23.8.06

A Canadian MP is forced to resign after he suggested opening a dialogue with Hezbollah

We don't talk to terrorists, we kill them !

The problem is what do we do when the alleged terrorists are those who resist Israel and represent the majority of citizen in Arab countries ? This is more than half the population in lebanon for Hezbollah and more than half the population in Palestine for Hamas. Israel and the US are waging war on both organisations in the name of the 'War on Terror'.

There are two logical possibilities here when so many people correspond to the definition of terrorists or terrorists supporters:
We are wrong and our definition of terrorism is not correct;
We are not wrong and our definition of terrorism is correct;

From this it follows that in both cases, waging war on terrorism is going either to kill the wrong people along the terrorists (first case) or only the terrorists (second case) but many of them. In both cases many people will die, much more than what terrorism has been able to kill until now. This is what is happening now in the 'War on Terror'.

What do we do then ? We try to refine and correct our definition of terrorism and terrorists (first case) or because there are so many of them (second case), we try to help these people out from terrorist activities by talking to them while at the same time making it clear that terrorism is not acceptable. Actually not all countries engaged in the fight against terror agree on the definition of terrorism. Jordan, for example, a solid US and Israel ally, does not agree with Russia on its inclusion of the 'Muslim Brotherhood' in the list of terrorist organisations. This is because Russia's 'terrorists' are sunnis while Jordan's and USarel's 'terrorists', even though some are sunnis (Hamas) and some shiites (Hezbollah), have ties to countries unfriendly to USrael. On the other hand, Al-Zarqawi, who was slaughtering Iraqi shiites before he died, was a Jordanian bred Muslim sunni fanatic, probably influenced by sunni fundamentalists in Jordan.

Of course everybody forgot by now about Al-Qaida whose main role is to boost Bush's and Blair's popularity around election time by appearing on Al-Jazeera.

Hence the definition of terrorism has become a purely political game.

None of the issues mentioned however, refining the definition of terrorism or engaging in talks with 'terrorist' organisations and the people and countries who support them, was considered as sound by USrael who are waging wars on civilian populations in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon in the name of the 'War on Terror'. The 'War on Terror' is becoming a mass murder and the 'free' world is accepting this mass murder which is taking place under its eyes because entire countries, populations and organisations were criminalised and diabolised. We are more inclined to forgive the killing of a murderer and of a criminal and the US made sure to extend its own criminal justice paradigm to terrorism: no fair trial, no fair judgement and no pardon in life, only in death ! However, are we sure that the people who are dying every day in Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon are murderers and criminals ?
Here again, the US has generalis, not only its own criminal judicial system but its lot of errors.

Suppose that terrorists are criminals, they are entilted to a trial and a judgement. If they don't have the status of criminals because they are treated by the 'War on terror' as 'heads of states' or 'political ennemies', then what are they ? They are not like every other head of state and they are not considered as real head of states. The US has found a convenient definition: EVIL ! The definition is convenient in the sense that it escapes classical categories, places terrorists both outside the realm of the criminal judicial system and the political system and dehumanise them.

The world is watching silent while Arab civilian populations are being slaughtered because these are not humans, they are 'terrorists' hence they are EVIL ! Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, there was never an official body count by the US occupation army. There is no point in counting dead 'evils' !

Today a Canadian liberal MP was forced to resign as the foreign affairs critic for his party after having made comments about the necessity for his country to initiate a dialogue with Hezbollah. The comments were made after the MP returned from a fact finding mission in Lebanon. Hezbollah is on the list of terrorist organisations in Canada.

The concept of Evil and the dehumanisation of Arabs since the beginning of the 'war on terror'

In 2003, the US didn't want to talk to Saddam, even though Saddam was their client warlord in the region for more than ten years. They didn't even give enough time to UN inspectors to finish their job in Iraq in the run-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. They fought in Iraq. They didn't fight against Saddam because the dictator was gone even more quickly than they thought. They, like Don Qixotte, fought ideas they have made up in their minds about Saddam, Iraq, Al-Qaida, WMD and the many links they fabricated and believed in for these virtual entities. There was however a reality on the ground they needed to really fight in Iraq, sectarianism, destabilisation, discontent, hostility of the occupied. However, this reality was not worth looking at because it contradicted their own 'reality', the one they were able to plant in their minds by reading Neo-Con litterature. Because what they fought for was a pure construct, a political construct meant to promote the 'War on Terror', they were not able to bring the promised democracy and peace to Iraq. Iraq is now a living hell, not a construct, a hell even worse than the one that stemmed from Saddam's dictatorial rule.

