Bush sees step to peace in Mideast violence

U.S. President George W. Bush waves to the press as he walks to the Oval Office with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, July 20, 2006. Rice intends to travel to the Middle East as early as next week to press for a political solution that helps reduce fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, her spokesman said on Thursday. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

This WaPost story is just insane:

President Bush's unwillingness to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign in Lebanon is rooted in a view of the Middle East conflict that is sharply different from that of his predecessors.

When hostilities have broken out in the past, the usual U.S. response has been an immediate and public bout of diplomacy aimed at a cease-fire, in the hopes of ensuring that the crisis would not escalate. This week, however, even in the face of growing international demands, the White House has studiously avoided any hint of impatience with Israel. While making it plain it wants civilian casualties limited, the administration is also content to see the Israelis inflict the maximum damage possible on Hezbollah.

As the president's position is described by White House officials, Bush associates and outside Middle East experts, Bush believes that the status quo -- the presence in a sovereign country of a militant group with missiles capable of hitting a U.S. ally -- is unacceptable.

The U.S. position also reflects Bush's deepening belief that Israel is central to the broader campaign against terrorists and represents a shift away from a more traditional view that the United States plays an "honest broker's" role in the Middle East.

In the administration's view, the new conflict is not just a crisis to be managed. It is also an opportunity to seriously degrade a big threat in the region, just as Bush believes he is doing in Iraq. Israel's crippling of Hezbollah, officials also hope, would complete the work of building a functioning democracy in Lebanon and send a strong message to the Syrian and Iranian backers of Hezbollah.

Did it ever occur to President Bush's limited mode of thinking that by destroying Hezbollah, you open up another power vacuum for an even more extremist terrorist group to step in? According to Wikipedia, Hezbollah "was formed primarily to combat Israeli occupation following the 1982 Lebanon War." By forcing the PLO to withdrawal from Lebanon, Israel opened southern Lebanon up for other extremist Palestinian and Muslim groups to conduct their own terror operations against Israel with complete autonomy. In other words, extremist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas stepped into the power vacuum that Israel created after smashing the PLO in the 1982 Lebanon War. Now we come to today. Israel's massing troops on the Lebanese border, preparing to launch another full-scale invasion against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israeli tanks line up on a road near the Israeli town of Avivim, near the Lebanese border, Friday July 21, 2006. Israel massed tanks and troops on the border, called up reserves and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon as it prepared Friday for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone.(AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Israeli tanks near the Israeli town of Avivim, along the Lebanese border, July 21, 2006. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

There is a good chance that Israel will pretty much destroy Hezbollah, if they move in. But destroying Hezbollah isn't going to bring peace into the region--not when the deep cultural, social, political, and religious divisions between Jewish, Palestinian, and Arab societies still remain. Israel is just creating a new power vacuum for a new group to step into and launch their own terror operations against Israel.

Now we come to this interesting little White House quote:

"The president believes that unless you address the root causes of the violence that has afflicted the Middle East, you cannot forge a lasting peace," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. "He mourns the loss of every life. Yet out of this tragic development, he believes a moment of clarity has arrived."

Excuse me Mr. President? Are you saying that Hezbollah is the root cause of the violence that has affected the Middle East? I would say that Hezbollah is not the root cause, but the symptom of an even greater cause--the mistrust and hatred that exists between Jewish, Palestinian, and Arab societies. This is a clash of societies--a class of civilizations, born out of mismanagement by European colonial rule. Destroying Hezbollah will not bring peace to the Middle East. It will just bring more death and destruction to the people living in Southern Lebanon, bring more hatred of Jews and Israelis by Palestinians and Arabs living there, and more blood on your own hands.