Insallah!

Much obliged for the pictures you mange to provide of the rally — especially in view of a recent ‘heat wave’ that have swept the country. Yet you braved the scorching heat of the concrete jungle and allowed us to entertain ourselves at the cost of numerous lives in the mid-east.

Now, to a rather skewed view of recent world events, pardon my insensitivities, but here are some counter captions for your pictures:

A Palestinian activist speaks out: “Death to infidels and destruction to the State of Israel”

Popular on the wish list: Wiping Israel out from the map

Resistance is the secret of joy: Sure, stand in front of a 60 ton Israeli tank instead of jerking around a carnival-like setting in lower Manhattan displaying your pale ass skin.

Innocent: What can I say, let’s get ALL the pictures of innocents from time immemorial — victims of terrorism and aggression.

Identity: Martyrdom for 72 fucking virgins, aka — Muslims first then human beings.

Orthodox Jews against Zionism is a global network that believes Israel’s aggression is in defiance of the Torah: Go on and become a nomadic tribe that the Torah so overwhelmingly slaps on your tribe. Self-conflict is the worst form of misinterpretation.

Popular on the wish list: A peaceful Lebanon: A Christian enclave in a predominantly Muslim region — what a CONFLICT of idea.

Standing up for a message: Redefining ‘terrorism’, pointing fingers or stripping off a hairy ass chest will not wash away the stain on your shirt.

“War is not a force that gives life a meaning”: War is a path to destruction from which a new and better creation can be envisaged.

Muslim protesters pose for a photo with members of Orthodox Jews against Zionism: Priceless!!!

still blowing hot air, huh?

hell m’hacker (err drunken mel), i would’ve never taken you for someone who’d rationalize and support ( or mock) state sponsored terrorism, from your historical attitudes towards mid-east policies…

i guess from that reasoning, bush’s invasion of iraq is totally justified and acceptable; remember 911, there’s blood in their hands (usa, usa…)

My ‘historical attitude towards mid-east policies’ eh, what the fuck am I, a talking head on a McLaughlin show? Chill out pal, my only attitude towards mid-east policies is that too much time and resources have been wasted in the name of Israel, Palestine and America’s gluttonous obsession with world’s resources — wherever that may be.

Anyway, not that I’m clarifying my stance, or that I NEED to, or that you or anyone would even be remotely bothered to, the ‘pragmatic’ acceptance of power and its play in modern society leads me, in most simple terms, to believe the following:

Preservation of global social order and stability of any nation state rests on those that have the might and will to use them. The hierarchical basis of powerful entities — as the epitome of natural law, rely on force and violence in equal terms as any other human constructs to preserve the status quo. While force remain a primitive method of resolving issues, nonetheless, it continues till date as one of the most effective tools to be used in defense — in maintaining order and balance, resisting acts of aggression and keeping foreign states in check.

In exercising power — military and otherwise, it is required that such rest on those that have the capacity to distinguish wars fought for the preservation of internal order versus those that become a global campaign in extending righteousness — whether Western concept of building modern ‘civilization’ or Islamic view of extending ‘just order’. History as guide, failure of judgment, or a deliberate attempt to undermine the larger force — one that is the world at large, sooner or later, as a natural law, will backfire in ways that we remain incapable of grasping today. Shanti!

The gist of all those exasperated words above is that — shit happens. It’s not that I (or anyone else with the power to ponder) have “remotely bothered to believe” these concepts, I just think many of us thought beyond the elementary.

To say that violence is in human nature and the powerful usually rule is, while adequate, quite simplistic. If that’s the case then why have these pseudo-intellectual forums and waste our time. We can all just agree in the order of things and accept the ‘imperialism’, ‘oppression’ and ‘marginalization’ of the ‘underprivileged’ (some of the favorite terms samudayans like to reference) as nature’s law, be thankful that we are somewhat higher in the food chain and enjoy our buds. Let the rest of the world fight it out; we’ll get our turn eventually.

Distinguishing wars fought for internal order or global campaign is irrelevant; in case of both, the fight is to preserve the existence of the ‘minority’, and the reluctance of the ‘powers that be’ to relinquish authority and control of resources.

Let me, for the sake of disclaimer, state that, comments made under my nom de guerre neither reflect the views of Samudaya as a forum nor its members. As a general rule of thumb, Samudaiks are those that engage and participate in debates with reckless act of perverse intellectual self-negation. I suggest that, instead of taunting ‘Samudaya position’ or language used herein; start getting used to things as they are.

