Labels: Lebanon

The headlines read:

“Senior Hezbollah Member Killed in Beirut Clashes”

The first line read “Clashes erupted between Shiite and Sunni groups on the streets of Beirut…”

But the argument allegedly started over the lack of a parking space. The guys who wanted the space happened to be a Hezbollah official and a Sunni from Al-Ahbash. There was, as far as we can tell, no political reason for the parking space; it was simply a squabble – a daily occurrence in Beirut due to the dearth of space for parking – that escalated into death. The tribalism that characterizes much of the planet took over from there – a family was pissed that someone killed a member and sought to exact revenge on the killers. The story is as old as time – think Montagues and Capulets. The only difference between this situation and one of the McCoy-Hatfield American variety is that RPGs are regularly available in Lebanon.

Yet the media somehow turned this into a battle of Hezbollah versus a Sunni sect, as if using “Hezbollah” had any relevance. This is the same type of ignorant paranoia that blinds the West every time it deals with Lebanon. It is the same reason Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Howard Berman ordered a hold put on US military aid to Lebanon out of fear it would fall under Hezbollah’s control. Not once did anyone take into consideration that Iran would rush to fill the need or that without that aid to the Lebanese military, it is weaker to counter Hezbollah. Everything is HEZBOLLAH, HEZBOLLAH, HEZBOLLAH! Give it a rest.

The same blind mentality that the West uses in dealing with Lebanon is also the same blind mentality that Hezbollah and likeminded militia idiots use in sticking to their retarded ideologies. Yes, resistance against Israel is needed. But it shouldn’t be up to the undereducated morons that populate the ranks of Hezbollah, morons like Mohammed Fawaz who are stupid enough to die over a parking space.

Labels: Beirut, Hezbollah, Hizbollah, Lebanon

I'm doing some writing right now but I couldn't stand the quiet, so I have flipped on the television only to discover there is nothing of interest on. I selected some cop show with Chris O'Donnell on CBS (when did he stop doing movies?) I would have paid no attention to it except I caught a glance of some Arabic writing and I watched a bit more to see what it was all about. Aside from it being a terribly written script with bad dialogue and bad acting, the show is bothering me for another reason. Really bothering me.

The plot is this: one of the agents is being held by Islamic terrorists somewhere in North Africa who are threatening to behead him. The agents who are trying to find him investigate an Islamic youth center in LA. When they go to the center to ask questions, they see a guy carrying a laptop start to run, so they run after him. The guy throws the laptop into a pool at the center and after pulling a knife on one of the agents, is arrested. When they take him for interrogation, he gives the whole "I wanna be a martyr" cliche. Yadda yadda turns out the youth center's funder was recruiting kids as terrorists.

I have been working in the Middle East field for a decade now. I just spent four months in Lebanon. I've visited Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey. I am proficient in Arabic. I know Arabs. I know Islam. I find the call to prayer from the minarets of a mosque among the most spiritual things one can experience in life. (For the record, I hate all religions equally, so don't go all Barack Hussein Obama on me.)

I also know America. I know American foreign policy. My exposure to the Middle East has given me firsthand experience in the receiving end of American foreign policy. I have seen the consequences of my country's actions. I have been the recipient of generalized hatred for those actions. I have been a diplomat for America. I have been angry at the constant criticism. I have volunteered for an American political campaign every two years since 1996, too, more than what most Americans do for their country.

American understanding of the Middle East is non-existent, and this kind of stereotypical cliche, this constant portrayal of the bad guys as Muslims, it is fueling the fire. Think about our television shows, our movies. The show 24 was all about Islamic terrorist plots. We are constantly bombarded with images of Islamic militants waving guns and wearing scarves around their faces.

Television is poisoning America. While researchers are saying too much digital is warping our brains, no one is focusing on television. But as our schools get shittier and people get dumber and the Tea Party rages on, the hatred for Muslims in America grows.

What type of American is outraged over a "Ground Zero Mosque?" (Nevermind that it isn't a mosque, or that it isn't even at Ground Zero, or that there's already a mosque closer.) GZM protesters are white flagwaving conservatives who get their news from Fox. These people tend to watch more television than their more liberal American counterparts (whom they don't call "real Americans.")

If things don't change soon, I fear violence. Already a mosque was bombed in Florida and a cabbie was stabbed in New York after he was asked if he were a Muslim.

It turns out the agent in the show was never taken out of LA. One of the terrorists put a key to his handcuffs in his breakfast food so he could escape. He ended up dying in a shootout anyway.

And so on.

