Post by RichLPost by f***@yahoo.comOf course peace in the Middle East is the goal. But IMO it does
not mean that Hamas must be part of the process or must exist.
It's like saying, "Let's end WW II by making peace with the
Nazis." WW II ended, in part, because Germany was brought to its
knees and the Nazis were obliterated.
=========================
Huh? The Nazis were used by the American Government, (or should I
say the used the US)
"The real winners of the Cold War were Nazi war criminals, many
of whom were able to escape justice because the East and West
became so rapidly focused after the war on challenging each
other,"
"Ironically, some of the" Nazis "would go on to play leading
roles in European neofascist organizations that despise the
United States."
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0508-05.htm
Not every Nazi was eliminated;; but the Nazi government was removed
from power. Similarly, not every terrorist will be brought to
justice . . . .but terrorist organizations can be removed from power.
How? More violence? Start WWIII? Obliterate all the Arabs and
Muslims?
Seems to me that that approach is getting us nowhere. There has been
absolutely no progress. Both sides are just becoming more resolute
in their intrasigence. Besides, most of the civilized world isn't
buying into it, as they did in the effort to defeat the Nazis.
Time for "Something New".
Just as was done in Ireland, we are going to have to separate the
legitimate complaints and demands of so-called "terrorists" from the
violence that is prompted and maintained by abuse and political
disenfrachisement, and address those legitimate elements in the context
of politics, rather than automatically responding to them with military
violence of our own. Trust me, the vast majority of people (even amongst
those we classify as "terrorists") do not choose a life of violence and
danger with ease, and will - once given real political clout and an
audience that doesn't automatically dismiss them - turn increasingly to
political means to achieve their ends. They will - like most of us -
fail to achieve much of what they want, but they will become victims of
hope, which tends to make one less volatile, stunned as they are by the
ever visible albeit ever regressing potential for their "utopia". This
will - in the Mideast - obviously involve cutting the steel umbilical
cord that connects American policy automatically with Israel, and
expecting more of Israel than we do now. But that is the only way this
cycle of vindictiveness and death will ever be ended. It is entirely
futile to suppose (and the US adventurism in the Mideast has revealed
this very clearly) that we can end the violence merely by force of arms
and our own variety of terror against a people who - in these conditions
- have nothing to lose by choosing martyrdom. We have to extend to them
the same sustainable futility most of us in the West experience as a
matter of course.
dmh