During this time, the US and Israel, and with them the self proclaimed 'democratic' and 'free' world, including Canada, declared themselves to be on the right side of history, the moral side, the side of Good, and they checked their ennemies on the wrong side, the side of Evil.

USrael made sure that all its ennemies in the ME were registered by the league of the 'free' nations on the wrong side. This was a golden occasion to get rid of all military and political dissent in the ME while Israelis were setting up their own peace plan in Palestine; a large prison-state for Palestinians for which Israel doesn't have to provide, because it is a state, but where it can block civilians, suffocate them and bomb them willingly in the name of the 'War against Terror'. Outside this large prison, Israel planned a prosperous and a peaceful country for Jews from all over the world.
But there were other problems for the realisation of this dream, Lebanon, Syria and Iran and a Palestinian leader who already talked to Isarel, recognised Israel and was again willing to talk, Arafat.

They checked Syria, Iran, Arafat, Hamas and Hezbollah on the side of terror and Evil and they started their work. They brought up the nuclear issue with Iran, they stopped initial peace talks with Syria and with Arafat and they declared Hamas and Hezbollah as the servants of Evil. They voted in the USrael congress sanctions against Syria and a pretty nasty UN resolution to drive Syria out from Lebanon and to create the conditions for the elimination of Hezbollah's military capacity, helped in this by a lebanese elite eager to trade one master for another. They voted and asked their friends states to vote Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

Arafat died not knowing why Sharon didn't want to talk to him. He was probably poisoned by Sharon and replaced by Abbas with whom Sharon and USrael didn't want to talk either. This was not a declared goal since Abbas was considered 'respectable' by USrael but after all they were not obliged to talk to him so they didn't. Sharon withdrew from the prison-Gaza only to reinforce the separation wall, initiate blockades, kill Palestinian leaders and officials by the dozen (targeted assassinations seen as totally acceptable by the 'free' world) and transfer some of them to Israeli prisons per se and make life in Gaza more hell than ever. But Sharon invented the unilateral 'peace' process mainly in order not to talk to the other side. During this time, Hamas stopped suicide bombings, engaged in the political process and capitalised on the Palestinian discontent with USrael and their client Mahmoud Abbas to become a party elected to power by the population. However, Hamas was on the terrorists list of USrael and USrael decided they were not going to talk to Hamas and they convinced the 'free' world into this. In the absence of talks, there were instead blockades of the Palestinian territories, killing of civilians (remember the family killed on a Gazan beach not long ago ?) and the starving of the Palestinians by stopping aid and preventing anybody from sending any aid, including medical supplies. Gaza was suffocating when Hamas agreed with Fatah, at the end of June, on a draft recognising Isarel in its 1967 borders and restricting resistance to these borders. This had the immediate effect of unleashing military operation after military operation by Israel in Gaza, daily shelling and killing of civilians. With it the imprisonment by Israel of many Hamas MPs and two killing attempts made on Ismail Haniyyeh and Khaled Mashaal, top Hamas officials.

Palestinians were suffocating but the free world was watching with good conscience because they were already categorised as EVIL 'terrorists'.

Syria was driven out from Lebanon and a pro USrael government installed there with the help of their long term allies, the Saudis (remember, those who have given us the 9/11 terrorists). USrael asked the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah who claimed Israel's occupation of Lebanon's Sheb'a farms as the number one reason for its military arsenal. A national dialogue was initiated in Lebanon between main political parties participating in the government in which Hezbollah is a member. During this time, Iran, emboldened by the Iraqi chaos, the US having eliminated their long time ennemy Saddam and installed a shiite, pro-Iranian government there, decided to defy the US, helped by the decline of the US overseas deterrent capacity, strained by the situation in Iraq.

This is when the US asked Israel to take care of Iran in a show of force against Hezbollah (claimed to be Iran's client) in Lebanon, and very quickly. Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker argues that the US's hurry for a large scale military operation against Hezbollah was motivated by the US internal elections agenda. Sorry, no time for this 'fragile democracy' in Lebanon.

