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Iran/Hezbollah Makes Its Move

While we’re distracted with Billary, Obama, SOTU, surge, etc., Iran and its Hezbollah stooges are making their move in Lebanon. Haaretz report here.

Two people were killed and at least 100 more wounded Tuesday in clashes during a Lebanese general strike called by the Hezbollah-led opposition in a bid to topple Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s Western-backed government.

Lebanon’s anti-Syrian majority leaders Tuesday accused the opposition of staging a “coup” against the government by blocking major roads. Thousands of protesters blocked main roads in Beirut and around the country with rubble and burning tires as the strike began.

“This is a coup d’etat. This is a revolt in all sense of the word,” Christian leader Samir Geagea told the Lebanese television station LBCI.

Freedoms Zone’s own Blacksmiths of Lebanon are all over it. Blacksmith Jade in comments below has more on the timing:  

On January 25th, a major donor conference is due to take place in Paris (the Paris III donor’s conference) in which the US has promised a major financial aid package to Lebanon. The Prime Minister, along with several of his ministers, are due to attend.

Hizballah is using this day as opportunity to scuttle that conference, as well as possibly taking advantage of the absence of the PM and members of his cabinet …

Lebblogger Michael Totten here.

This is actually bad timing by the mullahs. The day George Bush is due to speak to Congress, Islamic Terrorism and Regional Domination Inc. just bought a big billboard advertisement for why Iran needs a big smackdown in Iraq, and why its nuke sites have to be taken out.  Iran … not George Bush, the United States or even al-Qaeda … is the greatest threat to peace and stability in the Middle East and possibly, short-term, in the world. Maybe this will even get pencilled into tonight’s speech.  I doubt it will convince anyone, however.

Topics: Uncategorized

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:59 am on Tuesday, January 23, 2007

35 Responses to “Iran/Hezbollah Makes Its Move”

1. RebeccaH Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 am

   Makes you wonder what’s going on in Iran that they needed this distraction now.

2. Blacksmith Jade Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 12:06 pm

   With regard to the timing:
   On January 25th, a major donor conference is due to take place in Paris (the Paris III donor’s conference) in which the US has promised a major financial aid package to Lebanon. The Prime Minister, along with several of his ministers, are due to attend.

   Hizballah is using this day as opportunity to scuttle that conference, as well as possibly taking advantage of the absence of the PM and members of his cabinet (the only branch of government currently outside the control of Pro-Syrian forces) to possibly stage some sort of grab at power (I’m going to refrain from using the phrase coup d’etat because its just too unnerving for my caffeine-saturated brain at the moment).

   The head of the army is a Syrian-ally that has been wading into politics far too often this past month for it to be comforting, especially in light of the way the armed forces have acted throughout the day….

   …In the word of Marge Simpson…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..

3. Blacksmith Jade Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 12:08 pm

   PS - Many thanks for the referal Jules.

4. Jules Crittenden Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 12:49 pm

   Anytime, Jade, keep doing what you do

5. Bill's Bites Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 2:24 pm

   Iran/Hezbollah Makes Its Move

   Hezbollah Riots in Lebanon Michael J Totten (H/T: Michelle) While I was in Lebanon gathering the material I’ve been publishing, Hezbollah kept threatening to strangle the country by seizing major roads, including the one that leads to the airport. I

6. Lebanon Explodes Again « Tai-Chi Policy Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 2:25 pm

   [...] January 23, 2007 Posted by taoist in Politics, Human Rights, Iran, Liberty, Lebanon, Islamofascism. trackback Hezbollah just started an attempt to seize control of Lebanon. It’s fairly safe to assumethis is by Iran’s orders. [...]

7. saltydog Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 2:28 pm

   A person would have to work hard to ignore the proxy war Iran is waging. That there are so many willing to put in the work is disheartening–and incredibly dangerous.

   On my worst days, I think that the West won’t fall with a thunderous crash, but a dull, indifferent thud.

