"MADE IN USA" Banner in Beirut, Lebanon Rubble......

[leftchick]

I can't disagree with that....



Lebanese youths stand on a banner in protest against the United States on the rubble of a building destroyed in Israeli bombardment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006. On the second day of a United Nations ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah, Lebanon's Defense Minister said that 15,000 Lebanese soldiers will be deployed in south Lebanon by the end of the week. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

[bluerum]

1. kewl

[Joanne98]

2. That's the best picture I've seen yet. K&R!

[OhioChick]

3. K&R

:kick:

[Jeanette in FL]

4. Talk about "a picture says a thousand words"

How sad the rest of the world knows the truth.

[meganmonkey]

5. ......

:cry:

So sad. So very, very bad.

x(

[paparush]

6. THIS is why people want to do us harm...cause our govt causes

shit like this... Plans it. Equips it. Supports it. Executes it.

[calimary]

13. But... but... but... they hate us for our FREEDOM!!!

Whatza matter with you? Don't you realize that? It's not that other stuff. They hate us for our FREEDOM! Which is so savvy of bush - how he's systematically relieving us of those freedoms, bit by bit. Gee WHIZ! By the time he's done, they won't hate us anymore!!!

(drip that sarcasm, drip that sarcasm...)

[AZBlue]

7. Makes you proud to be an American, huh? eom

[leftchick]

8. another view...

A Lebanese man stops to look an an anti-American protest banner on a building destroyed by Israeli bombardment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006. On the second day of a United Nations ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah, Lebanon's Defense Minister said that 15,000 Lebanese soldiers will be deployed in south Lebanon by the end of the week. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

[Scriptor Ignotus]

9. you could post that banner

over the majority of homes-turned-smoldering craters worldwide over the last forty years. Remember "We Are the World?" We bastardized that and Bob Geldof be damned have spawned a new and much more ominous slogan: "We Arm the World". Those pictures are in no way limited to the destruction in Lebannon, sadly.

[WillyT]

10. K & R !!!

:argh:

[TahitiNut]

11. Gee, I wonder if Junior will say they hate us for our freedoms.

:eyes: :puke: :cry:

[cigsandcoffee]

12. Made in the Middle East?

Hezbollah cheered that morning. I'm hard pressed to take a lesson in guilt from them. Feel free to disagree

[rockymountaindem]

14. I'm with you

Hezbollah gets no sympathy.

[WillyT]

15. That's One Interpretation...

:evilfrown:

[Selatius]

16. More like Made in America as well

Unless, of course, you discount the negative blowback that could come from supporting dictatorships and oligarchies like the Shah, Saddam, or the House of Saud who leave nothing but radical religion as the only outlet for the masses. If you have such a corrupt foreign policy that doesn't generate somebody willing enough to want to kill you, I'd be surprised.

[cigsandcoffee]

19. Sorry, I don't subscribe to the view that 9-11 was justified.

In fact, I pretty much find it to be a despicable opinion.

[Selatius]

22. I never justified it.

But to have such a brutal, blood-stained foreign policy and not expect such a consequence as 9/11 in this grotesque world we know is simply foolish. I don't think it was justified, but I understand where that rage comes from.

[cigsandcoffee]

24. When you said "More like Made in America as well,"

...you justified it. You put the blame off the people who did it and rested it on America. There is no other possible interpetation of your words.

[Selatius]

25. I disagree, it's merely a recognition that this is a long-standing

problem that predates Al Qaeda or 9/11. I did not, nor will I ever give a pass to anybody willing enough to intentionally target and murder innocent civilians for whatever gain. It is one thing to understand blowback, but it is not the same thing as condoning it.

[evox]

17. Hezbollah didn't cheer

They denounced it. Moreover, they're probably the second most hated enemy for Alqaeda after the U.S. Do some research.

[cigsandcoffee]

18. Care to share a little of your research?

Or should I take your word for what sounds like absolute rubbish at face value?

[cigsandcoffee]

20. I found my own.

Not exactly at eachother's throats.


http://www.cfr.org/publication/11275/

Introduction

Experts disagree over the nature of the relationship between al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. Some analysts see the groups as natural allies because of their common interests, while others perceive hostility stemming from sectarian rivalry: Al-Qaeda is a Sunni group and Hezbollah is Shiite. Representatives for the groups have at times spoken unfavorably of one another, though al-Qaeda spokesman Ayman al-Zawahiri bridged the rhetorical divide in a July 27 video in which he acknowledged Hezbollah's fight against Israel is indeed jihad, saying "We cannot just stand idly by while we see all these shells fall on our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon." In fact, evidence suggests al-Qaeda and Hezbollah have cooperated in the past and may do so again.