It is in this context of accumulated errors in the ME that USrael started a war of brutal intimidation and punishment on Lebanon and the Lebanese in order to force them to get rid of Hezbollah. Lebanon, its government and its population, having the painful memories of the 15 years civil war they are just recovering from, show no willingness to turn against 40 % of their population, Hezbollah. Moreover, a political convent ties Hezbollah to a major Christian party, the party of general Michel Aoun and a sizeable part of Sunnis support Hezbollah's agenda in the country. Hezbollah, like Hamas, is more than a militant organisation, they have a social network, they are involved in the political process and they enjoy the support of more than half the Lebanese population, by the most conservative estimates. But the scope and force of the Israeli agression on Lebanon, its civilians and its infratsructure were meant to send a strong message: 'Get Rid of Hezbollah'. However the Lebanese this time were contemplating a different reality; Hezbollah is one of them and thay cannot just go out and kill 40 % of the population, they are not ready for another civil war.

USrael did not anticipate these differences in the perception and appreciation of the Lebanese reality, as with other adventures in the ME. The war went on for more than a month and did not produce the expected results but only destruction of Lebanon and its people on a huge scale and for years to come.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaida, the netwrok responsible for 9/11 and who is the reason behind the 'War on Terror' is quitetly hiding in the caves of a US friendly country, elusive and menacing as on September eleventh, immune to the 'War on Terror'.


The problem with this vision of the middle east promoted by USrael is that they don't want to talk to people who are essential part of the conflict. Why ? Because these people happen to be the incarnation of Al-Qaida (even though there is no relation between these groups and Al-Qaida), which is becoming the myth of Evil. USrael designated an Evil and its representatives on earth, even though not only there are no real relations between the EVIL and its alleged representatives but also profound differences. However the West and its main information channels are not keen on subtle categorial distinctions. Just before the war on iraq began, Bush didn't know that there were Shias in Iraq and he didn't know what is the difference between shias and sunnis. They are all Arabs, they are all Muslims and they are all Evils.

Nobody talks to EVIL, neither to its representatives. The only way out from a confrontation with EVIL is complete victory ! However, it happens that this EVIL is actually people made from flesh, human beings. If you don't talk to the people with whom you fight, it is because you want their complete elimination and the total submission of the rest of them. Complete elimination of Hamas and its supporters, complete elimination of Hezbollah and its supporters, complete elimination of their main moral and financial support in the region, the non compliant Iranian regime and its supporters, who is growing stronger and richer, thanks to increasing oil prices driven by the war in Iraq (in fact it is the US who is financing Hezbollah through the spectacular increase in oil prices since the Iraq war !).

That makes a lot of people, representatives of EVIL on earth, to eliminate ! May be an A bomb or a nuclear bomb can do the job like in Hiroshima and Nagazaki. The US did it before and they can do it again ! Why not and why do you think the US is more focused on Iran's nuclear capacity than on North Korea's ? Because the US's mai n ally in the region wants to keep its deterrent capacity exclusive as to impose its own solution to the ME crisis. After all, the bomb is in israel's hands, in the hands of the Good and is meant to desactivate EVIL istelf !

Nobody, in my opinion, has ever genuinly and officially apologized for Hiroshima and Nagazaki in the 'free' world and, judging by the reactions of the press in the 'free' world to scenes of death and suffering in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, few people have showed empathy and few have condemned ! You don't talk to EVIL. EVIL doesn't suffer and EVIL doesn't deserve sympathy nor empathy ! Hence the savage Isareli agression on Lebanon with the 'free' world active consent ! And tomorrow if Israel want to drop an atomic bomb on civilian populations in the ME nobody will have anything to say against that. 'Israel has the right to defend itself' we will surely hear from our politicians in the west and if they dare say something else they will have to resign !

There is a wild dream in this logic, a troubled wild child's dream, that what one believes is actually what exists. USrael is believing that they can model the ME to suit Israel's absurde colonialist adventure by propagating the myth of EVIL to silence dissent against isarel,s expansionnism and savage colonialism! They are doing so by the book with guidance from their theorists neo-Cons friends, with total disregard to the reality on the ground.

And when a Canadian MP visits Lebanon on a fact finding mission and sees actually a reality he was never prepared to see and utter the words he should never utter by Neo-Con standards, he is forced to resign !

May be we should send all MPs from Canada, the US and the UK and all allied countries on fact finding missions to Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine. They will see the reality on the ground and return to their countries and utter words they should never utter by neo-con standards and they will be forced to resign. Then we can elect new governments, governments who don't believe in EVIL, governments who believe in people and humanity and reason to better represent the interests of ordinary citizens caught in the moral darkness of the 'War on Terror' which is void of reason, morality and humanity !