Labels: Ground Zero Mosque, Islam, Muslims

Violence broke out in Beirut today. Again. Hezbollah was involved. Again. They were fighting with some militant organization posing as a charity or something to that effect. Retards.

I tried to follow it all through Twitter. The Western media had nothing about it and Twitter was the only thing being updated. But Twitter is so full of rumors and misinformation that it was difficult to determine what was going on. What good is social media if those who use it don’t bother fact checking before they spread it?

Then again, a major Lebanese news channel reported false information throughout the five hour ordeal (it seems to have stopped now), so who knows what was going on?

One thing I know is that two people died, including one Hezbollah official. That seems to be legit (it was reported in AFP).

And bless those Lebanese folks – conflict is breaking out and they make sarcastic and funny comments about it, because what else can they do? What a terrible life – every time some idiot does something criminally stupid, they have to worry about the whole country breaking out into war. I mean, here you have one of the most beautiful places on the planet and it’s chock full o’morons with RPGs and inferiority complexes.

The rumor is the clashes broke out after an argument about a parking spot got out of hand.

Labels: Beirut, Lebanon

In response to Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Moussawi's retarded claim that USAID is a CIA front, Future Bloc MP Mohammad Hajjar told New TV on Tuesday that Lebanon should not reject US foreign assistance if it is in Lebanon's best interest.

Hezbollah's retardedness doesn't stop at that. Today MP Hassan Fadlallah accused Israel of having control over Lebanon's telecommunications sector after an employee at a mobile phone network was arrested on suspicion of spying for the Mossad.

Seriously, is everyone in Hezbollah on drugs?

Let me start on the USAID thing. Anyone who knows anything about USAID knows that it is one bureaucratic nightmare that is barely capable of achieving anything with a lasting impact. How in the heck is it supposed to have an efficient and functional spy element to it?

Granted, the folks who currently work for USAID in Lebanon are much more capable than their predecessors, who built a bunch of waste management plants with no consideration for the fact that there was no network being constructed so those plants could actually be used. Now they sit empty while the US Congress and the State Department struggle to revise the foreign assistance system, and these morons think it's capable of elaborate plans to undermine their pathetic operation they have going on? This is just part of the conspiratorial nonsense that is typical in the Middle East.

You know, you have to be pretty fucked up to be suspicious of someone every time they exhibit altruistic behavior. I mean, can you genuinely not understand that there really are people out there who just want to help, who really do want to live in a peaceful, democratic world where everyone is equal? If you can't understand that, you must be evil to the core.

Look. Yes, the United States government is obsessed with Hezbollah. We have our own retards in government who think Hezbollah is like SPECTRE and that they're walking around with poisoned blades in their shoes. Is Hezbollah responsible for the murder of 241 Marines in 1983 in Beirut? Yeah, probably. But that was 1983, and the Israelis had just invaded Lebanon with US support, and the Great God Ronald Reagan was a platinum member of the Israeli Fan Club, and it was a brutal, nasty, horrific apocalypse of a war. It's 2010. Hezbollah has "democratically" elected members in the Lebanese parliament. Hezbollah provides vital services the dysfunctional Lebanese government can't provide. And Hezbollah is a necessary shield against Israel, although if Hezbollah truly cared about Lebanon, it would integrate its militia into the Lebanese army to become legitimate.

But it won't, because it's an organization full of nutjobs, whackos, and cowards. Why don't you guys get some balls and work towards peace? Be the bigger men, make peace overtures towards your enemies instead of making up wild conspiracy theories? This applies to all of you - Hezbollah, Lebanon, other Arabs, USA, the West, and Israel. Bunch of cowards. Warmongering is for insecure sissies.

Labels: Hezbollah, Hizbollah, Lebanon

Lebanon 'immune' to financial crisis

The world maybe in meltdown but Beirut is booming. The country best known for wars, turmoil and instability has not just survived the global financial crisis, it seems to be thriving because of it.

A silver lining?
___

Labels: Lebanon

The Democrats should drive the Administration to more carefully consider the interests of Third World allies
President Bouteflika has left Bejing with a package of diplomatic and ecnomic agreements, following the Beijing Summit on China-Africa Cooperation earlier this week. The agreement reflects in part, Algeria's grand strategy, and opens the door for forming a new American policy towards Algeria in the wake of the Democratic coup.

According to The People's Daily, China has supported Algeria's quest towards joining the WTO, as of Monday, after a gushing session between the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Additionally, the meeting resulted in the extension of Approved Destination Status in Algeria to Chinese students, and included "agreements covering economy, taxation, civil aviation, judicial services, quality inspection and quarantine after a joint statement was signed by leaders of both countries to facilitate strategic partnership."

