Yes, the enemy. If Syria gets into this, then as much as progressives don't like what Israel is doing, all of a sudden, the USA starts seeing a bigger connection to the situation. And when Syria jumps in, the Iran will not be far behind, standing up, raising its military readiness... and it gets messy, with Iran giving China and Russia lots of lucrative business-- messy and complicated and way, WAY over the abilities of anyone Bush currently has working for him in the diplomatic corps. The only person I can think he might go to for help would be James Baker, as much as I don't like or trust him. At least he has a head on his shoulders.
So-- the Jews who I am pissing off better start seeing the bigger picture that Israel is being played, that it has put itself and Jews all over the world in greater danger than it has been in decades, all because Bush, guided by his neocons, is using Israel as a semi-witting pawn (the right wing leaders running things in the government and the military know it and are using it because they are neocons too.) And the people who feel compassion for the Palestinians and Lebanese, who are more and more agressively bashing Israel better realize that they are being lured into positions that they may later regret, positions that reinforce, for years, the Republican message that Democrats and Liberals are weak, dangerously weak in the face of threats to America and America's allies.
Then there are the people who want peace (a lot of the angry ones, I'm not sure about.) Peace is the goal. We want to focus on peace, without weakness. Making peace is STRONGER than making war. But it takes a different kind of smarts, a different kind of courage and resources. We need to make big plans for a peace we are willing to pay for, sacrifice for, and that will cost a lot. It will be mocked as too expensive, too much sacrifice. But we must come up with alternatives that make sense to the American public and the Arab world.
Today, I wrote to the people who have signed up as members of the site-- all the writers, commenters, diariists and bloggers-- and asked them to add this box to all articles on the middle east:
See this page for links to articles on OpEdNEws that articulate both sides on the issues in the middle east. It is the goal of OpEdNews to air opinions from both sides to stretch the envelope of discussion and communication. Hate statements are not accepted. Discussions of issues and new ideas for solutions are encouraged. .
I've had a number of cancelled subscriptions, but in spite of them, our subscriber circulation is up. I'm going to keep this conversation going. I founded OpEdNews as site where a tough liberal ideas could be put out there. We need to maintain our progressive compassion, but we MUST be tough. We must think further ahead strategically than the opposition or they will play us and play our knee-jerk reflexes and use them to BURY our chances of taking back the congress, taking back America. And then, what kind of abilities will we have to make a difference.
We must work through our anger, deal with the reality and find progressive solutions that keep our momentum for taking back the congress. Right now, we've lost ground and lost momentum. We have to be a lot smarter than we've been in the last weeks or a lot more people than just the people of Lebanon will face death, homelessness and carnage far beyond what we've seen so far.
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