Fight Ire With Ire

[digitaldiscipline]

First Dose: The US Administration, for having the gall, the flat hubris, to suggest that the judge who told them that they're breaking the fucking law by spying on American citizens is in the wrong. You're egregious, law-breaking assholes of the first order, and you've been called on it. Shut The Fuck Up, and knock it the fuck off.

Second Dose: Hezbollah, their backers in Syria & Iran, and a special pink and yellow corollary to the French & Lebansese governments, for twisting public perception and being manipulative dipshits (remember, five weeks ago, when Hezbollah started the whole thing by abducting Israelis?). Nobody's saying anything about disarming those terrorist militant fucksticks (note: I could argue that they're -my- militant terrorist fucksticks, but it's this sort of shit that conveniently and comprehensively quashes any hint of pride in my Lebanese heritage, even if it does inform my (well-hidden) temper and propensity for solving thorny political issues with large quantities of high explosives)... Why is that? Gee, let's hamstring the good guys and let the assholes run free. Again. Sil speaks to this well in a F-Locked entry yesterday, which is also posted to her Myspace. Go. Read.

Third Dose: The management trainer who infested my office this week. At one point, I asked her (politely, even) to turn down the music, and she made several snotty asides about it later in the day.

O FUCKING RLY?

She is cordially invited to a complimentary venti, half-caf, soy-infused, quad-shot cup of Shut The Fuck Up. I'm up here trying to get my fucking job done, and the fact that I can barely hear the person I'm trying to help over the ruckus wafting over the railing isn't making that any easier. Had I not been so goddamned busy, I'd have started contributing to the class in my own inimitable fashion, by interjecting off-color but appropriate asides.

For instance, the "how to put on a jacket" exercise could be done in one step:
"From looking at you, I can see that already know how to put on a (fugly) shirt. This is the same thing, just warmer. If you haven't figured out how to dress yourself by the north side of forty, you really need to have a talk with your parents."

-------------

This bucket of blah blah bitchycakes is courtesy of the fact that, since 10pm Wednesday, I have honestly done nothing but work, commute, and sleep. 11 hours at the office yesterday, with 15 minutes for lunch. Yeah, I'm a big bucket of fun to be around. Hopefully I can take it out on either digital minions or a softball this evening.

Comments

[kaliva.livejournal.com]

temper and propensity for solving thorny political issues with large quantities of high explosives)...

and this, my friend, is one of the reasons I luvs ya! ;)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

You're doing a singularly poor job of funding my terrorism. I think the only explosives I have ready access to are gasoline and propane. I don't ascribe to the suicide bomber method, because, frankly a) i want to see the fruits of my labor, and b) i haven't had nearly enough sex yet to die happy.

[kaliva.livejournal.com]

sorry....funding my own atm. Though I do have recipe for Greek Fire..amongst many other things..if you'd like.

and I, like you, don't like suicide bomber methods either...and I agree with A & B. :)

[the_axel]

Hezbollah started the whole thing by abducting Israelis?).

That action wasn't an unprovoked attack tho'.
Hizbollah captured them to gain leverage to be able to rescue/trade three Lebanese detainees, which is part doing business with Israel.

If you want a starting point to this shit-storm - Hizbollah were born out of Israel's invasion of Lebanon back in the '70's.

Nobody's saying anything about disarming those terrorist militant fucksticks

Actually, that was very much on the table inside Lebanon, which is another factor that likely prompted Hezbollah's escalation. Now that Israel has attacked, Lebanon national pride is going to make them much less interested in disarming them.

Here's the thing - Israel makes friends in the Middle East by not blowing shit up. When you get right down to it, they have two choices:
1) Take it on the chin until the other side can no longer justify their attacks (which since terrorism causes a small fraction of the casualties that Israeli traffic does is only really hurting their national pride).
2) Kill every Arab in the world.

What they've been doing for the past 30 years - killing a few thousand every few years just pisses the families of the people they killed & continues the cycle of violence.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to disagree with your "take it on the chin" doctrine. I fail to see how putting up with asinine behavior does anything to stop it (the Iranis and Syrians are tacitly and overtly supporting said behavior, and they're merely getting pooh-pooh'ed by the world at large, without any meaningful repurcussions). iran helped form hezbollah, remember.

The fact that the "peace" achieved is essentially a unilateral standing-down of israeli forces, without so much as a slap on the wrists to hezbollah, much less any disarming of them (gee, what a shock, since they hold sway in the lebanese parliament)... i can see why israel would be fully justified in feeling like it got a raw deal, and when the katushas start flying south again, it's not going to come as a surprise to anyone at all.

frankly, my solution is completely impractical - let all the various annoyed sects define their own borders, bloodily if need be, and then they can't bitch about being stuck with one another inside arbitrary national boundaries. things will suck for a while during the shakedown process, but afterward, they won't have anyone to blame if they're still bass-ackwards despite sitting on a wealth of natural resources (not that this is about oil at all *sigh*).

