My Angry Rant Post

You know what? I'm tires as hell of seeing or reading some representative of an Arab nations or a commentator or blogger say "Hezbollah is not a terrorist group, they are not terrorists, they are freedom fighters." Or they will justify or excuse Hamas or other Palestinian groups who resort to terrorist tactics on the same grounds

This is complete bullshit!! I don't give a shit what cause you are fighting for, how long you have been repressed, committing acts of terrorism are wrong. Call it what it is: suicide bombing is terrorism, launching rockets into civilian areas knowing very well you will hit civilians...If a state did the same thing as Hezbollah it would be called a warcrime because it is. It is a war crime and it is terrorism.

An innocent Israeli is just as innocent as an innocent Lebanese, as a innocent Palestinian. Yet many on both sides seem to forget that, or just see it another way.

This sickening rationale for justifying the horrendous acts of groups they are sympathetic to is not solely found to supporters of Hezbollah or Hamas, you find it in supporters of Israel, and as you'll see in American supporters of Israel. In this case US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton:

Via quaoar one of thousands of diarists (myself included) on Daily Kos:

He cited a story in the Asia Times Online

"Bolton's continued "cheerleading for Israel" didn't help, according to this same official. "It's a real row that started with Bolton's statement that you couldn't compare the deaths of Lebanese to the deaths of Israelis," the official said. "He implied that because Lebanon harbored Hezbollah, Lebanese lives were forfeit. It was a stupid thing to say. It tore the scab off the wound." "

Understand that? You might be saying, hey that sounds almost right but the implications of such a belief completely destroy the WHOLE body of logic that tells us that terrorism, that killing innocent civilians is wrong in the course of a struggle.

To make certain civilians 'culpable' and thus less innocent (or not innocent) by nature of Hezbollah's presence in Lebanon, or because it does have the sympathy of many in the nation would legitimize the mindset of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden who justify attacks against civilians (banned in the Koran) by labeling ALL Americans as contributors and collaborators with the US government. We pay taxes, we vote for the government, we join the army, we re-elected George W. Bush and his foreign policy, thus we are not innocent and thus we are legitimate targets according to bin Laden.

Follow the logic of Bolton and all the sudden bin Laden can argue that what they are doing on 9/11 is not terrorism, is not wrong because they are freedom fighters attacking legitimate targets. There are no innocents

That same reasoning is quite apparent in the views of John Bolton and in a large segment of people such as Alan Dershowitz who argue that a Lebanese civilian is not as innocent as a Israeli civilian and so the tragedy is much less when a Lebanese is killed.

If Bolton really wanted to argue such a belief than Hezbollah could simply argue (and it might) that in fact, in Israel, there is Universal Service in the armed forces therefore ALL Israeli's are in fact soldiers, contributors to Israel's military might, and not innocent (legitimate targets). In fact, due to Universal Conscription Hezbollah could make an even better case that John Bolton or others can make in Lebanon.

Simply put, it is wrong.

This line of though completely blurs the line of innocence, and legitimizes the use of terrorism. People such as John Bolton and Alan Dershowitz should be ashamed of themselves. Honestly, I whole-heartedly believe that if he or people like him where born as an Arab, he'd likely be one of those terrorists he so decries. They sure think alike.

This, people, is why we need to get the damn GOP out of power. This is how they govern, how they think, how they conduct foreign policy. They are ruining America and the world and I look forward to the day when a saner party (Democrats) finally stands up and relegates the GOP to what they should be: an opposition party to the Democrats governing party status.

The GOP has proved time and again that it cannot handle anything other than making sure Democrats don't go overboard. It doesn't deserve to govern.

Please read the whole article in the Asia Times