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What They've Thought
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What They Thought July 16, 2006 Alan
Caruba Click here for columnist bios |
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On July 14 in the chamber of the United Nations Security Council, the permanent representative from Israel, Ambassador Dan Gillerman, paused to address his colleague, the ambassador from Lebanon. “You know that what we are doing is right, and if we succeed, your country will be the real beneficiary.” That is the sad truth about Lebanon. What it has been unable or unwilling to do for itself, will be done by Israel when it shatters the strongholds of Hezbollah to end the rain of Iranian-made rockets on its cities. This time, Israel will withdraw to its borders, leaving Lebanon yet another opportunity to assert its sovereignty. Am. Gillerman recalled a sunnier time in Lebanon’s recent history, prior to 1975 “when the Lebanese began their long descent into oppression and terror. This is a country that has been held hostage for more than 32 years by tyrants from the north and terrorists from the south.” Carved out of the defeated Ottoman Empire after WWI by the French and English, Lebanon became a unique place where its large Christian population achieved a successful measure of governance in cooperation with Muslim citizens. The result was a place that was often called the Paris of the Middle East, a place that became a modern financial hub to the region. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, Lebanon became a French protectorate, while Iraq and Jordan fell under the influence of the British who also oversaw affairs in desolate area to the south called Palestine. Following WWII, Jewish refugees from the Nazi Holocaust and earlier Jewish settlers would establish Israel in 1948. The “Cedar Revolution” that began on March 14, 2005 when more than a million Lebanese poured into the streets of Beirut to protest the February assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was brief. Anger, frustration, and desperation had overcome the fear of Syrian repression. On April 26, 2005, the last of the Syrian army departed, but Hezbollah, a militant Islamic organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, ruled southern Lebanon. The Syrians had moved into Lebanon ostensively to bring an end to a 15-year civil war (1975-1990) that had been triggered by an influx of heavily armed Palestinian refugees, driven from Jordan after their failed effort to overthrow the Hashemite monarchy. Reduced to its simplest terms, it was a war between Christians and Muslims. It was, however, more complex because in Lebanon, everyone is defined by their religion and this includes whether one is Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Shia, Sunni, Druze or Maronite. The differences are exaggerated in the hothouse atmosphere of Islamic fantasies. Israel, in effect, accepted Syrian control of Lebanon in exchange for control over Hezbollah. Yes, some rockets might hit northern Israel from time to time, but that was a small price to pay. Too many rockets put an end to that compromise. In time, Israel moved troops into the southern part of Lebanon to create a security zone. In 2000 it withdrew, having suffered too many casualties among its forces from a low-intensity warfare against them. Israelis, weary from the endless attacks on their people, tried to secure peace by ceding land to the Palestinians in Gaza and promising to withdraw further from the West Bank. The Lebanese border to the north remained closely guarded against Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that had invented the suicide bomber and perfected the taking of hostages. Am. Gillerman called the Cedar Revolution Lebanon’s moment of truth. Would it take the opportunity to assert its sovereignty over southern Lebanon? It did not. In fact, in the elections that followed Syria’s withdrawal, Hezbollah candidates became a part of Lebanon’s reconstituted government. Lebanon remained hostage to a stateless organization that answered to both Syria and Iran. Syria’s desire to reclaim Lebanon and Iran’s desire to destroy Israel forced Hezbollah to demonstrate that the millions poured into it had been a good investment. In attacks coordinated with Hamas, both terror groups kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Suddenly the heat was off Iran as concerns about its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons gave way to the attention focused on events in Lebanon and Gaza. There was never any doubt of Israel’s response. Am. Gillerman told the Security Council that “Hezbollah, together with Hamas, Syria and Iran, comprise the world’s new and ominous Axis of Terror, an infamous club, the entry fee to which is the blood of innocents and the terrorizing of the entire world.” “The real occupying power in Lebanon is terror—terror instigated by Hezbollah, but initiated, funded and perpetrated by Syria and Iran.” If you want to see what the other nations of the Middle East will look like if there is no intervention and preemption, look at Lebanon. If you want to see what Europe will look like if subjected to a similar campaign of terror, look at Lebanon. The implications for the United States of America are huge. This is where we secure a large measure of the oil our economy and way of life requires. This is where we have put our troops in harm’s way to break the grip of fanatical Islam and replace it with a modern form of governance. Failure is not an option, but so far U.S. diplomacy has only encouraged its enemies. This is not just about tiny Israel fighting for its security and survival. This is not about restoring Lebanon to its former grandeur. This is about whether Western civilization has the guts to protect itself against a tyrannical enemy. |