[the_axel]

I'm going to have to disagree with your "take it on the chin" doctrine. I fail to see how putting up with asinine behavior does anything to stop it

It's necessary because in Lebanon, Israel is the country that invaded & occupied their country for 22 years.
Hezbollah owes its existence to Israels invasion.
How popular do you think Brits were in the US in the 1780's?
The Hezbollah are the Minutemen of the Lebanon & Israel are the Redcoats, from the Lebanese perspective (only the British have just moved their army up to Canada & still have it ready to invade).
Gradually the hostility of the general public in Lebanon to Israel declines, and that undermines the legitimacy of Hezbollahs military wing.
It had reached the point where that military strength was on the Lebanese political agenda and given a few more years without any major incidents htey would have had to give it up (much like the IRA and Sinn Fein).
Hezbollahs attack was intended to get a heavy handed response that would legitimise their armament & it worked perfectly for them.
In the process hundreds of innocent Israeli and Lebanese people died and both sides are back at square one.

I can completely get behind your preferred solution of leave 'em all to it, but that isn't going to happen.

Looking at the realities of it all - there are too many people with power on both sides who want the status quo that innocents on both sides will continue to suffer.

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing - Israel makes friends in the Middle East by not blowing shit up. When you get right down to it, they have two choices:
1) Take it on the chin until the other side can no longer justify their attacks (which since terrorism causes a small fraction of the casualties that Israeli traffic does is only really hurting their national pride).
2) Kill every Arab in the world.


Incredibly Flawed logic. Your first assumption is that Israel *can* make friends in the Middle East. They can't. The enemy wants them all dead. Not behind the green line. Not within the borders of the 1948 UN resolution. Not existing as part of a seperate nation-state.

DEAD
ALL OF THEM
EXTERMINATED

"Taking it on the chin"? Come on...Israel's been a victim of terrorism for damn near 60 years now. It's not GOING to get better by them refusing the do anything for a few years and hoping their benevolence will lead to a peaceful coming to terms. See above. We're not dealing with rational people. We're dealing with fundamentalists whackjobs who honestly believe they have not just the right - but the MANDATE - to exterminate an entire group of people. They don't accidentally have civilian casualties...they aim for them. What's even worse is that they are in power in Lebanon and supported by the oil wealth of the Arabian peninsula. I'm sick to death of hearing about how 'big bad Israel' is beating on the poooor Hezbollah villagers. We're outnumbered, outsupported, and surrounded by people who want us exterminated.

But, hey, Israel's the bad guy.

Wrong. We have a right to defend ourselves. We're not the ones planting our missiles in civilan targets. Hezbollah is the one doing that.

[the_axel]

So, what's your solution?

If you don't believe Israel can win by waiting, do you support genocide?

What Israel did in Lebanon is exactly the same as what it did when it invaded in the '70's and gave birth to Hezbollah and Hamas[1].
Didn't work then & it won't work now. Hezbollah were losing popular support in Lebanon, and if Israel hadn't attacked, they would have had to give their weapons over to the Lebanese Army in a couple of years.
Now they can hang on to them for another decade, at least.

These Operations are all about deflecting Arab attention from local issues in Arab nations [2]. Within Israel it's about getting right wing voters votes, and deflecting attention from the secular vs religious tension that will tear the country apart if the Arab situation ever got settled.

Don't believe me?
Try spending some actual time in Israel with Israelis (both Jewish and Arabs), visit Lebanon, Syria, Jordan.

But, hey, Israel's the bad guy.

& where did I say that exactly?

[1] Hezbollah was born out of the invasion and Hamas was born because the PLO were isolated from the main Palestinian communities by being forced to Tunisia.
[2] The propaganda line is that as long as Jews are oppressing Arabs in Palestine or Lebanon, it's okay for Syrians to oppress Syrians and Saudis' to oppress Saudis.

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

Try spending some actual time in Israel with Israelis (both Jewish and Arabs), visit Lebanon, Syria, Jordan.

Uh... I lived there and I had friends both Jewish and Muslim (and Christian, too). I also lived in Egypt where I assure you there are plenty of Arabs. I've traveled to Jordan as well, but being a Jew those pesky Lebanese and Syrians *won't let me in*.

If you don't believe Israel can win by waiting, do you support genocide?

No, but I don't think removing Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon = genocide, either. Lebanon refuses to take care of the problem either from a desire to do so or an inability. Hezbollah IS a problem for Northern Israel.

if Israel hadn't attacked, they would have had to give their weapons over to the Lebanese Army in a couple of years.

I'd love to see your source on that seeing as how Hezbollah is deeply entrenched in the Lebanese government and has continued their war against Israel even after Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah might have been losing support in Beirut and the Christian community, but I have not seen any reference that suggests they were losing support in the South or that their massive influx of money and arms from Iran was in any way lessening.

[xany.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm a big bucket of fun to be around. Hopefully I can take it out on either digital minions or a softball this evening.

Castle? Drinking and snarking til the wee hours, followed by a large dose of carnage at game tomorrow?

I'm game if you are.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I think that I'm going to probably have to take a pass on it this evening (combination of fatigue and finances), but if that changes, I'll give you a call.

[xany.livejournal.com]

no worries. I remembered right after I posted that I have to work at 8.30 tomorrow morning, so no Castle for me tonight after all.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. fortunately, i can work from my living room.

[draxzaster.livejournal.com]

But we ARE gaming tomorrow, right?