My previous post — read ‘em as it suits you, and by all means, all the power to you and your likes who have moved beyond the ‘elementary’, but, for clarity’s sake, the post was merely an attempt to validate ‘power’ as a crucial and necessary force; only to be questioned on the ‘way’ it is to be exerted for the benefit of society which, as a novice in pseudo intellectual pursuit, I gladly leave the likes of you to draw you own conclusion.

What the fuck you talking about? Gladly, be my guest and get on with the intellectual head-butting, if this and that is what you are so passionate about. In the meanwhile, pardon me if due to my sophisticated taste I decide to chill with a cold bottle of Sierra instead of the piss ass Bud, and in most sincere act, leave the rest to the natural order of things rather than get anal and agitated about larger world events that are frankly beyond my control or influence.

Like any other self-serving citizen, no matter how clichéd it may sound, I wish, I sincerely do wish peace in the Middle East. Israel out of Lebanon, NOW! Go, leave me in peace now. Cheers!

The first time a great thinker, the second time a Fukuyama farce. Yawwwwwwwwnnnnnn.

The above post was in reference to the following headline. Also, few embarassing typos that showed up much late:

American unilaterism - READ American unilateralism
street activitism - READ street activism

…and to the news.
__________________________________________________

Venezuela Recalls Ambassador From Israel
By Associated Press
5:14 PM PDT, August 3, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he has withdrawn his country’s ambassador from Israel to show his “indignation” over the military offensive in Lebanon.

“We have ordered the withdrawal of our ambassador in Israel,” Chavez said in a televised speech, calling Israeli attacks in Lebanon “genocide.”

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The leftist leader has repeatedly criticized Israel’s offensive aimed at Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, noting mounting civilian deaths and saying the United Nations should act to halt the violence.

“It really causes indignation to see how the state of Israel continues bombing, killing … with all of the power they have, with the support of the United States,” Chavez said after a military parade in the northwestern state of Falcon.

The Venezuelan leader, a close ally and protege of Cuban President Fidel Castro, spoke after returning from an international tour that included Iran. While there, Chavez called the Israeli offensive in Lebanon a “fascist outrage.”

“The Israeli elite repeatedly criticize Hitler’s actions against the Jews, and indeed Hitler’s actions must be criticized, not just against the Jews but against the world,” Chavez said during his visit to Iran, adding: “It’s also fascism what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people … terrorism and fascism.”

Some in Venezuela have protested against the fighting in Lebanon, including one group that burned an Israeli flag outside the Israeli embassy last month.

Here they are, additional personal biases laid bare on Samudaya :-)

Chavez does have a valid point (again, a personal opinion so please don’t bother to call out the firing squad! :-))

Agreed that Israel has a right to defend itself against “terrorism” (keeping in mind that Hamas is viewed as “freedom fighters” and Hezbollah has made enormous contributions by proving social service to millions of Lebanese); however, what is appaling in the present situation is the indiscriminate use of force against the civilians of Lebanon and Gaza; furthermore, Israel seems to be labouring under the belief that as a nation, her policies in Palestine had nothing to do with the actions of Hezbollah.

If Israel were to treat the citizens of Palestine and quit the exapansion of settlements in West Bank lands, stop the “targeted killings” of Hamas leadership and similar other military aggressions (including the kidnapping of legitimately elected Parliamentarians from Gaza), perhaps the two state solution that they crave would be more of a reality.

The less said about American hypocrisy in this matter, the better. The loon in the White House has an abundance of morals when it comes to the preservation of human lives in embryonic stages; yet, there is an obviously appaling lack of concern when it comes to the lives of thousands of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.

My two cents worth..

Peoples can respond to this appalling crusade only by stepping up their struggle to defend their lives and their aspirations for national and social self-determination. The reactionary and puppet regimes will be the first ones to pay, thus confirming that the principal contradiction in the world today is between imperialism and the oppressed peoples, and within that the wind of revolution is the main trend. To the imperialist global war we must reply by advancing global people’s war, applied in different and distinct ways according to the kind of country - imperialist or oppressed - until the victory of the proletarians and the people, and the achievement of a world without imperialism and war: Communism.

AGAINST THE IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION!

NO TO THE ‘ANTI-TERRORISM’ CRUSADE! NO TO THE WAR STATE AND POLICE STATE!

IMPERIALISM IS AGGRESSION, WAR, REPRESSION AND OPPRESSION AGAINST THE PEOPLE!

