Hezbullah next target to be 'engaged' by Obama?
The next terrorist to be 'engaged' by Barack Hussein Obama is apparently Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbullah (Hat Tip: Elder of Ziyon). Here's where I come in. I have received a letter asking me personally to help with a research project. I have spoken to well-informed people who tell me that the statements I am about to quote are accurate. It is highly possible that the link with the Obama Administration is exaggerated, but this indeed does come from the White House's favorite think tank.Read it all. What could go wrong?
While not mentioning the names of those involved they are known for supporting the idea that Hizballah is really quite moderate. The letter says that this is a project for the Center for American Progress and that the results "will be presented to senior U.S. policymakers in the administration."
I am asked to participate by giving my opinions on how the United States can deal with Hizballah "short of engagement" and "would Israeli leaders see benefit in the U.S. talking with Hizballah about issues which are of crucial importance to Israel?"
Answer to first question: Oppose it in every way possible.
Answer to second question: What the [insert obscene words I don't use] do you think they would say!
The letter continues:
"As you've noted, some like John Brennan [advisor to the president on terrorism] is already thinking about a more flexible policy towards Hizballah and it would be extremely useful to get your views on this to ensure anything decided is done properly."
I read this letter-and that impression is confirmed by those knowledgeable about this project and those involved-as saying that the Center for American Progress is going to issue a report calling for U.S. engagement with Hizballah, and that it has been encouraged to do so by important officials in the Obama Administration.
The phrase "to ensure anything decided is done properly," I take as a give-away to the fact that they are going to push for direct dealing with Hizballah but want to be able to say that they had listened to alternative views.
They merely, I am told by those who know about this project, intend to talk to some who disagree for appearances' sake and throw in a sentence or two to give the report the slightest tinge of balance.
The person heading this project has already endangered the lives of brave Lebanese. For example, he claimed without foundation that Christians were planning to launch a war on Hizballah, providing a splendid rationale for Hizballah to murder opponents on the excuse of doing so in self-defense. Accepting Hizballah rule is defined as the Christians recognizing they are a minority and trying to get along with their Muslim neighbors.
In other words, those opposing Hizballah are presented as aggressors while Hizballah is just the reasonable party that wants to get along. Moreover all this leaves out the community, about the same size as the Christians and Shia Muslims, that has been leading the resistance to Syria, Iran, and Hizballah: the Sunni Muslims.
In short, the person directing the project talks like a virtual agent of Hizballah and its allies, basically repeating what they tell him.
Aside from the fact that Hizballah is not and will not be moderate there are two other problems that these silly people don't comprehend.
The first is the signal that such statements send to Arabs and especially Lebanese. Concluding that the United States is selling them out and jumping onto the side of the Islamist revolutionaries (an idea that sounds implausible in Washington but very easily accepted as true in Riyadh, Beirut, Amman, and Cairo), Arab moderates will be demoralized, rush to become appeasers, and seek to cut their own deals with what they perceive as the winning side.
The second is the signal that such statements send to the radicals themselves. Concluding that the United States fears them and acknowledges their moral superiority and strategic success, they will be more arrogant and aggressive.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:08 PM
2 Comments:
Lets make sure I understand this. Hezballah, the A-team of terrorism. The idiots responsible for bombing the US Marine barracks in 1983. The force behind a significant number of homocide bombings in Iraq. The murderer of Lebanese, of Israelis, of anyone who disagrees with it.
This administration wants to have a dialogue with it?
That is grounds for impeachment in my book. We need to protect the country from this foolish administration and its failed leaders.
As Barry Rubin would say, the Obama Administration's foreign policy is becoming unmoored. And that's why he opposes becoming a fig leaf for what he sees as its taking a course destructive of US national interests in the Middle East.
Of course what has Rubin appalled has Chas Freeman enthralled. You just knew this sounding out of anti-American Islamist terrorist movements was just going to happen.
Post a Comment
<< Home