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Ted Kennedy has always amazed me because of the pretzel logic that he so often utilizes in his problem solving. We’ve heard nothing out of him regarding the war in Iraq that is positive. He has told us we need to get rid of our dependency on Mid-Eastern oil so we can leave the Mid-East. I actually agree with him on that to some extent. Before I get off on the really weird spelling of his name above I want to explain why I don’t necessarily agree with him on that point. One of the reasons we don’t want to leave the Mid-East has to do with preventing the expansion of China. They are one of those cultures that will probably never make the grade into our type of society. Living with a boot heel in one’s mouth is expected over there. It’s always been that way right down to the color of the tiles on the roof of your house. Blue roofs were for the Imperials, and if any dragon adorned any part of your house and it was an Imperial dragon (four claws not three), you now had a whole new set of serious problems to deal with regarding your government. If we leave the Mid-East and allow China in to fill the power vacuum, they will have the oil needed to spread their misery. Personally I think we teeter on the edge of heading that direction all too often no matter what party is in office here. That statement right there will give me a whole new set of emails from the drama queens who think they are suffering from a boot heel in their mouth right now. They will rant and rail against our government about how free we aren’t, but they can do so only because here we are still free to say what we want so it’s safe to do so. I’ve noticed that they seem to miss that point all too often. But the point is that we have to have more on our minds than just the price of fuel. We already know that the Mid-East started its own expansionism in a really big way right after Mohammed died, and that many current problems in the world come from that region. Now, I was originally writing about Kennedy and a rather strange thing he said not too long ago. When I first read it I thought maybe PETA had managed to slip a mickey in one of his many drinks. He actually issued a statement regarding the unnecessary death of birds in the wind farms of the west. In case you are unfamiliar with wind farms, he was talking about the numerous energy farms that harvest wind power and turn it into electricity on the west coast. Since I have always heard him say that we need more things like that I perked up. I really did wonder what was going on in his head. It didn’t take long to find out what that was all about, though. There was a recent DOE study that showed there is enough wind off of the east coast to generate America’s electricity, something to the tune of 900,000 megawatts. The moment I saw that article mentioning all of the energy to be harvested I realized why Kennedy was making all of those statements about birds and west coast wind farms. Now I’m all for changing how we generate our power and I think these farms are a great idea, but this brought out a rather obvious point to be found in all of this and that is the nature of politicians and politics. Kennedy is a classic example of the ruling elite. Kennedy was all for something until he realized he could have the whole thing moved to his neck of the woods. Now he is suddenly finding flaws with the west coast farms, but I can promise you that soon in the future he’ll be all for having wind farms on the east coast. These are the people that we choose? I hate to say it, but people get the government they deserve almost one hundred percent of the time. This guy needs to be voted out instead of being treated like royalty, but since he is robbing Peter (us) to pay Paul (Massachusetts), he can always count on Paul’s support. I found the entire reversal to be typically disgusting but predictable. I haven’t seen a reversal like this since the time Teddy came home and told his dad he was changing his major from horticulture to political science. His daddy was probably happy that he had just decided to be part of the oldest profession in the world, but the reason probably scared him. Ted had just discovered that horticulture didn’t start with a "W." That explains his dislike for "W" and the occasional misspelling of his name where he drops the "E" for "ticulture." It’s just him getting back in touch with his inner child. Reference
Link: R.A. Hawkins Web Site Contact Back to Top |