PROLETARIANS AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE, LET’S UNITE FOR PEOPLE’S WAR UNTIL COMMUNISM!

Dear Long live …blah blah blah

Thank you for cutting your usual crap to 1/4th its size. It really helps me get the essence of what you are trying to say, or what you have been meaning to so far, since I realize that you are rather an introvert at heart and the burden is on readers like myself to put together a motherload of stale words — suggesting stale ideas, and attempt to suck the juices out of your promisiously dry humor.

You sleeping and simultaneously self-licking dogs of communism (to your metaphor of ‘running dogs of capitalism’) consistently seem to forget that ‘defending lives and aspiration for national and social self-determination’ does not take place in vacuum, instead, becomes an act of pulling all the lose ends and working to tie em together.

According to your ‘baaje’ Lenin, imperialism is the last stage of capitalism; however, post revolution, the hypocrisy of communist parties always end towards acting in the most undemocratic ways possible. Your friend Castro will very soon relinquish his throne to his brother Raul, creating a succession of communist lineage, where sleeping dogs like yourself will never get to smell the assess of those in power.

Oops, my bad. Please continue with the Israel-Lebanon issue.

actually let me comment on Long live’s rant if i may as well…

i’m not sure if there’s humor or sarcasm in that post which i’m not fully grasping, but are you fu*king kidding me? are you (long live…) seriously advocating communism in this day and age? you’d have to dumb, deaf, blind, illiterate, ignorant, stupid, retarded all at once to even consider that baloney of a ideology. how many times does a system have to fail for some people to realize that the sh*t doesn’t work?

say what you will about western capitalism, but i’ll lick bush’s feet before ever accepting castro’s cuba as a legitimate regime or a viable governing system.

i thought most of us already knew this (apparently not), but i’ll reiterate anyway… all communism is, is a fu*ked-up version of capitalism, where only the ‘ruling body’ gets to enjoy the luxuries while the ‘people’ are subjected to life of mediocrity. it’s a monopoly where there is no incentive or motivation or competition. The elite always stay on top without fear of challenge, and the public suffers. who the hell wants to live in a country where you’re told what to eat, how much to eat, what to wear, what work to do, etc… you get my point…

for once (holy sh*t) m’hacker, i second your exasperated notion!

With respect to the absurd notions of Communism: The “Dear Leader” apparently enjoys a life of relative luxury behind his palace where French Chef’s are held hostage; wine and champagne flow freely and so do DVD’s that the man is known to have a curious affinity for — all the while, citizens of North Korea try their hardest to escape a devastating famine and starvation…so much for the ideal of “power to the people”!

post 8.

Indeed, there now is no doubt that the death of Bolivar, the liberator of Colombia, in 1849, created a sensation both in the old and the new world. Every accident that happened to him would have been reckoned a political event. His abandonment of the political stage would have left a grand part of the drama of American independence in a vacuum.

When he first made his appearance on the political stage, the Spanish colony to which he belonged was struggling with the mother country for independence. Being a man of great capacity, and of considerable fortune, having more knowledge than the rest of his brethren brought up in the same colonial bondage, and probably more ambition than knowledge, he soon gained ascendancy among the revolutionary, independent party.

The sympathies of the Old and New World were in favor of his cause; adventurers from Europe flocked to his standard; the political arrangements which he made, being in accordance with the most approved system of modern constitutional freedom, were hailed as evidences of transcendent wisdom; and, without knowing much about American warfare, people imagined that the victories announced over the Spaniards were proofs of great military talents and experience.

And, of course, the liberation of the extensive provinces composing the republic of Colombia, the union of these provinces into one state, the organization of its government, and the establishment of its political relations with the rest of the world, were no doubt, in a great measure, the work of Bolivar.

So under his auspices, if not by his personal conduct, the Spaniards were pursued towards the south, hence his troops, after a tedious but glorious campaign, compelled their enemy to capitulate after a tyranny of 300 years, hence he became the liberator of Peru, and had a portion of the ancient vice royalty called Bolivia, after his name.

But the emergence of a Bolivar in the Lebanese context is yet to be seen; or perhaps collectively, Lebanon should be renamed Hizbullabad! Lebanon sounds too Anglo-Saxon.

aitaraj

Certainly, there is much to be thankful for providing us with a brief Bolivar bio which, if on surface look like digression from mainstream Middle East crisis — yet, in my opinion, has enough similarities with recent going ons — in the sense that all human struggles, in broadest of terms, can be bashfully reduced to conflict between the ‘oppressor’ and the ‘resistant’, though the method and degree of oppression and resistance that can invariably change over time and region, may very well turn into a debatable topic, depending upon what kind of crowd one identifies (or not) itself with, perhaps.

