Turkey is starting to get the piper’s bill: The U.S. military will withdraw again from the annual joint military exercises with Turkey and Israel if Turkey excludes Israel again. The question for the Turks, then, is who do they think is the strong horse? The U.S., or Iran? (Here’s a hint, in case they need one: It’s us.)
Say, QUIT: Are you listening yet? Israel charged eight members of an Arab-Israeli family with kidnapping their gay son because they don’t like his performing as a drag queen in Tel Aviv. Yes, boys, you’re on the wrong side in this fight.
Liar, liar, pants on fire: Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of the chief terrorists of Hamas, is lying to the media and telling them there’s no connection to the attacks on Israelis in the past two days and the peace talks taking place. Uh-huh. It’s just coincidental timing. By the way, here’s what the “moderate” Hamas had to say about the two-state solution:
“We want Gaza to remain calm because we liberated it. At this time we are not speaking of the liberation of all of Palestine. The current plan is to liberate the West Bank.”
Looks like all that figuring out how to get rid of the garbage as governors of Gaza didn’t moderate Hamas nearly as much as the world said it would. But let’s not confuse the issue with the facts: It was a free and fair democratic election. Just ask Jimmy Carter, who has said for years that Hamas wants peace with Israel. Shyeah.
The AP spin on the peace talks: The usual. Abbas is weak, and Bibi is hardline. Did we get an actual condemnation of the killing of civilians from Abbas? No. But Bibi is the hardline one. And what is the first crisis? Is it the murder of four Civilians in the PA-controlled West Bank? Nope. It’s The Obstacles To Peace: Settlements.
Despite that optimistic timetable, the first crisis is expected as early as next month, when Netanyahu has to decide whether to extend a 10-month freeze on Israeli settlement building on lands the Palestinians want for their state. Abbas has warned he’ll quit the talks unless the freeze continues, but Netanyahu has so far made no commitments.
Damn that hardline Netanyahu and his Obstacles to Peace settlements! He’s ruining the peace process by refusing to stop building in Ma’ale Adumim, a suburb of Jerusalem that the Palestinians have pretty much already agreed to swap for! Stupid hardliner. It’s all his fault there’s no peace. Ignore the regular stream of Palestinian politicians honoring terrorist mass-murders. It’s the settlements, stupid.
The problem is that the United States cannot bring itself to react at all until it is pushed over the edge. At that point, we hate war and fighting so much that we react with overwhelming force to end it as soon as possible. That is why Woodrow Wilson insisting on complete victory in the first phase of the World War when the European allies were ready to conclude a truce with Germany. That is why FDR and Harry Truman insisted on “Total Surrender” to end the second phase and Harry Truman ordered the two bombs dropped. That is why the Iraq war was fought with “shock and awe”.
Those who wind up on the other side do not understand this aspect of our character and keep mistaking the initial hesitancy for weakness. It is like someone being harassed by a schoolyard bully, who finally reacts with a single punch to the trachea that sends the bully to the hospital.
@Sabba Hillel: I agree with this point. As Isoroku Yamamoto said after Pearl Harbor, I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
However, that was true in the past, and I believe is still true of the American people. But the key question, that the rest of the world is gambling on is, Is it still true of this current administration?
a suburb of Jerusalem that the Palestinians have pretty much already agreed to swap for
Yeah, stupid Israel for suggesting that the Pali’s own something that they can swap for what is clearly Israeli land. Disputed territories do not belong to one side.
It’s a bit more complicated Sabba. In the case of WWII at least the men in charge of policy then remembered that Gremany had been defeated in 1918 but not forced to surender. Twenty years later Germany bestrode the continent like a colossus and started a new war. They were determined to prevent any repetition. With Japan the Japanese government was attempting to make a compromise peace through the good offices of the USSR. Once that was done they intended a reversal of alliances in wihcih Japan would ally with the Soviets against America, handing over territory in Asia if necessary, and in 20 yers of so start another war wit the USA. Surely they would get it right the second time. US policy makers were reading this plan on the intercepted and decrypted cables of the Japanese foreign office sent to the Ambassador to Moscow, a man named Sato (who ws the only sensible man in Japan’s foreign service; he told them to make peace PDQ on whatevr terms they could get). The high officials making policy, like Stimson, were determined to prevent this result.
Fighting a war decicively means not having to fight it a second time. Iraq is a perfect example. Because we did not make sure of Saddam and his henchmen in 1991 we had to go back and do it agian 12 years later. Because we did not overthrow the North Korean Commies and reunite the peninsula in 1951-53 we are now facing a lunatic NorK with nukes.
“Those who wind up on the other side do not understand this aspect of our character and keep mistaking the initial hesitancy for weakness.”
True. The way I put it is that nobody has really seen the USA angry since 1945. We have restrained ourselves. I thought we’d get angry after 9/11 but with great restraint we did not. We’re like Hulk; you don’t want to see us angry.