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Last week, my wife and parents and brother and I all traveled to Las Vegas for the first time in our lives. It was a rather unusual vacation. I explained what happened to one of my friends the other day, and he responded by saying it was almost like two vacations in one: the first, an escape from work; the other, an escape from reality. I would tend to agree with that assessment. To say we experienced Murphy’s Law would be an understatement. For one full week, it felt as though we were living Murphy’s Life and wearing Murphy’s Underwear. The first day, we arrived at 10 AM local time. The early hour smiling back at us from our watches filled us with a certain sense of hope and potential. This sense was crushed a few minutes later when we learned one of our suitcases hadn’t arrived with us. I’ve never lost a piece of luggage before. I’ve always assumed this was something the airlines prefer not to happen. That may still be true, but they certainly don’t feel bad about it. US Airways’ general lack of sympathy truly impressed me. They actually acted like it was my fault for bringing a bag on vacation. After checking in at the Mandalay Bay, my wife and I made the mistake of drinking a couple of beers over lunch. This is never a good idea, but it was even worse than usual, given our early flight and the time zone adjustment. When we got back to our room, we called US Airways, who informed us the bag had decided to take the next flight to Vegas out of Philly. The good news was, that flight was set to land at 4 PM. The bad news was, US Airways pledged not to get it to me till ten o’clock that evening. When I informed them the airport was so close I was watching planes take off through my window, they yelled at me in broken English and promptly hung up. At that point, my wife and I passed out, out of tired, mildly intoxicated frustration. When we opened our eyes, it was 11:30, and the blinking neon McDonald’s sign outside informed us the world had gone on without us. The entire first day of our trip was a wash. We then slept till ten the next morning. The next day, things started picking up a little. The Mandalay Bay has this whole resort theme going, so we spent a lot of time outside on the man-made beach. This went pretty well for a while. Then someone held my mom underwater in the Lazy River and proceeded to stab her innertube. The next night, my wife and brother and I went to a place called the Ghost Bar, which is an outdoor lounge on top of the Palms casino. This was a pretty cool place. The views of Las Vegas were unparalleled. While there, an Iranian lawyer tried to convince my wife to fall off the building so her parents could collect $15 million. A few minutes later, his friend insisted I take a bag of pot from him in exchange for a clove cigarette. We didn’t smoke the pot, but we weren’t sure what to do with it. We ended up leaving it as a tip for the maid in our hotel room. This was probably for the best. The TSA “randomly” rifled through my checked luggage on both the trip to Vegas as well as the flight home. After the Ghost Bar, a taxi driver named Ted talked about taking my wife out to the desert and shooting her. When we got back to the hotel, we walked across the street to McDonald’s, where we were yelled at and ostracized for walking through the drive-thru. The next night, my mom obtained VIP passes to move to the head of the line at Planet Hollywood. When we got to the restaurant, we learned that every person waiting for a table also had a VIP pass, and that the wait for VIPs would be 45 minutes. When we were seated, I secretly told the waiter it was my parents’ 30th anniversary. The hope was that he would come out with a bunch of fellow waiters after dinner and sing to them. A little while later, he blew his own cover by mentioning their anniversary in conversation. Then he proceeded to serve them their food while dropping mine and my wife’s on the floor. After an hour of waiting for him to re-serve the meals he had wasted, he unceremoniously delivered my parents an anniversary brownie. Then he disappeared. The trolley ride home after dinner was hell. It took over an hour to drive roughly half a mile back to our casino. The Strip had been shut down by a driver who was shot to death after dragging a bicycle cop who asked him to turn down his stereo. I believe this particular story may have made the national news. At least that’s what people have told me. I only wish I knew it was the scene of a shooting while I was driving past it. I would have taken more pictures. Overall, our trip seemed defined more by the things we didn’t do than the things we did. We planned on going to karaoke at the House of Blues, but that death-on-the-Strip thing derailed it. We planned on going to ladies night at some bar at Hooters, too, but then the Toby Keith bar’s fried Southern cooking tried to kill us. We never gambled, and the only unexpected nudity we saw was a single nipple belonging to an old Asian woman in the Lazy River. My parents never renewed their vows, which was the original reason we went to Vegas in the first place. And to top it all off, the day before leaving, we lost our driver’s licenses in the Mandalay Bay wave pool. Fortunately, we retrieved them several hours later. Unfortunately, the beers we drank to soothe our worries cost a whopping $6.50 a piece. The last day there, we were told by our shuttle company that we had to be picked up three hours before our flight. This