Lies

A self proclaimed non kosher Jewish ex-friend in NY once said:

"I am not pro-Israel but to the Israelis civilian deaths are casualties of war, whereas the Arab terrorists use civilians as human shields."

Thank you Fox News. Both parties have their stories, and their losses and grief. Both parties are to be blamed in one form or another and to be understood as well. We are all human, and the human condition seems to necessitate conflict and the fight for supremacy.

A UN mission declared that Israel was wrong to have destroyed civilian infrastructure and lives, especially as they have no clear connection to the Hezbollah.

If we can't trust the UN, and if Israel is allowed to defy a ceasefire, why do we need an organization like that or even bother with diplomacy and other peaceful methods of resolving conflict?

When the head of the Hezbollah a few days ago conceded that if he had known the kidnapping of two Israelis would cause a war and civilian casualties, he would not have allowed the kidnappings that was done to force the release of hundreds of Palestinians kept in captivity without trial. Israel was reported to have proclaimed that this was proof that they did the right thing. They felt justified for invading Lebanon and that they won the morality war.

But what is the right thing? That they killed so many innocent men, women and children to make a point that Israel is not an entity to screw around with? Is that what it takes to make a stand these days? That civilians are not just casualties of war, they are used not as human shields, but as punctuation marks at the end of the sentence: Don't mess with us ( ). A former US foreign policy advisor told CNN that it is getting evident that the US and Israel are slowly taking out Arab nations, block by block. That to these two powers this would ensure peace in the region. But at what cost? Must the world live in a monolithic system for it to make sense? Must Greece, Indonesia, Nepal, Brunei, Abu Dhabi learn how to speak ghetto, or say OY and learn how to rap and drink coke instead of water, and behave like the western world for them to be considered civilized?

Hitler took a stand in the 1940s by almost wiping out an entire race of people. That, an act which even the US took over two years to respond to, is WRONG. But is the show of power so important that generations after must suffer? Do two wrongs make a right?

A report on CNN had a reporter turn the camera and mike over to a young Lebanese boy, who was so excited to be able to try out his English and give the reporter a tour of his bombed home. His parents seemed traumatized. The boy on the other hand, skipped and jumped through rubble to show the reporter his Looney Tunes stuffed toy that was buried under rocks, before he finally showed the man the view from his room, through what used to be a wall.

He could not comprehend the true meaning of what he saw. Miles and miles of devastation. He is just a child who wanted to play.

The CNN reporter did a great service. Because media and communication lines have been cut in Lebanon, and the email feedback the CNN site has been getting have largely been from Israelis and other affected Westerners. Not the Lebanese civilians.

I think that the leaders of the modern world are failing our kids. They have stopped looking at the faces of their children and have failed to realize they are creating a world of fear and uncertainty and a new generation of people breast fed on hate. They are all seeking temporary and short term gains...like oil. And they do so by bullying and killing.

My response to that is at the bottom. But first, I would like to dedicate it to:

The Israelis who killed over 1000 mostly civilians
The Hezbollah that killed over 100 mostly military personnel
(both reported in the Singapore daily yesterday)
The Al Qaeda that has made air travel a living nightmare, bunch of jack!@#es.
The North Koreans who rather have their people starve in a drought than give up their costly nuclear program
The American President who consistently pushes his agenda without any moral and ethical authority, especially if it would support his friends and family...(anyone wonder why he pushed for 7 billion dollars from Congress to develop an Avian flu vaccine...does anyone know his cousin is the head of a pharmaceutical company? Does it take a professor to see the connection?)
The mothers of children who died in the Iraq War and who still grapple with the question, WHY
The nuts in Afghanistan who kill their own people just because they are not from the same branch of Islam
The minority Muslims whose acts have caused others to profile all Muslims to be terrorist first, human beings second
The children who die from gun violence in the US
The Cambodian and Sri Lankan authorities who turn a blind eye to child trafficking and prostitution
Kofi Annan who sits on a trophy throne
The man who first made the claim in the second line of this article

This is my response. John Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's son died at the Battle of Loos in 1915. And to this, his father wrote:

"If any questions why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied."