Thick Think

Outrageous: a total blockade by Israel of Lebanon's borders and a mini-invasion. And stupid: which moron would think that collective punishment is clearly the option that gets results.

Wow! Israel bombed Beirut International Airport and have closed it down indefinitely. They are telling everyone in south Beirut to get out so they can start razing it in a vain attempt to assassinate the leader of Hizbullah; wouldn't a nuclear warhead do the trick? The Israeli navy is blockading all Lebanon's ports. No one is coming or going. They have even suggested that they will patrol Lebanon's land borders with Syria and Turkey. This is the definition of full spectrum dominance. Yet, much like in Gaza, they still can't save two captured soldiers. This is the gaping whole in a massive defense budget, open for "terrorists" to drive their bomb laden (not bin Laden) vehicles through.

Here's a thought: Al Qaeda, Hizbullah, Hamas, the Tamil Tigers and others, have essentially driven the price of violence down. For the same level of fear as expensive nuclear weapons produce (generally very little from my experience), they can cause mass hysteria with a small intimate explosive filled with nails in a train or bus. Close, so very close. The West thought they had a monopoly on fear because of their huge defense spending but now these violent non-state organizations have pulled the rug from under them by revolutionizing warfare. Surely the West will have to follow suit, making fear on the cheap, to keep up. I guess starvation and deprivation caused by embargoes and blockades is part of our intimate and less expensive answer to these violence entrepreneurs.

Yet only a truly thick person, a title Ehud Olmert is claiming with gusto, would assume that destroying bridges, roads and power plants would get extremist politicians or groups to abandon their missions or goals and return captured Israeli soldiers. Surely, you might think, the people could get these men (mostly men I expect) to stop what they were doing. Unfortunately, scorched earth policies benefit these men more than anything. As much as the people might hate them for bringing this firestorm upon them, they hate the deliverers of this retribution all the more; what are you going to do, side with your foreign enemy against one of your own people? Therefore Hizbullah and Hamas will win new recruits and be able to paint the Israelis as oppressors and keep the whole cycle going. Sounds pretty logical to me. Does it to you Mr Olmert?

Ultimately, Israel behaves in all ways alike to its Arab brethren in the region. An eye for an eye being the only monolithic policy worth pursuing. Amazingly similar. The only difference is that Israel has all the guns.

If he wasn't in an endless coma, Ariel Sharon, the architect of Lebanon 1982, would be proud. Keep up the good work boys and girls of the IDF, Hizbullah and Hamas! Those seventy virgins will be waiting when you arrive for judgment, trust me.