Credibility?

Somewhere today, I think on Buzzflash, there was an article in which the author was concerned that the dirty business in Lebanon might affect our credibility. One might well ask, what credibility? What credibility does the U.S. have left after the invasion of Iraq, the virtual abandonment of Afghanistan (remember, we promised not to leave without rebuilding etc.), the endless multitude of lies that has emanated from this administration non-stop from the beginning, the unprecedented secrecy, and so on. We have no credibility left. It doesn't matter what happens in Lebanon or anywhere else. Furthermore, we have lost any claim whatsoever to any moral high ground and any claim to being an honest broker in the Middle East. In short, Bush/Cheney have now completely blown it. The hatred and distrust we have sown in the Arab world will not change or dissipate for a thousand years.

The latest absurdity to emerge from the Israeli/Lebanon situation has to do with the recent meetings in Italy to discuss the situation. As far as I know every country present wanted an immediate cease fire, except the U.S. and our puppet government in the U.K. The Israeli government seized on this to proclaim that the absence of action on a cease fire gave them authorization to continue what they are doing. This sounds like something that might have come out of kindergarten, which was pretty much recognized by everyone, including at least some in the U.S. How could anyone, in a situtation of this kind, not want a cease fire? As far as I know this is unprecedented. Everyone always wants a cease fire. What is the point of not having a cease fire? Bush/Rice say in order to give the Israelis more time to destroy Hezbollah. In other words Hezbollah and Lebanon have no right to defend themselves at all but Israel has every right to defend itself. Is this not blatantly taking sides in a dispute we are supposed to broker? Bush has decided to change U.S. policy completely so that we are now not even pretending to be a broker and, in fact, have entered into Israeli war crimes as a participant. We will not be forgiven for this.

Apropros of nothing, the minimum wage. House members have given themselves since the last time the minimum wage was raised about $35,000 in raises. The minimum wage has stayed at $5.15 over the same number of years. Apparently Republicans think this is reasonable. I don't know. What do you think? If I were a Democrat running anywhere for any office I would beat this over Republican heads nonstop. This is the most disgusting, unfair, absurd, even unbelievably stupid thing any political party has ever done (except for perhaps stem cell research). How do these Republican jerks even look at themselves in the mirror or sleep at night? What do they do, look at the mirror and repeat "mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most stupid party of all?" Then they answer "Democrats," because they want to raise the minimum wage and drive all businesses in the U.S. out of existence (even though there is all kinds of evidence the precisely the opposite happens when wages are raised).

Speaking of stupidity, it seems that virtually everyone in the U.S., including Howard Dean, Hillary, Schumer, and others suffer from it. They all insist that the problem in the Middle East is terrorism, Hezbollah at the moment being their prime target. Let me make it clear, Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization. It is a grass roots Lebanese political party that came into being as a result of Israeli aggression in 1982. It is true they may sometimes employ terrorist tactics, as there is little else they can do to protect themselves from the overwhelming U.S. supported Israeli war machine. What would you do under similar circumstances? Just give in to Israel's constant demands for more and more land and water, just bow your head and accept daily humiliation and degrading treatment? Do the Palestinians and Lebanese have no right to try to defend themselves? Does only Israel have rights? The Palestinians and Lebanese are not Tasmanians or Australian Aborigines, or American Indians that can just be crushed by brutal, racist Israeli/American colonialism. Neither are Syrians or Iranians. Until Israel and the U.S. can admit this, and treat everyone as equals, there will be no hope for peace in the Middle East, not even a glimmer.