8. alphabet city Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 4:41 pm

   Hillary, the Foreign Policy Realist

   …the timing is deliberate. The message from Tehran is loud and clear. Khomeinism is ascendent in the region

9. JammieWearingFool Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 6:16 pm

   Ahmadinejad Reaches Out to Democrats

   The little man talks a big game and knows how to play the useful idiots in this country.

10. alphie Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    I suppose the right doesn’t think Israel bears any responsibility for this turn of events?

11. Luther McLeod Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 8:00 pm

    Not that I consider myself a part of “the right” but, no, I don’t see where Israel has any responsibility for this turn of events. Unless, of course, you are saying that they should have finished hezballah off when they had the opportunity.

12. Cliff Clavin Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 8:01 pm

    “I suppose the right doesn’t think Israel bears any responsibility for this turn of events?”

    I completely agree with you, alphie. I mean after all, this report did appear in the Israeli press.

    Hey alphie, did I ever tell you about the Buffalo Theory?

    “It’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

    In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

    And that, alphie, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers….”

    OH, this Bud’s for you. On second thought, I should make that a Bud Light, huh? Cheers!

13. RebeccaH Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 9:59 pm

    Alphie, is there any bad news anywhere in the world you won’t blame on America and the Jews?

14. alphie Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    Just the places they have invaded, Reb.

    The idea that you can bring peace with violence seems to be proven wrong every time it’s tried.

    Chaos would seem to be the real goal of America and israel’s invasions.

15. Luther McLeod Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 pm

    “The idea that you can bring peace with violence seems to be proven wrong every time it’s tried”

    Good thing you were not around for the big wars, alphie. Grow up.

16. Purple Avenger Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 11:32 pm

    I suppose the right doesn’t think Israel bears any responsibility for this turn of events?

    Right. I’ve always thought the Hizb were a Mossad puppet too.

17. MentalFloss Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 3:06 am

    alphie Says:
    January 23rd, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    “Chaos would seem to be the real goal of America and Israel’s invasions.”

    Chaos, eh? Let’s run with that, shall we?

    The chaotic behavior we see in Iraq and Lebanon is comparable in the abstract to any system in which a very large and sudden energy dissipation takes place — say, for example, in the case of Iraq, the sudden removal of an implacably murderous dictator, the fear of whom kept a millennia-long struggle in check; or, in the case of Lebanon, the sudden departure of Syrian troops and their equally brutal secret police, where again fear was the only instrumentality keeping “order”.

    In both cases of massive and rapid fluctuation in energy, certain temporary, “dissipative” structures form and then soon decay (”soon” is, of course, a relative term — I am using it in an historical context), creating areas of intense turbulence in their albeit brief existence.

    Luther McLeod has thrown you a rope, Alphie, by referring (I believe) to the fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Here, overwhelming and unrelenting force was used to utterly destroy all military, political and cultural manifestations of the two regimes in question. The unconditional surrender and subsequent “benignly draconian” occupations that followed prevented the formation of the aforementioned chaotic dissipative structures from ever taking place. The results are two dynamic and thriving countries that rose from ruins to riches in much less than thirty years.

    The case is far different in the post-modern world where — instead of hell — “War is Heck”.

    Who knows? In the case of Hizbollah the “decay” of this dissipative structure may take the form of the party’s full politicization and the disbanding or assimilation into the Lebanese Army of its militant wing.

    However, it is far more likely that Hizbollah will be destroyed root and branch by its many foes both within and without Lebanon.

    Equally, in the land of pretty ponies and rainbows, Sadr’s Mahdi Army might do likewise — after all, the politicians have been ordered by their portly, soi-disant “cleric” of a leader to rejoin the Iraqi Governement, haven’t they?

    In both these rosy scenarios (though with Iran and Syria in the wings, either of these outcomes are almost to fantastic to posit), the “dissipative” structures would, in essence, disappear.