Both countries further pledged to enhance their strategic relations in the political and cultural realms. Building on a tradition of warm Sino-Algerian relations, it should be easy for these efforts to come to fruition.

Bouteflika took to praising the Chinese model of global integration, and encouraging continued co-operation between the two nations, whose diplomatic, military, and political ties reach back to the years of the Algerian revolution. China was the only communist nation to recognize the Algerian Provisional Government when it was announced in 1958, and official Algerian delegations visited Beijing no less than five times that year. Indeed, these delegations

detailed arrangements both for the financing of Algerian arms purchases in the Middle East and Europe by an interest-free loan ("to be repaid after independence") and for the training of selected Algerian officers in China are believed to have been made as early as the spring of 1959. (Ed. Brezinski, Zbigniew, Africa and the Communist World, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1963, pp.162-63)

I should add that the agreements make little mention of arms. This, as Liberte put it, leaves China "jostling among the great powers regarding the sale of weapons." Algerian grand-strategy seems to be centered around diversifying the sources of Algerian arms and diplomatic resources. Last year, when the now jobless Donald Rumsfeld visited the Maghreb, Bouteflika's requests for American fighters and other weaponry was handedly denied, probably as punishment for Algeria's then recent arms deal with Russia, and for fear of triggering a North African arms race between Algeria and Morocco (traditionally, Morocco has used American jets, while Algeria's have been purchased from the old Soviet Union, its satellites, and more recently from China; many of these are outdated, and Algeria has been looking to modernize its air force).

Liberte also notes that Bouteflika has been itching the scalp of the US since his visit to Cuba in September, where he chaired the G-15 meeting, met with the ailing Cuban president, and made "certain burning declarations". This meeting with the "l’antiaméricain chronique," has irritated some of my sources inside Washington who had hoped to incorporate Algeria into the anti-neo-Third Worldist camp (my wording, not theirs). Chavez has made many overtures to Algeria in the field of gas and anti-Americanism, much of which have been met with a luke warm feeling, but have been embraced nonetheless. Bouteflika has rejected American plans for the Greater Middle East, and the parliament has strengthened state control over the energy sector in recent months. Again, as Liberte mentions, Algeria has become in recent years a "pivot state," a nation of supreme importance in the War on Terror and somewhat sympathetic to American security concerns, but by no means a rainy day ally.

The material effects of Algeria's relationship with the anti-Americans, for lack of a better term, are difficult to discern. Economically, the US has not taken measures contrary to Algerian interests with the aim of coercing Algeria into co-operation. The only visible sign is the refusal of the United States to provide Algeria with next generation military supplies in the manner that it does to its traditional allies, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf States. Hawkish American policy has turned many -- if not most -- Algerian off to the idea of being allied with the United States, and if Bouteflika were to form such an alliance, it would most certainly be met with objection. The American invasion of Iraq, as I have written previously, has greatly harmed its relationship with its allies, both traditional (Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia) and fair weather (Algeria, the post-Syrian Lebanese factions, etc.). The Algerian case shows the necessity of a new American policy as a new American government comes into office. If the Americans plan on cementing friendships with the nations of the Third World, it should regard the interests of these states.

While the spread of democracy like a great wild fire may be rhetorically appealing, it is indeed contrary to the notion of an alliance in this modern world. One of the primary purposes that nations enter alliances, besides the fact that they share a common security concern, is that they wish to preserve themselves. A nation does not enter a pact with another nation for the sake of stirring a revolution within itself. It enters that alliance to strengthen itself.

If the United States wishes to make an ally out of Algeria, and conduct effective statecraft among the other states in the Middle East and North Africa, it ought to reevaluate the manner in which it goes about voicing its policy. Regime change in Iraq opened a regional power vacuum, which added an extra variable to the region’s security complex that did not exist there today. This vacuum has been filled by Iran, which has introduced other variables, such as Venezuela and an even bolder Russia, the region.

Those regimes whose policies were up for grabs before the war, have been forced to make and choice, and by now most have. Algeria is still attempting to pursue an independent foreign policy, but in a region and world whose new, post-Pax Americana poles are taking shape ever more clearly each day, this cannot last for long.

The current climate serves Algeria’s grand strategy well, though. Algeria has long held a policy of non-Alignment. While it has typically leaned towards the camp of the global left, the anti-colonialists, and the revolutionaries, there are more than a few instances where Algeria has cooperated with Western nations where their interests were congruent. The new international system allows Algerian to oscillate between East and West, and to more effectively push its interests. The greater and lesser powers must compete of Algeria’s (and much the rest of the world's) diplomatic and economic support (in exchange for energy) in exchange for arms, investment, and all the rest.

