What would you do about the Middle East?

Israel and surrounding nations, and western nations, are at a crossroads in my opinion.

This would be the perfect time to make, again in my estimation, some very important and critical steps in terms of potential world peace and the stairstepping of power structures.

From UPI:

Hezbollah fires rocket-a-minute at Israel
JERUSALEM, July 18 (UPI) — Shelling of Israel by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon reached a peak of one missile a minute for an hour Tuesday as Israel’s air force stepped up bombing runs.

In my opinion, this would be the perfect time to destroy the infrastructure of not only Hezbollah in Lebanon, but Hamas in Gaza. Gaza should be reoccupied; the Palestinians have clearly proven they not only do not deserve a country, much less adjacent Israel, but they need to have Hamas destroyed anywhere near Israel proper.

We need to support Israel’s bombing of Beirut and wherever Hezbollah is located in the entire country of Lebanon; likewise with Syria should Israel determine to do so. Then, there needs to be a concerted effort by both the US and Israel to bomb any location within Iran determined to be even remotely linked with nuclear production or any actions supporting the production of items related to nuclear production, warehousing, instrument tooling, centrifuges or tools which could be used to promote same.

Enough is clearly enough. Israel needs to be left alone to determine its own path of response. It’s past due time to declare that Islamists and Militant Islam is comprised of nothing more than heathen, uncivilized barbarians requiring total elimination from the planet — in any country, in any form.

Further terrorist acts should be met with like or greater force.

Ehud Olmert is perfectly correct in his demand that the bombings and attacks will not cease until the missile attacks and other attacks completely cease against Israel, and he acquires his hostage soldiers’ return in good health. There will be no negotiations with terrorists.

Understand: the overarching goal by Islamists and Militant Islam and, in my opinion, Islam in general is not the elimination of Israel; that is only the starting point. The goal will only have been attained when the Greater Satan, the United States, and all western civilizations are eliminated and Islam is the only religion and philosophy extant.

We are at a crossroads. We allow Iran, and even North Korea or other tin-pan dictators and religious/philosophist zealots to acquire WMDs at the peril of not only localized countries and the United States, but the entire world as well.

What would you do?

BZ

Janis Cummings is called by some the “Anti-Cindy Sheehan” — and perhaps she is.

Her son, Marine Cpl. Ryan John Cummings, 22, of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, was killed on June 3rd of 2006 in the Anbar province, Iraq. This was Cpl. Cummings’ third tour of duty in Iraq.

His mother, Janis Cummings, recently finished her third year as a third-grade teacher at Oak Park Elementary School on Aurora’s East Side.

Janis Cummings said she was proud of her son, who leaves behind a 17-year-old brother, a 20-year-old sister and a 13-year-old half-brother.

Cummings’ father, John Cummings, said his son enlisted in the Marines on Sept. 10, 2001, and the terrorist attacks the next day only strengthened his resolve to join the military.

Along with serving in Iraq, Cummings helped build a medical facility in Africa and was involved in relief efforts after the tsunami in 2004.

He had returned to Iraq for his third tour of duty in February and was scheduled to leave the Marines in November. Cummings had plans to study engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, family members said.

Last week President Bush pointedly praised 22-year old Marine Cpl. Ryan Cummings, who was killed in Iraq. Ryan’s mother

Janis Cummings appeared on The O’Reilly Factor and said:

“He always stood up for what he believed in, and he believed in what he was doing in Iraq. We supported him, and I know that if I was to protest against what he believed in it would be a betrayal. So even if I wanted to protest against the war, I could never do that.”

It would appear that, unlike Ms. Sheehan, Janis Cummings has positively chosen to not denigrate the actions, dedication and service to his country of her son.

My most sincere condolences to Janis and John Cummings for the loss of their son, who is indeed a Hero of the first order; Janis is likewise a Hero for clearly and unequivocally supporting her son privately and openly in public.

She understands what it means when people say: Freedom is never, ever free.

Her son Ryan and the Cummings family have made the supreme sacrifice on behalf of the country they love.

BZ

While I was away from blogging the Middle East exploded.

IRAN PLAYS A PRIMARY PART:

Iran controls and finances Hezbollah in Lebanon, and controls Syria, as well as Hamas in Gaza under the Palestinian Authority. This is a given.

Iran’s maniacal leader Ahmadinejad has declared the Holocaust to be a fiction, and will settle for nothing less than the annihilation of Israel. He has declared these things time and again to the world.

