told us of the foolishness of our ways in time. Still, responsibility must rest with the doer of the deed, not those who did not intervene quickly enough.