And in the humiliating act of public confession, let me say that my historical knowledge of world revolutionary events is quite limited. As a consequence, the Bolivar semblance I picked up, actually, from Garcia Marquez’s novel — The General in his Labyrinth where, the fictionalized account of Bolivar’s revolutionary campaign is actually created out of his real life experiences, at least that’s what the book tries to portray. Thus, the ‘Bolivar reference’ was merely an attempt find an exemplary image — perhaps on Chavez or Morales, or even Castro to certain extent, which, Tariq Ali also, in his book, Pirates of the Caribbean: ‘Axis of Hope’, points as the rising modern resistance against American, or Anglo-Saxon for that matter, campaign against re-colonizing of the world.

all anti communism ranting doesnt make sense. anyone who has studied communism and has his eyes open certainly sees the merits of this system. just because communism failed in the past does not mean that in 500 years the world will not be ripe for egalitarianism rather than individualism. capitalism a. works though and b. works on creating need, it thrives on the principal that goods are scarce, check any high school economics book, thats the line they start with. in 500 years, in a post-scarcity world, communism is certainly possible, and would make more sense than capitalism. to achieve that egalitarian world, where access to material goods isnt the main goal of life coz everyone has what they need and want, and they can chill and fish in the morning and talk around the fire as the old fella says, what needs to be done is dismantle the political, economic, social structures that inhibit this. the technology that would enable a post scarcity world is int he hands of people that want the status quo. this technology, if freed, would be able to feed clothe and get a mercedes to everyone in the world right now. the Eu burns thousands of tons of food every year to protect the lifestyle of its farmers under the CAP. if thats not messed up, dont know what is.
what i am saying is, dont write off communism simply because it “failed” in the past. the choice is not between kissing bush’s feet or living in cuba, choice is getting your eyes open, not showing off or winning arguments, but learning more about stuff, getting a clearer picture to use it later, when u can actually do something. Infiltrate the system enough, learn their game enough so u can demolish those structures from within. Part of that is not ignoring an idea that inspires millions of very smart people all over the world every day just because, well it failed in the past, so it must be worthless.

its not throwing rocks at the white house either, its stealing the keys to the bulldozer big enough to roll it down.

hey akroor, wht more can you expect from a semi literate, shanta anu-ty and dixit unkle’s disciple?

akroor ji, contrary to your view, the failures of the past few centuries with respect to communism is ample evidence that the system is useless. It has been studied and applied in every permutation possible and has persistently flunked miserably. again to paraphrase einstein, stupid are those who keep trying the same thing expecting a different result…

communism is a more aligned with being defined as a religion (actually a cult) than a viable governing ideology; it relies on hypothetical and ideals. it asks people to ‘believe’ and have ‘faith’ in certain benevolent human qualities rather than accept the flaws of nature and accommodate it accordingly. at best it is hopelessly romantic and at worst (which is usually is) it oppresses free thinking and forces propaganda of the ‘state’.

As you mentioned, this theory might be applicable when everyone has plenty to eat and a mercedes in their driveway and there is insurmountable resources. i’m not sure if you’ve paid attention to the conditions of this planet, but those are not the norms — it is quite the opposite. we are overpopulate and ‘underresourced’. with these conditions, we either have the ‘survival of the fittest’ or a ‘supreme leader’ who dictates how all the resources are dispersed and used (most likely, evident from history/present, he’ll allocate the best to his ‘cabinet’ and let the people ‘share’ the rest). neither of these situations are very ‘egalitarian’.

so it’s appalling that this sh*tload of a theory “inspires millions of very smart people”… my take, maybe those millions of inspired people aren’t very smart :)

Well, now, Comrade Koonda will be appointed as the most Honorable Minister of Propaganda in the Girija Kerensky Koirala (GKK) government from the 33 percent civil society reservation. Of course, the remaining 33 percent reservation being left for the SPA to suckle on and the other 33 percent for the beloved Maoists who regard the normal world as the principal oppressor of the toiling masses, operating either unilaterally or in tandem with their ‘lackeys and running dogs’.

Well I hope that GKK will not have to flee the country as did his similar counterpart Aleksandr Fyodorovich Kerensky, who overthrew Czar Nicholas II in the February revolution of 1917 in Russia and headed the first interim government. He was himself brushed aside in a putsch in the October revolution by Lenin’s Bolsheviks who then went on to establish a brutal dictatorship of the Communist party that lasted more than seven decades. He fled to Paris and eventually to US where he died in 1970.