16 comments:

markfromireland said...

Hi Sophia,

Depressing. You know what this reminds me of? How for a long time anyone who dared speak the truth about apartheid era South Africa got howlrd down. Can we agree between ourselves that a lot of the problem is that quite simply when it comes to Arabs (let alone Muslims) that racism is still not only acceptable but damned near mandatory.

A report you might want to publicise from Amnesty:

Deliberate destruction or "collateral damage"? Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure

Not bad at all for this early on.

Keep well and keep hopeful I truly believe we'll see the begining of the tide turning if we can get through the next year or so.

Mark

blank said...

Bush said, "If they are not with us, they are against us." This courageous Canadian MP will be known as a visionary.

Bush has suffered a significant defeat in his self-declared war on terror. He has empowered an extreme Islamic Iran, and he has no political capital left to do anything about Iran building nuclear weapons. He has spent his political capital in Iraq and in support Israel against Hezbollah. It takes political capital to make war, and Bush's political capital bank is bankrupt.

This Canadian MP with a brain has proposed a solution that should have proposed more than a decade ago.

blank said...

I should have added:
United States Suffers Defeat in War on Terror http://blue-is-beautiful.blogspot.com/2006/08/united-states-suffers-defeat-in-war-on.html
A quote: "President Bush miscalculated when he chose to attack terrorism in Iraq and that miscalculation has lost him a significant battle in the war on terror. President Bush is powerless to do anything to prevent Iran’s rise to power. The President who made his reputation by being tough on terrorism has given terrorism the largest victory in the history of terrorism."

Sophia said...

Mark,
Thanks for the link, actually I did put the link in one of my posts but I didn't realy post about it yet and will do when I will read carefully the report.
You are right, we have to go through next year and then we will see what will happen.
I agree with you, racism is the key word and has to do a lot with these attitudes. Ordinary racism is the start of the dehumanisation of the other which goes a long path down to Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and concentration camps...

Anonymous said...

Just a quick correction, Hezballah is not supported by more then 50% of the Lebanese population.

It exerts the support of apprimately 30% of the population. If you are to take the whole Lebanese population, that is, including Lebanese expats, that number dwindles down to 20% tops.

Just wanted to clarify this.

Sophia said...

Roxie,
Bush is loosing capital for sure but still some 49 % of Americans still believe that he is successful in the war on terror. This is half of the population and if Bush were to ask for reelection tomorrow, he will win on this subject with a little help from his friends who will design the latest electronic ballot boxes and make them scarce in poor and heavily democratic preccincts.
pierre tristam (in my blogroll) has an interesting post recently on that.

Sophia said...

Anonymous,

recent survey copied from lettersapart.blogspot.com and earlier published in al-akhbar (arabic)

Public Survey: Support for Hezbollah

The Beirut Center for Reasearch and Information has released a new public opinion survey consisting of five questions.

Q1: Do you believe the resistance has emerged victorious from this war?

> Yes: 72% -> Sunni: 70.8%, Shia: 96.3%, Druze: 62.8%, Christian: 59.7%
> No: 28%

Q2: Should the resistance support the Lebanese army in the event of an Israeli attack on Lebanon?

> Yes: 72%
> No: 22.7%

Q3: Do you think this war was a result of the capturing of Israeli soldiers, or was it a premeditated plan?

> Premeditated: 84.6% -> Sunni: 81.6%, Shia: 92.7%, Druze: 76.7% , Christian: 79.7%
> Captured Soldiers: 13.2%
> Other: 2.2%

Q4: Are you confident that the internationl forces can deter any Israel attacks?

> No: 64.9%
> Yes: 32.5%
> Unknown: 2.6%

Q5: Do you believe in the possibility of peace with Israel?

> No: 74.5%
> Yes: 25.5% -> Sunni: 21.3%, Shia: 1.9%, Druze: 32.6%, Christian: 41.9%

-----------

Two years ago (June 2004), the same center released the results of another survey concerning Hezbollah. I'm only referencing the relevant questions, and I'm ignoring the sectarian makeup of the answers.

Q1: After Hezbollah's success in freeing the prisoners, do you support the the resistance in freeing Shebaa Farms?

> Yes: 70%
> No: 23%
> Unknown: 7%

Q2: If negotations between Hezbollah and Israel with regards to the release of Samir Qantar fail, do you support Hezbollah in capturing Israeli soldiers in order to release him?

