The Right State

Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I am amazed at the disconnect of the Lebanese people towards Hezbollah and why this war started.  Since the fighting stopped between this terrorist group and Israel, civilians have begun streaming back to what were once their homes.  In many places where their houses or apartmants once stood now stands a mountain of rubble.   But don’t expect these displaced civilians to blame Hezbollah for anything, because in their minds, the trouble is all the fault of Israel and the United States.

“We will kill every American for this!” Dr. Mansour shouted, his voice cracking with rage. “Every Shiite Muslim will kill Americans! We will grind them under our shoes!” (snip)

Around the couple, thousands of others streamed back on Monday into the ruined streets, where smoke and the smell of rotting flesh rose from the rubble. Some cursed America and Israel and swore revenge; others simply wept. Most said that before they returned, they had no idea of the scale of the destruction in this area, which includes many Hezbollah offices.  (emphasis added by TRS)

“Why did they bomb here?” asked a 60-year-old woman in a black-and-white head scarf who gave her name only as Umm Abdullah. “So that people would turn against Nasrallah and the resistance?” referring to Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader. “But that will never happen. Whatever happens, we could never hate the resistance. They’re part of our blood, they’re our children.”

Why did Israel bomb the apartment buildings?  Duh!  The IDF bombed their living areas because that is where Hezbollah was.  Somehow the Lebanese people do not understand this one simple fact.  While Hezbollah may be a relief organization and a political group to many of the Lebanese people, they can not be blind to the terrorist acts of this same group.  Most of the civilized world recognizes Hezbollah for what they are: terrorists.  And these terrorists are a bunch of cowards hiding behind the skirts of women and children and they should be treated as such by the Lebanese.  When they hid among the civilians to conduct their attacks, of course the civilian areas are going to be targeted.  Remove the terrorists and there would not be any bombing of the civilian areas.  It’s that simple.

The war started because of the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.  During the war Hezbollah specifically targeted civilian areas.  They were trying to kill as many civilians as they possibly could.  Israel tried to minimize civilian casualties.  The only problem with the battle is that Hezbollah started a war that Israel did not finish.  Of course it should also be remembered that this was a war largely fought by Israel ham-strung by its own rules of engagement and by a terrorist group who is not above using civilians as human shields.  But for the Lebanese people to blame Israel for all the destruction is ludicrous when Hezbollah should share a large portion of the responsibility.

I would not expect this attitude of the Lebanese to change.  In fact the stature of Hezbollah has risen during the fighting.   If the fighting starts up again, even more homes occupied by both terrorists and civilians will be targeted for destruction.  Only this time I do not expect Israel come into this fight with the same rules of engagement it used last time.  I would imagine the next time these two meet in battle, the IDF will fight Hezbollah much more aggressively.

Sometimes bad things happen in war, civilians killed, homes destroyed, and infrastructure demolished.  Even worse things happen when one of the combatants fights while hiding among the civilians.  For this the Lebanese people should either blame Hezbollah or their government. Neither one has served them very well.

Tags: Terrorism, War //