pissed us off (what with the airport being across the street), but we complied, and then the shuttle never showed up for us. I kept calling the company and demanding a ride to the airport, and the lady kept changing her story about the scheduled time. Then, after a couple of phone calls, she proceeded to yell at me, just like the people from US Airways. This was unbelievable, considering how I had paid for the shuttle months in advance. We ended up paying for a taxi. Then, at the airport, I ordered a hamburger from a Chili’s take-out counter, and ended up waiting over half an hour for it. I eventually walked right the hell into their kitchen and scared the crap out of them. I finally understood why Ben Stiller panics and clutches his bag at the end of Meet the Parents. There comes a point when you just need something to cling to. In the end, it honestly felt like supernatural forces were conspiring to destroy our vacation. The only show we paid for, for instance, was the Comedy Pet Theater, which ended up featuring maybe two whole minutes of pets doing tricks (the rest was about their master’s quest to become a clown). In spite of such weirdness, I had an amazing trip, though. I spent way more money than I was comfortable with (this, without gambling). Yet save for a missing 50 (which I fear I may have tipped the driver who ordered our food at the McDonald’s drive-thru), I don’t regret a single penny I spent. My only regret is not taking pictures of that police shooting. I really feel like I missed an opportunity on that one. I guess I’ll just have to go back. Jonathan David Morris Web Site Contact Back to Top |
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For years officials at the Federal Reserve Bank, including Chairman Bernanke himself, have assured us that inflation is under control and not a problem — even as the price of housing, energy, medical care, school tuition, gold, and other commodities skyrockets. The Treasury department parrots the Fed line that consumer prices, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), are under control. But even many mainstream economists now admit that CPI grossly understates true inflation. The most glaring problem is that CPI excludes housing prices, instead tracking rents. Everyone knows the cost of purchasing a home has increased dramatically in the last ten years; in many regions housing prices have more than doubled in just five years. So price inflation certainly is alive and well when to comes to the largest purchase most Americans make. When the Federal Reserve increases the supply of dollars in circulation, both paper and electronic, prices must rise eventually. What other result it possible? The supply of dollars has risen much faster than the supply of goods and services being chased by those dollars. Fed policy makers have more than doubled the money supply in less than ten years. While Treasury printing presses can print unlimited dollars, there are natural limits to economic growth. This flood of newly minted US currency can only increase consumer prices in the long term. Mr. Bernanke has stated quite candidly that he will use government printing presses to stimulate the economy as necessary. He is famous for joking that he would endorse dropping money from helicopters if needed to prevent an economic slowdown. This is nothing short of an express policy to destroy our money by inflation. Every new dollar erodes the value of existing dollars based on simple supply and demand. Does anyone really believe the Treasury can make us rich simply by printing more money? The coming dollar crisis is not likely to be “fixed” by politicians who are unwilling to make hard choices, admit mistakes, and spend less money. Demographic trends will place even greater demands on Congress to maintain benefits for millions of older Americans who are dependent on the federal government. Faced with uncomfortable financial realities, Congress will seek to avoid the day of reckoning by the most expedient means available — and the Federal Reserve undoubtedly will accommodate Washington by printing more dollars to pay the bills. The Fed is the enabler for the spending addicts in Congress, who would rather spend new fiat money than face the political consequences of raising taxes or borrowing more abroad. The irony is that many of the Fed’s biggest cheerleaders are the same supposed capitalists who denounced centralized economic planning when practiced by the former Soviet Union. Large banks and Wall Street firms love the Fed’s easy money policy, because they profit at the front end from the resulting loan boom and artificially high equity prices. It’s the little guy who loses when the inflated dollars finally trickle down to him and erode his buying power. Someday Americans will understand that Federal Reserve bankers have no magic ability — and certainly no legal or moral right — to decide how much money should exist and what the cost of borrowing money should be. Rep. Ron Paul Web Site Back to Top |
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No column this week. Nancy
Salvato
Web Site Contact
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©2004-2006 by their respective authors. Reprinted by permission. |
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