> Yes: 66%
> No: 20%
> Unknown: 14%

Q3: Do you support the Lebanese government acquiecing to American demands with regards to the resistance, if the USA threatens to penalize Lebanon both economically and politically?

> No: 68%
> Yes: 9%
> Answer depends on demands: 13%
> No comment: 10%

blank said...

Sophia said...
Roxie,
Bush is loosing capital for sure but still some 49 % of Americans still believe that he is successful in the war on terror.
---
Sophia, I see those 49% of Americans as scarecrows from the Wizzard of Oz, going though life and singing to themselves, "If I only had brain."

Anonymous said...

Sophia

The survey questions that you have presented are the type I show in my data management class when we discuss bias.

Imagine these two questions:

1) "Do you support a renegade militia starting a war without the approval of the government?"

2) "Do you support the actions of the heroic freedom fighters who have regained honour for the Arab World?"

Similar questions, yet almost certainly to get wildly different responses. I mean, c'mon, "Do you support the Lebanese government acquiecing to American demands"... who on earth would agree to that? If you ask a biased question, you will certainly get the answer you are looking for. It will just be meaningless.

blank said...

Anonymous said...
Imagine these two questions:

1) "Do you support a renegade militia starting a war without the approval of the government?"
---
RoxieAmerica answers: The renegade Militia you are talking about is I would assume Hezbollah. Hezbollah is an Islamic fundamentalist resistance group. If the Lebanonese Army did not rise up against the Hezbollah, then they have by default supported the Hezbollah.
----
2) "Do you support the actions of the heroic freedom fighters who have regained honour for the Arab World?"
----
RoxieAmerica answers: Is it a question of supporting them, or simply recognizing that they exist due to the conflict, and they are part of the conflict? Is it a question of recognizing they are one-side of the conflict and the only way to resolve conflict is to includ both sides in discussions of the resolution of the conflict?

Anonymous said...

Roxie,

Surveys do not allow such nuanced responses. Generally, all you would be permitted would be a "yes" or a "no", which would then be reported as "70% of Lebanese agreed with statement #1" or something to that effect.

Anonymous said...

As a Canadian, I was aghast when I heard this on the news. I thought we were better than that, but obviously I was wrong.

Keep writing!

Colette (in Toronto)

Sophia said...

Thanks Colette. It is great to have a Canadian commenting on this. As a person who has lived in many places after I left Lebanon during the civil war, I found Canada a heaven for free thinking, tolerant and open people and it is these values that attach me emotionally and intellectually to Canada and I will be very upset if the conservatives are going to change these values which I believe are what constitute the true Canadian identity.

Anonymous said...

Sophia, I was very glad to find your blog.

I have little good to say about the Conservatives, since I've always been middle-of-the-road, although the Liberals somewhat lost me recently. But I don't believe the conservatives will, or even can, change any values. The Prime Minister already back-pedalled on some of his more outrageous election pronouncements. I think a lot has to do with historical ignorance.

By the way, I was born in Beirut, but my parents left when I was a baby.

xox

Sophia said...

Hi Colette,

I am traveling right now without a regular internet connection but will update my blog in a near future.

regards

Sophia

Anonymous said...

This MP needs to be commended and Canada should be ashamed. Israel is the most brutal terrorist state in the world. They attack first and ask questions later. When they're in the wrong, they just spread their lies and propaganda around the world.

Israel also dropped over 1 million cluster bombs in Southern Lebanon - 90% of them at the end AFTER peace talks were underway. That is about killing as many civilians as possible. Why is Israel above criticism? It makes me anti-semitic to talk about the clusterbombs, shelling a palestinian family on the beach, AIPAC spy scandal, killing 8 canadians, killing UN workers, breaking more UN resolutions than any other country, bulldozing Palestinian homes and building RACIST Jewish-only settlements on occupied territory etc, etc...? Ridiculous. I'm going to call it as I see it. Israel is a brutal, brutal plutocracy. They have completely humiliated the Palestinians...life is absolutely unlivable. They've been invading Lebanon for decades. The Mossad are a bunch of terrorist cowards who use deception to attack innocent people and blame it on others. And they get away with it every time. I'm ashamed that Canada is so blatantly pro-Israel. I will not support anything about this terrorist state until they show me they have the capability of acting like civilized human beings and not lying, swindling, stealing, racist, murderous, barbaric thugs. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of them.

 
Since March 29th 2006