Monday, August 21, 2006

A tough post by ex-spook Larry Johnson. His colleage M.J. Rosenberg responds with moralizing and obfuscation.

"Hezbollah is a fundamentalist organization that has, from its inception, been dedicated to removing infidels from its midst."

I called on the above statement, accusing him either of a surprising ignorance or of bad faith (of lying). I began with this, from Charles Glass:
Naim Qassem called the liberation of south Lebanon ‘the grandest and most important victory over Israel since it commenced its occupation [of Palestine] fifty years before – a liberation that was achieved at the hands of the weakest of nations, of a resistance operating through the most modest of means, not at the hands of armies with powerful military arsenals.’ But what impressed most Lebanese as much as Hizbullah’s victory over Israel was its refusal to murder collaborators – a triumph over the tribalism that has plagued and divided Lebanese society since its founding. Christians I knew in the Lebanese army admitted that their own side would have committed atrocities. Hizbullah may have been playing politics in Lebanon, but it refused to play Lebanese politics. What it sought in south Lebanon was not revenge, but votes. In the interval between its founding in 1982 and the victory of 2000, Hizbullah had become – as well as an armed force – a sophisticated and successful political party. It jettisoned its early rhetoric about making Lebanon an Islamic republic, and spoke of Christians, Muslims and Druze living in harmony. When it put up candidates for parliament, some of those on its electoral list were Christians. It won 14 seats.
My comment, including the quote, was blanked by a moderator, but not before it was responded to by others. Scroll down from that link. It gets worse.

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