This should not be viewed as a threat. While Sino-Algerian and Russo-Algerian relations have historically been rather warm, American-Algerian relations have been cordial, though mutual suspicion has always existed as a result of Cold War mentalities and issues, not to mention the Palestinian matter. But, there is no intrinsic gaffe between the two nations.

The United States was one of the first international stops made by Ahmed Ben Bella, though this visited was immediately followed up by a visit to Cuba (which aroused the suspicion of Washington). Algerians have sided with the United States in several key votes at the UN, and have rarely taken or supported actions that were antithetical to American national security. Cooperation between Algeria and the European nations on terrorism, especially since the 1980’s has been extensive. Algeria has supported the American Pan-Sahel initiative, and has even allowed American forces to train Algerian troops. President Bouteflika was the first head of state to send his condolences to President Bush on the occasion of 9/11.

There is no reason that the United States and Algeria should have hostile relations; the US must understand that Algeria’s interest lie in diversification and not in subservience or preemptive strikes. The interests of Algeria, and other states like her, are primarily economic and structural, that is, primarily interested in modernizing their domestic infrastructure, economy, and military. In some cases, such as Algeria's it is somewhat of a reconstruction. While the interests of the US and the non-Allied camp may not always coincide exactly, they do not have to for a healthy working relationship to take shape. The non-Allied are non-allied for exactly this reason. The new American leadership should take this into account when formulating its policy towards the nations of the Third World.

Visit The Thinking Lebanese.

Syria didn't have to stop the attack on the US Embassy in Damascus. If the country is the rogue state this administration portrays it as, would it not have let the attack happen?

Certainly Damascus is concerned that it is in US war plans and any failure to stop such an attack would be seen as complacency. But they could have let it happen and did not. I wonder what the Arabs-aren't-human crowds in backasswards America think about Arabs saving Americans now?

Now that we've destabilized the whole Middle East, we can't afford to destroy an oasis of stability. I hope this cooperation will help to keep Syria intact when the war moves past Iraq.

To the Syrian security guard who died protecting America, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To the murderous thugs who died in the attack, have fun in Hell, swine.

The morbidity of this nation's memory once again presents us with images and empty reflections of a day when 3000 people died for no reason. Ours is a culture that worships violence and destruction; it's no wonder you can go to a righty's blog and see video repetition of the planes crashing into the towers.

Never forget - that's what they say. But we've already forgotten. We've already forgotten the unity we had after that moment. We've forgotten the books that we bought to try to understand, even those of the infamous orientalist Bernard Lewis. (Hey, at least people who bought his books after the event were trying to understand.) What's left is only hatred, vengeance, and a morbid desire to keep watching the towers fall, to keep thinking about it, dwelling on it, and refusing to believe that there is more than pure hatred to fundie Islam. Nobody knows history, nobody knows colonialism, nihilism, corporatism, materialism, existentialism, communism, fascism...every single one of these isms contributes to what we are seeing now. Contrary to popular ignorance, fundie Islam isn't some mindless random violence. There is a philosophy behind it. It's a pretty shitty philosophy, but it exists, and until we attempt to understand it, perpetual war is what we get.

Why don't we watch Pearl Harbor get blown up every December 7th?

You can put up all the ribbons you want, sing as many meaningless patriotic songs as you can, and say September 11th as often as your mouth will let you, but what does that do? Nothing. Empty slogans like "Never forget" and "United We Stand" are garbage if you aren't paying attention to the news and you don't know what's going on. Why is it so difficult for people to read the news? Why do they resort to empty slogans and garbage propaganda? Sieg Heil, America, sieg heil.

I'd prefer to keep September 11th as a remembrance of my grandfather's birthday or the day when Pete Rose hit 4192, not to recall with anger, disgust, and horror at watching people jump to their deaths from the edge of Heaven.

I am sick. The vile champions of hate produce another generation who know not peace, forgiveness, compromise. These are Israeli children in this photo, writing messages on bombs like murder and destruction are a happy part of childhood innocence, mere chalk on a sidewalk. They don't know it yet, but hatred already pollutes their blood and rage runs through their veins. They will never know Justice, only the eternal cycle of barbaric vengeance.

As bombs like these pour from the sky like blood from a never healing wound, as children like these are murdered, maimed, psychologically tortured for life, blame spreads like wildfire, and it doesn't care who it takes down in its path of destruction.

You plant a demon seed, you raise a flower of fire.