Lebanon Burning

... and our Nero keeps fiddling around. Ramzi Kysia is an Arab-American essayist and peace activist. He is currently living in Lebanon. He wrote this commenting on Condi's recent trip.

Yesterday, CNN reported that before meeting with Israeli leaders Condoleezza Rice said that it was time for "a new Middle East...time to say to those who do not want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail, they will not."
To my complete horror, she apparently means exactly what she says.
Instead of the ten-thousand strong NATO force that Israel was calling for, CNN reported that the United States is insisting on a thirty-thousand member force, and that Bush and Rice are demanding that either Hezbollah accept such a force, or first be defeated militarily.
Hezbollah will never accept that many foreign troops in Southern Lebanon - even ten-thousand was pushing it. And "defeating" Hezbollah will take weeks of intense fighting, if not months, and cause tens-of-thousands more civilian casualties.
The terrifying thing is that the Lebanese government might accept such a plan - as angry as they are at Hezbollah, as desperate as they are to stop Israel's bombs. But European countries would be insane to contribute their troops to such a force.
Thirty-thousand foreign combat troops in Southern Lebanon is more than a face-saving measure, and much more than just a deterrent to future rocket attacks against Israel.
Thirty-thousand foreign combat troops in Southern Lebanon means knocking down every door, in what homes remain standing, to search for militants and weapons. Thirty-thousand troops means arbitrary arrests and indefinite detentions. Thirty-thousand troops means turning the South into Lebanon's very own "Shi'a Triangle," with a bitter insurgency and massive violence at every turn.
Thirty-thousand troops means turning Hezbollah into a world-wide organization that will certainly try and sponsor attacks against any country sponsoring those troops.
Thirty-thousand troops means uniting Shi'a militants with their Sunni counterparts in Al-Qaeda's view of the world.
The tactics used by many Arab militants should be resoundingly condemned. Both for targeting innocents and for bringing disaster on their own peoples. Even so, underneath America's scorn for Hezbollah and Hamas lies an incredible racism that pretends to believe that no Arab could possibly have any legitimate grievance with Israel. Even as Israel smashes their nations into oblivion. To deliver a solution to this crisis from out that racism is to birth a monster.
For a short time this week I allowed myself to feel some hope. But America's plan for "peace" amounts to throwing gasoline on an already raging fire and standing back while we all burn.

A "New Middle East" made in the image of our Dark Lord. An image that clearly is based on racist thoughts and dreams of power, glory and riches for a certain few.