    Putting aside concepts of butterflies in Beijing bringing storms system to New York, we should return from these abstract possibilities to the concrete and seemingly inevitable realities of this latest World War and the two theatres of conflict under discussion.

    Neither Israel nor the United States will wait for the natural turbulence I have described to settle on its own — like a dust devil in a crosswind. Unlike their foes, Israel and America hold life too precious to wait (yes, even the life of the enemy, whether you believe it or not).

    It is far more likely that the new Rules of Engagement being read by the 20k troops on their way to clear and hold Baghdad, the very real threat of a US withdrawal to the erstwhile “No-Fly” zones of the north and south Iraq should Maliki fail his mandate, the appearance of CVN Carl Vinson in the Persian Gulf (not to mention CVN Theo. Roosevelt, which is steaming that way as we speak) — either of which could on its own obliterate Iran, the as yet unrevealed might of the IDF (trust me on this one, the last time they actually pulled out all the stops was in ‘73), as well the tendency of intelligent people (read: Iranian middle class) to retreat from the brink when the true depth of the chasm confronting them is exposed — all these are more likely to bring order to the chaos generated by a war that started for the US in 1979 (and for Israel, about 1236 BC).

    I’ve never liked the adage “You can’t make an omlette without breaking eggs”. Personally, I feel that if you can convince the eggs of the virtues of omlette-hood, the will crack themselve and jump happily into the pan. A little salt and pepper, some herbs…eh, Voila!

    A rambling post that will doubtless (and quite rightly) be picked to pieces — my only excuse is that I am very heavily medicated and being held together with chicken-wire and duct tape at the moment.

    Nice blog, Mr. Crittenden. I’ll come back again when I’m in compos mentis.

18. alphie Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 4:36 am

    Post-WWII Germany and Japan were the exceptions, not the rule, for nation-building, MF.

    Anyone who holds them out as a goal for Iraq is being as naive or dishonest as Bush.

    Anyone who clings to them is a fool.

19. MentalFloss Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 6:28 am

    You mistake me, Alphie, and you do so in a facile and insulting manner — an approach I try to avoid in exchanges such as these.

    You have chosen to cherry pick from my remarks a refutation to your bald statement that America’s “invasions” have chaos as their goal without offering any alternative motive for what has always been a “last resort” policy. You need only cite “Oil” as a motive to prove your complete lack of comprehension of the origin and continuing impetus for this struggle.

    You have implied that I am either naive or dishonest. Perhaps both.

    I strive to be honest, and am not so naive as to believe anything resembling the Marshall Plan would succeed in the Near East. Nor am I so great a “fool” as to assert that the West has either the will or inclination to implement such a plan.

    To any historian, whether amateur or professional — the folly of “clinging” to the notion that events must unfold in one set of circumstances as they have in another — and one so geographically, demographically. politically and socially removed from the former as is possible in this wide world is ludicrous in the extreme.

    Had you any background in the history of the region or its culture, both ancient and modern, you would recognize the profound antipathy between Arab conquerors and those they subjugated. Call them Medes, Persians, Turks or Kurds — the political construct that is Islam is not capable of subsuming or reconciling the ancient animosities and feuds that extend from family to clan, tribe, region and nation.

    This is more than a question of whether Abu Bakr is the heir of Mohammed or Ali and his successors.

    Dar-al-Islam is a fragile thing — even a cursory glimpse reveals how very fragile — currently in the throes of an internecine struggle only thinly veiled by seeming unity against the West.

    An opportunity has been given them to settle their differences, reform their “canon”, enfranchise their peoples and begin “Forward Movement”.

    I am less than encouraged by their progress thus far, and predict that great suffering and death is yet to come.

    Will it be meted out by the US, Israel or their Allies? I doubt it. Islam and it’s adherents will either die from self-inflicted wounds, bleed profusely but emerge a stronger, healthier culture and a force for good, or remain a “Fossil Society” in the Toyenbean sense of the term.

