Wednesday, July 26, 2006

American trapped inside Lebanon says Israel is using white phosphorus


So I'm perusing online news and I see 2 bits of awful news: 1) the very tragic news that a 15 yr old Israeli girl was killed when a rocket from Hezbollah landed on her house, and 2) this particular article at Yahoo called "No Exit" by Kevin Sites is frontpaged. I skim thru it and my reading stops dead when I come across this: "Zeinab Shahen, from Los Angeles, was also staying in Yaroun for the summer w/ her husband and 4 children. She arrived at the Rest House w/ the others, but says she had a close call when the Israelis fired a rocket near one of the vehicles they were riding in. "Where the rocket hit it didn't damage the car much, luckily," says Zeinab. "They're using bombs, phosphorous or something. It burns. It melts. They're burning people inside their houses. They're burning cars, they're melting cars. No one can leave. We barely made it." Yet another report that Israel is illegally dropping phosphorus in civilian areas. I skip down to read the comments left about the Sites' article, and I am just struck by the complete stupidity of people who say things like this: "Why in the world are all these Americans in one of the most historically unstable war zones? He's there w/ his wife and 4 children for the summer? Whatever happened to taking the family to Disneyland?" OR this: "There have been state dept warnings to stay out of the MidEast for 4 yrs! So stop whining! You created your situation w/no thought for the safety of your family! You idiot." Yeah, b/c God forbid family, loved ones and friends visit cherished family, loved ones, and friends during their summer vacations, right? And isn't that really the question that typical dumb asses refuse to investigate: Isn't it odd that Americans really don't wonder why exactly 25K Americans, 24K Australians, and 1000s of other westerners choose to live/ visit Lebanon? I wonder why that would be the case? Let's face it, we Americans are creatures of comfort. We wouldn't live in a nation unless it offered us almost every convenience we enjoyed at home, we wouldn't live in abject poverty or constant fighting, we wouldn't live where we would be forced to veil our women, or where westerners fear kidnappings as they now do in Iraq. So, why do westerners live there? B/c Lebanon is a very modern nation (not just ideologically, it literally has newly sprung from the ashes after Israel destroyed to rubble in 1982) w/ a very peaceful mix of Muslims and Maronite Christians and people from different nations around the globe. Beirut was called the Paris of the Middle East. C'mon people, when GOP-loving Tucker Carlson says to Chris Matthews on Tues night's Hardball that he and others inside Beirut cannot understand why ALL of Lebanon has been destroyed, are asking why in hell are the bombs taking out entire Maronite Christian neighborhoods, (and yet NBC's Nightly News reports that some Christian neighbors are completely untouched and life goes on normally) and Tucker wonders if the actual goal all along is to level Lebanon like a parking lot, ya know it has to be bad. It makes you wonder why a nation, that Bush himself praised as such a model of democracy in the Middle East, has to be leveled to dust... guess all that democracy praise flew out the window when Bush rushed all of those US bombs over to Israel, huh? Again, I say the reason behind the westerner exodus: By ridding Lebanon of her western citizens, this war can escalate to God knows what proportions, and God knows what can happen to the poor souls who aren't lucky enough to have western connections to get out. Where are these Lebanese people going when they flee from their homes? Are they all just wandering around in the wilderness? The humantarian crisis alone will turn formerly peaceful people against Israel and the US after this latest debacle and bloodletting. This FL Lebanese-American sums it up best: "Israel may weaken Hezbollah, he said, but a shattered Lebanon will only offer more opportunity for Syrians, Iranians and others like al-Qaida to infiltrate the region. Now, you have to ask, if things were so bad before, what could they be like after this?" Unfortunately for him and all of the Lebanese people, no one seems to care to ask that question... but just look at Iraq, and you'll know that they simply don't give a damn.
Posted by Tina :: 1:12 AM :: 14 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------