The Middle East: Our War Criminal is Better than Your War Criminal.
So Bush thinks Yasser Arafat should leave office because "Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership," huh? Dubya, I give you your unshakable ally, Ariel Sharon.
Ariel Sharon has finally shown his true colors. After an overnight air raid on the apartment residence of Salah Shehadeh, the top commander of Hamas' military wing, in which Shehadeh, his wife, and thirteen other civilians were killed, Sharon had this to say:
"This operation was in my view one of our biggest successes."
If there ever were any doubt that Ariel Sharon is a war criminal, let it now be cast aside. The Geneva Convention (IV), Chapter 1, Article 3 says, in part, the following:
"(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture . . ."
Is there any doubt that Ariel Sharon violated this section of the Geneva Convention? Of course not. He ordered the attack and celebrated its "success." The real question is as follows: Will decent people on both sides continue to support their respective war criminal leaders? And will decent Americans continue to support an administration committed to an unconditional alliance with one war criminal over another?
I've had it with everybody associated with this conflict who has his or her fist in the air. As the bodies continue to pile up and the moronic leaders on both sides vow to give their adversaries another excuse to commit an atrocity, I hereby offer the Angry Liberal Golden Rule. It goes like this:
As a group of people prepares to "teach a lesson" to another group via retaliation, that group must first ask itself the following question: Would we "learn" anything if the other side tried to "teach" us the same lesson in the manner in which we are about to embark?
The answer, of course, is no. Which brings us to the Angry Liberal Golden Rule Corollary:
A leader must be judged not by the battles he or she wins, but by the suffering he or she prevents.
By this measure, Sharon, Arafat, and Bush, with respect to his involvement (or, more accurately, lack thereof) in the in the Middle East, are all abysmal failures. Sharon bears significant responsibility for each Israeli who dies. Arafat, for each Palestinian. And Bush, standing on the sideline clutching his dog-eared copy of "Middle East Diplomacy for Dummies," bears responsibility for his total failure to intervene.
So, what's the answer? It's simple. There is a clear majority here that is not being heard. That majority is comprised of those who live in Israel, the occupied territories, the United States and around the world who want the killing to stop. Those Palestinians in this group must rise up and silence Hamas and all those associated with it. Those Israelis who want peace must kick Sharon and his band of thugs out of office. And those who want peace in America must never again let a chicken hawk with absolutely no clue about foreign policy sue his way into the White House. We all must support each other in this effort. We must remove from power in our respective countries those who invite death and despair home with their endless retaliations and saber-rattling.
It is time for peace-loving people all over the world to raise our voices and cry, "Enough!"
7/24/02
