The Ghost of Snapped Shot

Or, welcome to my low-maintenance heck.

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Nothing to See Here

Move right along. Y'all can tell me that the West is full of evil Zionist neocon warmongers all you want, but the reality of the matter is dramatically different:

symbolic mock rockets are seen mounted on a truck with a banner in Arabic and Hebrew that reads: 'the coming surprise is greater,' as Hezbollah supporters rally to mark the Ashoura holiday in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Basically, here's the situation we are faced with:—We in the West largely think of things in terms of "diplomacy" and "negotiation," because that's the state of the world we've grown into. This state of affairs wasn't reached overnight, but rather was the end result of countless wars amongst ourselves. The results of each period of conflict has historically led the nations of the West—the Christian nations of the West—to institute rules, bodies, and procedures that helped to lessen the impact of war on the civilian populace. And these are the frameworks that lead us to think of every conflict in terms of dialogue.

The portion of the Islamic world that seeks global domination (Jamaat-al-Islami, Hezbullah, Hamas, the Iranian Revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood—They're all related in intent, at the very least) does not abide by such dialogue. These groups have repeatedly proven that they have no intention of abiding by the Geneva Conventions—taking diplomats hostage, refusing access by the International Red Cross to prisoners, funding non-uniformed guerilla forces, hiding behind civilians.

What if there are groups out there, as Hezbollah obviously does, that want to undermine the governments and institutions of the West? That refuse to participate in the same conventions and agreements that we, the West, bind ourselves to?

I'd love to hear some responses from my handful of left-leaning, "progressive" readers:—How exactly does one dialogue with a "rogue" entity that doesn't abide by any agreed rules of conduct?

How can we in the West respond to violence committed against us, if we can't even get beyond the point of thinking in terms of "discussion?"

It's food for thought, if nothing else.

  #War Watch


Comments:

#1 DJM 22-Jan-2008
These big parades or funeral procession are always fighting-aged, militant men who obviously support terrorism.

That all I wanted to say.
#2 Kevin 22-Jan-2008
I support Israel's right to drop symbolic, real bombs on symbolic, mock rockets, wherever it finds them.
#3 forest 23-Jan-2008
There is no negotiating with supremacists, but I've looked history a little differently. The wars in the west eventually led to a period of benign dominance by the USA. Fortunately for the former warring parties, the dominate one was unusually benevolent.

The downside is that many people in Europe have come to believe that peace was brought about via international agreements and niceness in general while coming to resent the US for its power - the very power that was the real "root cause" of the peaceful period to begin with.

Literalist Islam will not be so nice if it takes over.
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