    Then again, they may push the West too far, and be utterly destroyed.

20. alphie Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 6:53 am

    The derogatory terms you use to describe modern Islam could apply just as easily to Europe, America or Israel at various times during the last 100 years or so, MF.

    We aren’t so far out of the violent gutter ourselves, and we could easily slide back into it.

    You seem to be ignoring the stresses our invasions are putting on our own “civilized” societies.

    I even detect a resugence of good old fashioned racism in the newly-defeated American right.

    Once some people get a taste for slaughter, they become insatiable…

21. Cliff Clavin Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 7:50 am

    “The derogatory terms you use to describe modern Islam could apply just as easily to Europe, America or Israel at various times during the last 100 years or so, MF.”

    Present facts, dates and examples. I will say that at least you capitalized Israel, this time.

    “We aren’t so far out of the violent gutter ourselves, and we could easily slide back into it.”

    Present facts, dates and examples.

    “You seem to be ignoring the stresses our invasions are putting on our own “civilized” societies.”

    Present facts, dates and examples.

    “I even detect a resugence of good old fashioned racism in the newly-defeated American right.”

    And of the ‘We know best for these people’, who’s attitude of ‘these people can’t do, we must do for them’, isn’t an admittance of racism of the Left?

    “Once some people get a taste for slaughter, they become insatiable…”

    You have just described the radical Islamist.

22. alphie Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 2:03 pm

    How ’bout WWII Europe, Pre Civil Rights American South and the Irgun days of Israel, Cliff?

23. MentalFloss Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    It took some time and thought to express the opinions and observations in the posts above. This is an important topic and deserves careful consideration.

    Is it too much to ask that you return the favour and produce something of substance in your rebuttal?

    Frankly, if you seriously consider a reference to Islam as a fragile political construct to be derogatory; if the frank but mild statements regarding its ability to absorb or bend rather than break under the pressures of modernity are seen by you as insulting — well, then, that is projection on your part and I can but pity the mind that so publicly demonstrates its lack of capacity for critical analysis and reasoned discourse.

    As Mr. Clavin points out (and I noticed upon first reading this thread), you toss out one-line remarks with casual ease, certain that all the readers are nodding their heads (slightly tilted) in complete agreement, understanding every nuance and particular — despite the absence of anything substantive to support them.

    The topic is not the composition of the 110th US Congress, nor the Ante-Bellum South, nor, indeed, WWII Europe (though I freely admit using an example from that period in support of a position on the topic at hand).

    If you are going to bring into the discussion such topics as the Irgun, why not elaborate? I’m sure no one here would claim they were without sin or lily-white (it should be said, however, that the British were warned well in advance warned of the King David Hotel (British Military Headquarters, hence a legitimate target) bombing but refused to evacuate the building because “We don’t take orders from the Jews”). Certainly the “massacre” at Deir Yassin would support your clearly anti-Israel stance — but then there is still controversy over whether the term massacre should be used at all.

    See what I mean? If you are going to play the game then have a real go at it.

    C’mon, mate, show us what yer made of and make with the substance. Either that or bugger off.

24. Cliff Clavin Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    What ’bout WWII, alphie? Was it us that started the savagery?, Was it us that started torpedoing our own Merchant Marine? Did WE cattle car Jews? Did WE starve and gas, Jews? Did Germans help rebuild what they certainly destroyed?

    You left out Japan, alphie. So being the nice guy that I am, I typed it for you. What it us that started the savagery? Was it us that bombed Pearl Harbor? Did the Japanese help rebuild what they certainly destroyed

    Pre Civil Rights American Everything, alphie….not just the South, Try the WORLD. That was a stain. …AND What of your Islamists that still treat the African as chattel, chained, bought, sold, or if lucky not tortured before being killed, alphie?

    You left out decimating and moving Native American Indians, alphie. So being the nice guy that I am, I typed it for you. Another stain.