Here it is also relevant to quote one of the laws of the Maoist Public Laws of People’s Republic of Nepal 2003: ‘Private property should gradually be reduced and initiatives should be taken towards handing it over to cooperatives, groups or society’.
(http://www.kantipuronline.com/ktmpost.php, July 22, 2006: ‘Private property genesis of crime: Maoist law’)

Even with all the overwhelming evidence of failure, it’s quite scary to realize that some ‘smart people’ are still advocating this inadequate theory.

It’s amazing and appalling to see how easily swayed some people are by the romantic notions of utopia that they are blind to all the atrocities committed by the dictators of communism in the name of ‘people’s war’, historically and ongoing.

Get it through your heads ‘smart people’, communism does not translate to an equal and egalitarian society. Communism is the evil child of Marx’s theory, the al-qaeda of socialism. If Marx is Jesus or Mohammed, then communism is the crusades or the Jihad. It aspires to gain ‘equality’ at all cost, even murders of millions of people (ref: stalin, lenin, mao, kim jung, prachanda etc).

Some argue that they did not follow the manifest and that’s exactly the point; it can only be implemented by madmen who are willing to do anything and everything to achieve the ‘state’s goal’ (which is actually their thirst for power and supremacy).

The term “People’s Movement” in the context of Nepal when looked at in totality, to my mind, is an oxymoron.

The fact that the “People’s Army” was comprised essentially of kids who had been kidnapped or forcibly placed in the amry; the arms etc were bought by forced donations; the “people’s court” was really a Kangaroo court where punishments amounting to nothing short of mutilation of the body were routine — how is any of this a benefit to the good people of Nepal?

People-young and old were forced to work without pay to build the “marvel of engineering” that is the “Martyr’s highway”; thus my misgivings about Communism as a philosophy.

From the gulags of Stalin/Lenin to the forced “re-education” of millions by Mao and the rape, mutilation, kidnapping and extra-judicial killings of thousands of Nepalese, where has Communism been a beacon that “smart” people should hold it in such high regard? Please do explain.

First of all no one is blind to the atrocities committed by dictators. Just because I believe that communism is an ideology that still has some relevance to the way our political systems should be organized does not automatically cause me to ignore loss of human life in the name of communism. And i do not proclaim to be a communist either, in no way do i condone the actions of stalin or mao or prachanda.

I assumed we were not discussing things from square 1 here. If your argument against why communism isnt relevant, or junk theory etc. is based entirely on the argument that “it didnt work before”, I already stated my argument against that, being, just because it hasnt worked in the past is not sufficient reason to stop studying it. I gave one scenario where communism still might be relevant in organizing human societies, the post scarcity world. And I do not agree that or resurces are not enough for everyone. Currently 80 percent of the world’s resources is in the hands of 20 percent of the population. we can grow enough food to feed everyone, thre is no doubt about that. We may be overpopulated, underresourced, but there is enough technology going around to sustain us, if we focus away from capitalist gains and on sustainable living.

Those who are arguing against Communism are arguing against the policies of socialist states, which is not communism. I havent seen an argument against the theory itself. The theory and the policies of states do not coincide in many cases.

My argument was about the theory of communism and how it might still be relevant, which I am open to discuss. The policies of communist states, of course is an open and shut case. That does not, however, prove that the ideology is flawed. Marxist ideology hasnt been implemented fully on societies, even if it were possible. Many interpretations exist, there are subjectivities involved. Despite this, I believe it is something that is worthwhile to study. Most simply because, yes, it presents a utopian scenario, and I wouldn’t like to leave any stone unturned if there is a remote chance that utopias can be achieved. For that, I am willing to study communism, its strengths and weaknesses, and not throw it away. Frankly, I dont think you have studied communism at all, because if you have read Marx at all, you recognize that this guy isnt full of shit, and the theory makes sense. Our image of communism were shaped by Lenin and Stalin and Mao, and they messed up, because translating words into a working political system is not an easy task. But the theory itself is something worth understanding.

If you have a reason why the theory of communism is not worthwhile to study, besides “it hasnt worked before, so never will” (which is not a logical argument - inductive fallacy), then let me know.

