First Maryland Senate candidate Michael Steele got knocked around for his Bush ‘Scarlet letter’ interview. Now he gets caught red-handed fibbing about the interview itself.
Israeli cabinet meets tomorrow to discuss expanding ground operations in south Lebanon.
Juan Cole’s view on twowars in Lebanon …
Israel’s present policy toward Lebanon, of striking at so many civilian targets as to hold the entire civilian population hostage, is unspeakable.
I haven’t complained about the Israeli border war with Hizbullah. I’m not sure it is wise, and I don’t know how many Israelis Hizbullah even killed in, say, the year 2005. Is it really worth it? But I don’t deny that Hizbullah went too far when it shelled dozens of civilian towns and cities and killed over a dozen innocent civilians, even in reprisal for the Israeli bombing campaign. (You can’t target civilians. That is a prosecutable crime.) That is a clear casus belli, and I’d like to see Nasrallah tried at the Hague for all those civilian deaths he ordered. The fighting at Maroun al-Ra’s and Bint Jbeil was horrible on all sides, but it was understandable, even justifiable. The fighting itself isn’t going to lead anywwhere useful, though, and it is time for a ceasefire and political negotiations–the only way to actually settle such disputes.
What was done to Lebanon as a whole is among the most horrible war crimes of the young 21st century. And that it was done tells me that there is something sick in the heart of the Israeli military and political elite, a sickness of the soul that had better be faced and remedied before our entire world catches the contagion.
This is a snippet out of a much longer post. So read the whole thing. I clipped out this portion to capture the distinction Cole’s drawing between the fighting near Lebanon’s southern border with Israel and the bombing campaign across the breadth of Lebanon.
Late Update: This has come up in response to various items I’ve reprinted in recent days. So just to restate what most of you probably know, just because I reprint something here does not mean I agree with it. If I do or don’t, I’ll say so.
TPM Reader LS on Israel’s war on Hizbullah …
I find Juan Cole’s remarks interesting, and I have some really sympathy with the indignation of Israel’s targeting civilians. Here’s the thing, though. I have yet to see anywhere on line an honest attempt to wrestle with the conundrum Israel faces. Hizbollah operates within civilian neighborhoods, and does things like house its weapons in apartment buildings (where people actually live). What are the military options for dealing with an enemy that positions itself in this way? It seems that a conventional state based armed force is damned if it attacks these weapons caches in that it will undoubtedly visit a huge civilian collateral damage on non-combatant civilians. It is also damned if it does nothing, allowing weapons caches to be built up and used against the state. I would be really interested to hear what military experts and the ethicists who teach, say, at West Point, are saying about this sort of dilemma of military situation. What are the rules of war in this post-Grotius, post-Clausewicz era? What should the rules of war be in this scenario? Is it even possible to devise rules of war and engagement in this circumstance? Breczinski’s remarks posted by Steve Clemons suggest thinking about this as a hostage taking situation: Hizbollah is holding civilians hostage by their weapons caches. Are there other analogies out there?
Israeli Minister for Public Security, Avi Dichter, on how Israel is fighting the war. From the Times …
Avi Dichter, the Israeli minister for public security and until recently the director of the Shin Bet counterterrorism service, said: “I don’t think we were surprised by Hezbollah. If there are surprises, they’re local surprises, not strategic surprises.”
By that, he meant the depth and quality of Hezbollah underground bunkers and storehouses, Israeli officials said. Dichter said Israel’s deliberate pace was an effort to minimize casualties, both to Israeli forces and to Lebanese civilians.
“You can do it in a short time,” he said. “You can flood southern Lebanon with ground troops and you can bomb villages without warning anyone and it will be faster. But you’ll kill a lot more innocent people and suffer a lot more casualties, and we don’t intend to do either.”
Rep. Katherine “Pink Sugar” Harris gets compared to Josef Stalin. That and other news of the day in today’s Daily Muck.
Will Lieberman take over for Rummy? And was that the source of the problems in the first place?
Juliette Kayyem thinks it’s a possibility.