    Irgun days of Israel.

    Are they still slitting throats, chopping heads, massacring children, taking slaves in Africa, stoning and women, honor killing their women, making their women cover from head to toe and treating them as chattel, converting by force, those who do not believe their way, or advocating the killing of all that are not what they are, ripping planes into buildings?

    alphie, I told them to stop that crap in the 6th Century and they disobeyed me…ME!?

    This all ya’ got, alphie?

    Nothing about Inquisitions? Burning witches? Nuclear devices dropped? South Korea saved? Early explorers spreading diseases?

    Geez, alphie, you’re easy to please…I offered more then you did…and YOU despise the U.S. AND “israel”, that you since capitalized.

    Silly me, surely you jest. NOT just 100 years or so removed. You must mean mankind’s inhumanity to mankind…right, aphie…from year ONE.

    Hey, the Neanderthals, what about them, alphie? You do know that those GEICO ads are fake, right? OH, what about radical Islam?

25. alphie Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    I guess I don’t see much need for details when the surface facts are so…obvious, MF.

    America and Israel are the occupiers. They bomb any Muslim target they want with little regard for civilian casualties they and feel free to back puppet factions anywhere in the Muslim world.

    The “battle of civilizations” line is just a worn out cover story for some very greedy special interests.

    The phony moral indignation when some Muslim country pushes back a little isn’t going to sell any more in the “civilized” world…

26. Cliff Clavin Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 4:35 pm

    MentalFloss

    Like your style, wit and intelligence, the “mate” suggests….ummmm, lemme see…Australia.

    Hope you are doing well, BUT if not, why the hell not…gotta take care of yourself, man. That lovely daughter and wife depend on it

    OH and you can call me…E.C.

27. Cliff Clavin Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 4:39 pm

    “America and Israel are the occupiers”

    Baawaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! anti-Semite, anti-American, leftist. As Seinfeld says…not that there’s anything wrong with that…yeah right.

    “civilized”…I see a head tilt, here.

28. MentalFloss Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 6:58 pm

    I’ve changed my mind, Alphie.

    Stick with the one-liners — your most recent post is evidence enough that you lack the wit to attempt anything more elaborate.

29. MentalFloss Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    E.C….thanks, but you need to catch me on a good day.

    A California Yankee in King Howard’s Court, am I.

    Still, to use an old fashioned expression, you have the advantage of me. Perhaps we became e-quainted elsewhere?

30. Cliff Clavin Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 7:48 pm

    MentalFloss

    Translation of my Amadinejhad email replies.

    Been concerned about you.

    See you later friend….:).

31. alphie Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

    The ball’s in your court, guys.

    Unless you can come up with some new materiel, this war’s over and you probably won’t get another one for 20-30 years…

32. Luther McLeod Says:
    January 24th, 2007 at 10:23 pm

    alphie

    I don’t have the word’s. Let’s just say that if my life depended on you, I’d be dead.

33. MentalFloss Says:
    January 25th, 2007 at 12:47 am

    The ball’s what, exactly, Alphie? Is this ball of which you speak possessed of something the nature of which we are as yet unaware? Oh, wait, an errant apostrophe, nothing more.

    I am equally nonplussed by this Alphie character, Luther, and will make no further comment (except to say that the quality of contenders on the opposing side in this particular exchange of ideas is decidedly uninspiring)

    El Campeador, I trust you are keeping Stupid well-supplied with oats and barley? Wouldn’t want him pulling up lame on you, eh what? Vaya con Carne, mi amigo.

34. MentalFloss Says:
    January 25th, 2007 at 12:54 am

    And there you see the trap for the unwary. So eager am I to find even the smallest morsel of sense to support or oppose that I falsely accuse someone of bad grammar.

    Tsk.

35. » Iran/Hezbollah Makes Its Move Says:
    March 6th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    [...] Original post by Jules Crittenden [...]

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