LEBANON 2006 – THE LAST STRAW

One is truly at odds to understand the hubris which overtakes so called developed and intellectual societies and how they forge ahead with brute force without analyzing the ramifications of the wars they start. All wars are started and based on the idealistic premise that they will be short and the aggressor’s objective is right and will be quickly achieved. This is also based on a preconception that the enemy is inferior technologically and culturally. We see this today as a more sophisticated form of racism. Besides, demonizing one’s enemy is a necessary evil in order to wage war.

This hubris usually spells the end of civilizations or empires that fail to grasp the world around them, and only see simple stereotypes. They also base their might on technological superiority regardless of the will and pride from the other side, and the far-reaching consequences all wars have on societies.

The Western media constantly portrays Islamist’s as willing suicide bombers. This may be true in some form for some groups but death is never an easy option but a desperate one in the face of overwhelming technological power, and worsening conditions. These are not purely the acts of fanatics that do not value life, but who have no other choice but the sacrifice of their own lives in the face of frustration in a world that is increasingly polarized economically and culturally between first and third world. Religion then becomes a powerful unifier.

The Iranian revolution, started by the nationalists lost and then regained its momentum through religion as a powerful tool utilized by Khomeini against the West. Lebanon is a mosaic of various religious groups who did not, but now support Hezbollah as their defender against Israel because their nation’s very existence is at stake.

Brute force may work for a period but not for the long run. The Nazis were one of history’s more brutal occupiers and even they after a while were threatened by all sides with growing insurgencies, for the latter realized over time that they had nothing left to lose.

This is certainly what is evolving worldwide as people in developing nations realize that the game of the rulers is not a fair one and is becoming even more one sided, without even the subtleties of the past, as the West and the present US administrations have shown.

History repeats itself but in stealthier ways, as part of evolution. The aims remain the same, but the methods of deception improve. Now politicians advocate war for simple freedom and democracy. Who wouldn’t want that? The Western press has become very sophisticated and subtle in their bias of news without the majority realizing that they are being brainwashed.

Everyone who is against us is labeled a terrorist yet we are oblivious to state terror. As many founding Israeli leaders and the US founding fathers have shown, today’s terrorists can be tomorrow’s statesmen, providing they win the wars. Might makes right.

Of course democracy is worth preserving, and every sane individual wants that, but the debacle in Iraq has shown that it cannot be imposed. Lebanon is the last straw where a democracy, albeit a weak one, is totally being destroyed by another democracy. A formula that many diplomats agree never occurs. The very idea of present Western foreign policy being that one has to promote democracy for a stable world because democracies never fight one another. If Lebanon was a weak democracy did it deserve this kind of treatment after a long civil war, and successful re-construction? One also wonders if that is how the West treats Lebanon, the so-called “Paris of the Middle East,” then how would they treat the so called less likeable nations? It has become a favorite end all phrase that “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Everybody has the right to defend themselves, but the end does not always justify the means.

Humanity cannot afford new wars of religion with the technologies and the populations involved. The war against Lebanon has shown a total disregard for humanitarian considerations and total apathy, polarization, and latent racism by the first world towards people they do not understand and do not care to understand. It is the same old story of history.

We are losing our soul, and they have nothing left to lose but their souls.

© 2006. Beamcorp.com. All Rights Reserved