MahaRushie Muse
One very good point I picked up while listening to Rush today: The reason Russia isn't with us in backing Israel against Hisbollah (though because of Chechnya they clearly recognize Islamic terrorism is a world wide problem) is because they know how to deal with it: they just kill everybody. It's true Chechnya has been a problem for them, but the threat of Muslim extremism isn't nearly so important to them as is the chance they see now to do damage to us; to our support for Israel, to our reputation, to our effort in Iraq (which could collapse if the Shiia start feeling their oats). And any fear they might have of a strengthend Iran? Most probably it's Iran that fears a ruthless Russia.
I see nothing particularly wrong with this sort of thinking. It's brutal, it's self-interested, but it's sane. They see the matter clearly, it's just that their interests are in opposition to ours. That's fine. I don't mind conflict. Conflict happens, that's reality perception. What really bothers me in insanity, to wit, things of this nature: that the left in Israel opposes an enlarged ground offensive into Lebanon because it will cause increased casualties. The world is difficult to take when faced with that kind of thinking.
The French? They've changed their position on the cease-fire and are now calling for a Hisbollah victory, otherwise expressed as a demand for an immediate Israeli pullout. Why? Are they nuts? Do they think that if that happens they'll ever again see in Beirut a "Paris of the West"? They know they'll not, yet against their interest they're pulling for a Hizbollah/Syria/Tehran victory. Odd. Makes one wonder if the French are putting up the same negotiating team day-to-day. Or have they just become afraid of an immediate blowup within their Islamic population (now that the "youths" will be puffed up and ready to throw rocks, seeing that Israel, and the West, can so easily be beaten), and so are diffusing the immediate in the fantasy that this will not structure the future? Could be. No spine. That can explain a lot of poor thought. The future will happen willy-nilly anyway and somebody else can deal with it and take the responsibility. And in the meantime they do have the satisfaction of seeing Israel humiliated and the interests of the US damaged. It is possible this is just a case of immediate gratification, it will be so much fun to see Israel reduced and possibly the US driven out of Iraq in chaos. It's possible.
Actually, if they didn't have a Muslim population this could even be seen as rational. People they don't like would be harmed. However, they do have a Muslim population, and that population, not controlled, in time will cut their throats... Perhaps the French just consider themselves very clever, and presume that some time or other, somewhere down the road, they'll be able to do something slick and come out on top...?
Who knows? Think the long term. In fifty or a hundred years this will all be over. Once the oil runs out their will be no Arab wealth and so no rockets and so no one will remember even that Arabs exist except as they happen to see them as they ride by on camels...and that there ever was an Arab problem will mean as little as that dust sometimes swirls in the desert.
An Incidental note on matters other:
--I wrote the above entry in my journal some hours ago.
--If I were not blogging I would not bother to write down political thought.
--The journal is not for the purpose of recording thought but for improving thought. That the improvement of thought is small is no criticism of the entry, that's simply the nature of mental development, --by bits, sometimes small, sometimes large, but never predictable.
--Having made the effort, I might as well type up the result and put it in the blog. Typing is no effort, it's merely an expenditure of time; and even though the thought is not large, it still could have meaning to the right reader.
--Possibly later I'll have a better thought.
Prediction:
I see this war as becoming a guerilla war, that is, something that takes time. I think thinking will change. This is a new war, new world. Guerillas are hard to defeat, but they can't be allowed to exist as Hizbollah exists. Israel isn't going to withdraw, feeble civilian leadership or not... but this isn't going to be a twenty year occupation. Tehran will see to that. Iraq, which may fall apart, may see to that. But things are going to get big fast and then there will be a sort of resolution.
I see nothing particularly wrong with this sort of thinking. It's brutal, it's self-interested, but it's sane. They see the matter clearly, it's just that their interests are in opposition to ours. That's fine. I don't mind conflict. Conflict happens, that's reality perception. What really bothers me in insanity, to wit, things of this nature: that the left in Israel opposes an enlarged ground offensive into Lebanon because it will cause increased casualties. The world is difficult to take when faced with that kind of thinking.
The French? They've changed their position on the cease-fire and are now calling for a Hisbollah victory, otherwise expressed as a demand for an immediate Israeli pullout. Why? Are they nuts? Do they think that if that happens they'll ever again see in Beirut a "Paris of the West"? They know they'll not, yet against their interest they're pulling for a Hizbollah/Syria/Tehran victory. Odd. Makes one wonder if the French are putting up the same negotiating team day-to-day. Or have they just become afraid of an immediate blowup within their Islamic population (now that the "youths" will be puffed up and ready to throw rocks, seeing that Israel, and the West, can so easily be beaten), and so are diffusing the immediate in the fantasy that this will not structure the future? Could be. No spine. That can explain a lot of poor thought. The future will happen willy-nilly anyway and somebody else can deal with it and take the responsibility. And in the meantime they do have the satisfaction of seeing Israel humiliated and the interests of the US damaged. It is possible this is just a case of immediate gratification, it will be so much fun to see Israel reduced and possibly the US driven out of Iraq in chaos. It's possible.
Actually, if they didn't have a Muslim population this could even be seen as rational. People they don't like would be harmed. However, they do have a Muslim population, and that population, not controlled, in time will cut their throats... Perhaps the French just consider themselves very clever, and presume that some time or other, somewhere down the road, they'll be able to do something slick and come out on top...?
Who knows? Think the long term. In fifty or a hundred years this will all be over. Once the oil runs out their will be no Arab wealth and so no rockets and so no one will remember even that Arabs exist except as they happen to see them as they ride by on camels...and that there ever was an Arab problem will mean as little as that dust sometimes swirls in the desert.
An Incidental note on matters other:
--I wrote the above entry in my journal some hours ago.
--If I were not blogging I would not bother to write down political thought.
--The journal is not for the purpose of recording thought but for improving thought. That the improvement of thought is small is no criticism of the entry, that's simply the nature of mental development, --by bits, sometimes small, sometimes large, but never predictable.
--Having made the effort, I might as well type up the result and put it in the blog. Typing is no effort, it's merely an expenditure of time; and even though the thought is not large, it still could have meaning to the right reader.
--Possibly later I'll have a better thought.
Prediction:
I see this war as becoming a guerilla war, that is, something that takes time. I think thinking will change. This is a new war, new world. Guerillas are hard to defeat, but they can't be allowed to exist as Hizbollah exists. Israel isn't going to withdraw, feeble civilian leadership or not... but this isn't going to be a twenty year occupation. Tehran will see to that. Iraq, which may fall apart, may see to that. But things are going to get big fast and then there will be a sort of resolution.
posted by mouse at 5:22 PM
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