Ask Stageleft, The Middle East Edition

Stageleft was down for the morning, multiple DNS issues around the ‘net made us unreachable at a time when so much is going on. To catch y’all up here’s a special issue of “Ask Stageleft, the Middle East Edition”.

Dear Stageleft, I am so happy that president Bush is sending Dr. Rice to the Middle East with a peace plan, hopefully this ugly incident will be over soon, do you think they will listen to her?

Signed: Hopeful

Dear Hopeful, unfortunately years of American “screw the world we’re backing Israel” vetos, multiple calls for other people to follow UNSC resolutions, and complete refusal to expect the same from Israel have so damaged US credibility in the Middle East that any play they present is suspect before the ink is even dry. The best thing America can do at this point is stay home, stay uninvolved, and stay silent.

Dear Stageleft, Israel is massing troops at the Lebanese border and getting ready to call up their reserves, do you think there will be war? Could this be the end of the world?

Signed: Afraid of the Apocalypse

Dear Afraid of the Apocalypse, there could well be a war, given the situation I believe that, at this point, the only reasonable course of action for the Lebanese government is to prepare to repel the invaders as best as they are able. They have an army, decent sized reserves, a small force of attack aircraft, and they have a few a few attack boats – they should prepare to use them all. Quite frankly I am surprised that they haven’t defended themselves as vigorously as they are able, as major world leaders say all countries have the right to do, before this.

As to whether or not this is the end of the world, fear not, the apocalypse forms a part of the mythology of a minority group of people on the planet earth. Yes, their more extremist adherents are using events in the Middle East to gather more money, power, and followers, based on their rhetoric of fear but that does not mean you need to succumb to this. Keep a level head and you’ll be fine.

Dear Stageleft, the Israeli ambassador to Canada says Louise Arbour is not worth listening to when she talks of charges of war crimes against Israel and Hezbollah. Does she have a point or not?

Signed: Confused

Dear Confused, the most important thing to remember here is that there are at least two classes of nation in the world when it comes to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

In theory any government could be charged with war crimes but the hard cold reality is that there are those that can be, and those that cannot; countries like Israel, the United States, Great Britain, etc., fall into the latter category because they are “civilized” countries and “they don’t do that sort of thing”, even if they do, in fact, do that sort of thing.

It does not matter how many people countries that fall into the “cannot be charged with war crimes or crimes against humanity” category kill, it does not matter what actions they do, or do not, take, and it does not matter what tactics they use, they will never face a war crimes tribunal because they consider themselves “the good guys”^[tm].

Your confusion is understandable, it may help to rationalize it the way they do. When “the bad guys”^[tm] beat a prisoner to death, hold mock executions, put prisoners in tanks of ice water and induce hypothermia, use people they have captured as personal sex toys, or engage in things like “waterboarding”, they are committing atrocities.

When “the good guys”^[tm] beat a prisoner to death, hold mock executions, put prisoners in tanks of ice water and induce hypothermia, use people they have captured as personal sex toys, or engage in things like “waterboarding”, they are gathering valuable information — see how easy that is, they’re completely different things.

Dear Stageleft, did you see the article in The Age about all the times Beirut has been leveled or suffered? They must be really bad people for that to happen to them.

Signed: Evangelical Conservative

Dear Evangelical Conservative, no, they are not bad people. Although their city has suffered at the hands of Mother Nature, and at least once by each of the three major monotheistic religions, they are simply not bad people…. for the most part they simply have the unfortunate luck of being in the way of other peoples ambitions.