Good Guys and Bad Guys

[Please go to my last real post, and see Caribou's comments.]


"In my opinion, both sides are equally wrong in this war."

I agree with your assessment of pretty much everyone being jerks in this conflict. I guess I'm pretty spoiled. I'm used to there being Good Guys (sometimes us) and Bad Guys (sadly, often us) and being able to root for someone (like the people caught in the middle, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Israel) or condemn someone (like us, for say, coming over to "help", destroying their country, and floundering around in our Big Mess, all for the benefit of Halliburton, as far as I can tell).

In this conflict, you're right, everyone's to blame. Maya Angelou said about 9/11, "Now is the time for thinkers to think," and I guess I fault Israel-- a modern, educated, democratic people with a history of vast loss of life in war-- for not being somehow above this, above the death and destruction and willing to find alternative solutions. I have no idea where I got this silly notion. Clearly, if the bombs are falling on them, being smart either doesn't help or isn't working. Or maybe their past didn't make them as creative as I would have hoped.

And of course, the other side, while having nicer sides to it-- remember the IRA and Sein Finn-- has sworn to destroy Israel, and I mean destroy it. For them there seems to be no end game, there is no two-state solution or Nice Happy Middle East with Camel Rides and Swaying Palm Trees and a Mid-E-Pass where you can ride the trains from country to country on your vacation. They want a big smoking hole where Israel used to be, and how do you negotiate with that?

"In my opinion, this is a proxy war. This is payback time for the 1993 Hezbollah suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut."

I agree that this is a proxy war, although I tend to think of it as one of Iran vs. Israel. (Perhaps Iran & Syria vs. Israel.) Do you think that Israel cares that much that we got bombed 23 years ago (unless you were thinking of something else, that was 1983)? Or are you suggesting that we got Israel to fight in proxy of us? Because I gotta say, we're just not that with it down here south of your border. Other administrations, maybe-- and certainly, this one is the only one recently that's quite evil-genius enough to try it-- but this one really has its hands completely full and is floundering in its own incompetence. So evil yes, genius no. Basically, if it involves getting off their collective ass but doesn't involve anything with direct votes attached to it (like whipping up the base over gay marriage or flag burning), they really don't want to bother.

This reminds me, actually, of a joke I like-- After the intelligence failures that led to 9/11 and the Iraq War, all the crazy people took off their tinfoil hats, realizing that the CIA didn't actually have it together enough to be beaming thought control at them. (There's probably a way to jazz that up so it's funnier, but I'm on my first cup of coffee and my second day on this post, so, well, go find yourself real comedians.)

I'm always rooting for the underdog-- that's a Shakespearean* thing, I think-- and I have always (and I mean since the 1970s when I was a kid and the last era I recall with this much radical Islamic terrorism) respected the Jewish need for a real nation of their own but also the plight of the Palestinians. And maybe I'm just swaying with the breeze here (although I prefer to think of it as a "window into my thought process", haha) but the more I think about this, the more I keep hearing my friend asking, "But what is Israel supposed to do?" And somehow I keep coming around to the idea that this awful tragedy might have been the only way forward. That, to my little peacenik brain, is an anathema, but...

Oh, for God's sake. (Literally.) No wonder no one can work this out. But thanks for reading and writing comments and maybe we'll find some clarity together. Sadly, I have to stop trying to save the world and go back to trying to save my garage from the forces of chaos.



*Shakespeare's plays are often written on the side of the underdog, the outsider, who may get trampled a lot but always at least has their shining moment-- Othello, Shylock, there are more, but remember, first cup of coffee. OK, I can't really use that anymore since it's taken me hours of a line here and a line there in between packing and showing the house, so I'll use that chaos as my Official New Excuse.