Karl Marx was probably the most influential writer in recent times whose writings, mostly in collaboration with Engels, attempted to alter the course of history and also perversely continue to affect the lives of millions of people in all parts of the world today. A central concern of Marx and Engels was to cure the alienation and dehumanization of man caused by what they saw as the exploitative forces of capitalism.

In Marx’s writings, the material dimension of history appeared as primary. Economic production was deemed the basis of life, and the prevailing ideas (religious, educational, and political) of a society were seen as being determined by its economic structure. The dominant ideas of an epoch or society were considered to be the ideas of its ruling class-that is, the class that controlled the means of material production. In order to find the hidden interest behind an idea, Marx argued, one had to examine its social function rather than its intellectual content. Marx saw the need for a proletarian revolution in order to bring about Communism. Under Communism , he argued, the opposition between the individual and the group would disappear; each man’s interests would be seen to be identical with the interests of all, and alienation would be banished. Has it?

Unfortunately, like many influential ideas, Marx’s ideas have been abused and distorted. It is evident that several states have tried to bring about a Communist utopia (Post 23) through collectivist coercion, forced social manipulation and propaganda in a distortion of Marx’s arguments.

The word propaganda itself, as used in recent centuries, apparently, derives from the title and work of the Congregatio de Propagnda Fide (Congregation for Propagation of the Faith), an organization of Roman Catholic cardinals founded in 1622 to carry on missionary work. To many Catholics the word may therefore have, at least in missionary or ecclesiastical terms, a highly respectable connotation. But even to these persons, and certainly to many others, the term is often a dirty one tending to connote such things as the discredited atrocity stories and deceptively stated war aims of World Wars I and II, the operations of the Nazis’ Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

To the informed, the term propaganda has yet another connotation, associated with the term agitation. The two terms were first used by the Marxist Georgy Plekhanov and later elaborated upon by Lenin. He defined ‘propaganda’ as the reasoned use of historical and scientific arguments to indoctrinate the educated and enlightened (the attentive and informed publics, in the language of today’s social sciences) (What Is to be Done, 1902). Also refer Long live.. et al.

And he defined ‘agitation’, as the use of slogans, parables, and half-truths to exploit the grievances of the poor, uneducated and the unreasonable. Since he regarded both strategies as absolutely essential to political victory, he twinned them in the term agitprop. Today every unit of a Communist party must have an agitprop section. Also refer writings of Communist Party of Nepal Maoists.

God damn! Whoever concocted this title ‘Rally in NYC against Israeli ‘Aggression’! Long live!

So, after over 1000 deaths, over 1.5 million displaced and in excess of $3.5 billion worth of damages, who won? I’d like to know dammit, cause like all capitalist dogs, I had my bet on Israel. Damn bookie has disappeared - doesn’t return my call anymore!

With over a 1000 dead and Lebanon in ruins, Bush decides it’s time to whack more weeds in Crawford, Texas, and Blair decides to get a sun tan a-la, David Hasselhoff somewhere in the Caribbean..all the while, Nasarallah is being hailed as the saviour against Israel backed by the prejudice and hypocricy of the likes of Blair and Bush.

If Nasarallah and Hezbollah gain a majority in the next election and Hamas continues to hold their electoral votes in Palestinian lands, then, what will be the response of the Western vanguards who seem to believe that it is their duty to spread Democracy- whether by a fraudulent war or a proxy war as was seen in Lebanon/Israel?

The U.S has already ceased all communications with Syria and Iran, is a similar policy towards the Hamas led Palestinian and possible Hezbollah led government of Lebanon to follow?..Now that’s a novel way of “spreading Democracy in the Middle East”!

They wrote (Hemingway..) in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

As Shenoy stated, I would not believe that Lebanon meets the minimum standard to qualify as proper country- namely the capacity of a government to enforce its will within its borders. Hezbollah runs its own army, enforces its own foreign policy and runs its own network of schools, hospitals. The ‘government of Lebanon’ is unable to prevent Hezbollah terrorists from using its soil to attack Israel and it is equally helpless in preventing Israel from extracting justice. When we speak of Nepal, we have in the form of the Maoists an exact equivalent of the blood thirsty Hezbollah.

The civil war in Spain began as the outcome of an outraged army taking on a radical Left. The civil war in Lebanon began as a conflict between Christians battling Muslims. Whether caused by religion or ideology, the result was the same. I see some of the same conditions being created in Nepal. What will happen if the Maoists go too far? I hope that the nation is not wrecked by the same bloodshed that stains the Lebanese hills. But, it would be prudent to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

it always amazes me …the hipocrisy of palestanians