The Bush Administration should not put pressure on Israel to withdraw troops or to stop fighting back.

Each act of Israeli withdrawal has only escalated actions and attacks against Israel proper. Rockets keep coming out of Gaza. The new rockets have a much longer reach — possibly to Haifa and now Tel Aviv.

What other nation in this entire world would the United Nations have the nerve to ask: “Do not defend yourself?”

Only Israel.

THE MIDDLE EAST MAKES ITS SECOND MISTAKE:

The United States determined not to fight back though it was systematically attacked, throughout various spots in the world, under the Clinton Administration. Unfortunately we first recently under-responded during the Iranian Hostage Crisis under Carter. We continued to under-respond when over 250 soldiers were killed in Lebanon under the Reagan Administration and the response was: get out. The die was cast.

We were a Paper Tiger.

Somalia then did nothing but reinforce the Paper Tiger effect. Down a few helos and kill some soldiers? Response: get out.

1993: World Trade Center bombing? Response? Little.

USS Cole? Response? Dead sailors.

Lockerbie: global response? Little.

The United States became a more taste-tempting target. Then the various Middle Eastern factions, al-Qaeda primarily, decided that it would be a good idea to coordinate the 9/11 attacks thinking there would be, as history indicated, little response.

They did not account for President George W. Bush, the son.

Now, with Israel, they did not account for new Israeli PM Ehud Olmert; they were counting on another Sharon-like response similar to his acquiescence regarding Gaza.

Think what you will of Sharon; I am of a firm and unrelenting opinion regarding Sharon. It was time for him to step aside. I am sorry that this “asideness” had to take the form of a medical intervention; but it was necessary nevertheless.

GAZA, ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS:

This is once again very simple, actually. One has but to do the Logical Extension (as I call it) and recall just a bit of history — and apply a smattering of logic as well.

When your most vile enemy, one who has sworn to eradicate you from the face of the entire earth, demands concessions, do not allocate them land directly adjacent your own sovereign soil. Give them land some 2 to 3,000 miles away. In the desert. With little access to transportation or infrastructure.

When you provide them with land directly adjacent your most hallowed religious grounds and that which directly abuts your civilized nation, there could theoretically be something of a minor problem.

And, of course, what about similar Middle Eastern nations allocating lands for the “lost peoples of Palestine?” Huh. I haven’t seen one nation making any such offering for its brethren.

PULLING OUT ALL THE STOPS NOW:

Enough with the couching of terms and phrases.

Hezbollah and Hamas wanted an “incident.” And they got it in spades. They represent doomed cultures with no technological bent whatsoever — cultures that know nothing about Building and everything about Destruction and the Cult of Victimization.

Bush and the international community are simply WRONG with their “suggestions” that Israel “hang back” when attacked from either Lebanon or Gaza.

Allow me to please provide you with a relevant analogy:

Maryland has decided to go rogue. It has seceded from the Union. In response, it has decided to launch missiles from the center of Maryland against Washington DC.

Would Washington respond militarily?

In the meantime, Canada has decided to throw missiles, likewise, at Washington, DC. These missiles are issuing forth from Canada proper, sovereign Canadian soil, but the Canadian government is saying that whatever faction is responsible, is not representative of the Canadian government and thusly the overarching country of Canada should not be held militarily responsible for American deaths resulting from these missile attacks.

How would the United States respond to both scenarios?

And moreover, how would you want or demand your country to respond?

_____________________________

I thought so.

Let’s lighten the hell up on Israel, shall we, and support them with every breath?

BZ

(Thanks, Terri!)

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me alone.
2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.
3. It is always darkest before dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbor’s newspaper, that’s the time to do it.
4. Don’t be irreplaceable. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.
5. Always remember that you’re unique- Just like everyone else.
6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
7. If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.
9. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
11. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
12. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
13. Some days you’re the bug; some days you’re the windshield.
14. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.!
16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.
17. Duct tape is like ‘The Force’. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
18. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.
19. Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your lips are moving.
20. Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
21. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
22. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

BZ

I shall be gone for the rest of the week to school, so please excuse my absence, despite my being a “Lowly Insect” in the TTLB Ecosystem.

With any amount of luck I shall return on Sunday, having survived a Southwest 737 flight to San Diego and back.

Please visit all of my standard “Usual Suspects.”

And tell those you love how you feel about them.

Life is fleeting.

BZ