Burton Speaks

So for the past two weeks or so Israel's been bombing the living crap out of Lebanon - and conducting a campaign in the Palestinian territories, as well. You see, about a month ago Hamas (the elected Palestinain authority) fighters tunnelled into an Israeli outpost and kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Then Hezbollah (also a governmental faction in Lebanon) fighters did the same thing, only they got two soldiers.

What really gets me is that a lot of attention is being paid to the collateral damage the Israelis are causing by bombing Lebanon - hundreds of civilians dead. This is tragic,only furthers regional hatred towards Israel, and should be avoided at ALL costs. However, the Israeli's aren't (I believe) targeting civilians. They're targeting what they believe are Hezbollah strongholds, which of course aren't well marked because - like Palestinian terror groups, Hezbollah more or less blends in with the populace and they don't wear nametags. Hezbollah, however, is not only shooting back at the Israeli soldiers (this is okay, it's a war) but they're indiscriminately firing rockets and missiles towards Israeli cities, HOPING to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible. THAT is a crime against humanity and an act of savagery deserving of any penalty that can be dished out. Shame on ANY country in the world that would harbor a group looking to kill as many civilians as possible.

Then there's the issue of our American arrogance. What happens when there's a crisis in the Middle East? We send the Secretary of State, of course, imagining for a second that's going to mean anything in an area of the world that, frankly, hates the U.S. and has given birth to numerous groups bent on "destroying us". We refuse to deal with Syria or Iran directly because they (may or may not) sponsor terrorism - which, of course, is the mostly helpful attitude we could have as THE world superpower. In this latest crisis, Syria's trying to get back "in" and our response is "well, first you have to disarm Hezbollah, then we'll see", rather than actually thinking about working with any group to advance world peace. We're so helpful and flexible that way.

It's my (yes, humble) opinion that the worst thing we could do is "get involved". We're not a neutral party in this conflict. Neither are the neighboring Arab states. Despite the fact that this has been going on for fifty or so years and every time there's a conflict world leaders gather and shake their heads, nothing yet has worked to quell the violence and killing. Perhaps we Americans should just stand back, be quiet, and them them kill each other until it's all over...