Do Hezbollah and al-Qaeda work together?

They have in the past. As former National Security Council members Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon describe in their book, The Age of Sacred Terror, a small group of al-Qaeda members visited Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon in the mid-1990s. Shortly thereafter, according to testimony from Ali Mohammed, an Egyptian-born U.S. Army sergeant who later served as one of bin Laden's lieutenants and pled guilty to participating in the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa, Osama bin Laden and Imad Mugniyeh met in Sudan. The two men, who have both topped the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists, agreed Hezbollah would provide the fledgling al-Qaeda organization with explosives and training in exchange for money and manpower. Though it is unclear whether all terms of that agreement were met or the degree to which the two groups have worked together since. Douglas Farah, a journalist and consultant with the NEFA Foundation, a New York-based counterterrorism organization, says Hezbollah helped al-Qaeda traffic its assets through Africa in the form of diamonds and gold shortly after the 9/11 attacks. U.S. and European intelligence reports from that time suggest the two groups were collaborating in such activities as money laundering, gun running, and training. It's not clear whether these past collaborations were isolated incidents or indications of a broader relationship.

Do al-Qaeda-Hezbollah ties pose a threat to the United States?

Some experts are increasingly concerned by the threat posed by Hezbollah outside its normal area of operations. "I think we should be quite concerned," Farah says, "Hezbollah will eventually be pushed back a bit and will see striking outside their borders as the way to go." There is already some evidence suggesting the United States could be a target. According to Ed Royce, chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism and non-proliferation, "We're seeing a pattern of activities on the border and elsewhere," he told UPI, "a renewed operational focus by Hezbollah on getting their people in over the border."

Last month the FBI sent a notice to 18,000 police agencies asking them to remain wary of the Hezbollah threat. This is not the first time the FBI placed Hezbollah in its sights: A 2002 report from the agency suggested that fifty to one hundred Hamas and Hezbollah agents had infiltrated the United States at that time and were involved in fund-raising and low-level intelligence gathering. Just last year, ABC News reports, the Bureau had as many as 200 active cases involving suspected Hezbollah operatives. Hezbollah's intelligence gathering activities have been seen by some officials as contingency planning should either group wish to launch attacks in the United States. The group has consistently shown itself to be one of the most innovative and effective terrorist groups in the world. As then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage explained in a September 2002 speech, "Hezbollah may be the A team of terrorists and maybe al-Qaeda is actually the B team." Some experts say a Hezbollah attack in the United States isn't very probable. Former FBI counterterrorism agent Jack Cloonan told ABC, "The more likely scenario will be that Hezbollah will target a U.S. facility overseas."

[eridani]

28. An awful lot of "it is unclear that..." statements, no?

"Hezbollah will eventually be pushed back a bit and will see striking outside their borders as the way to go."

Applying a bit of elementary logic here--they have so far not struck outside of their borders. This solidly confirms the picture of Hezbollah as a strictly local group with a primary mission of keeping Israel out of Lebanon. That figures--they didn't even exist UNTIL Israel invaded Lebanon in the first place.

[cigsandcoffee]

29. Please read it however you like.

I found that passage to be abundantly clear.

[eridani]

30. Abundantly clear that Hezbollah is not (now) international

Conjectural statement about that possibility in the future.

[cigsandcoffee]

31. I'm missing your point.

We should worry about them only when they are?

[eridani]

32. We should stop the policies that are pushing them in that direction

Those policies have resulted in 90% approval ratings from Lebanese Shi'a, and 80% or better from Sunni, Druze and Christians for Hezbollah.

[cigsandcoffee]

33. Indeed, but they must also garner some responsibility...

...for their own actions. Right?

[eridani]

34. For what? Responding to an all-out attack on their country?

It's a sick joke that IDF wants the Lebanese army to control Hezbollah, and then bombs that army. They succeeded in confirming Hezbollah's reputation as the only entity that has a chance of defending Lebanon.

[Phrogman]

21. The only conspiracy theory that exists about 9/11

Is that it was pulled off by:

"a bearded guy in a cave on the other side of the world"

[cigsandcoffee]

23. Whatever.

Another belief I don't subscribe to is that this country doesn't have clever foreign enemies. The GOP are a pack of domestic shitheads, but that doesn't mean they're the only threat to the nation. I see 9-11 conspiracies as an attempt to ignore our outside threats so all the energy can be focused on inside ones. That's pretty much sticking your head in the sand on foreign policy, which isn't a very smart thing to do.

[Phrogman]

35. Hey........same to you!

e0m

[Swamp Rat]

26. k&r

[Dystopian]

27. sad but true......k/r n/t

[Dragonbreathp9d]

36. Made by humanity-

Stop blaming...
Start helping...