It's 3 A.M. In Beirut
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, May 12, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Middle East: A Hamas leader says Lebanon is the next in a series of Islamofascist takeovers. Is Hezbollah's stranglehold on Beirut the prelude to another war with Israel? Is this 1936 all over again?
Read More: Middle East & North Africa | Global War On Terror
When asked by President Franklin Roosevelt about what World War II should be called, Winston Churchill suggested it be labeled "The Unnecessary War." "There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle," he wrote in "The Gathering Storm."
Well, we may be about to see another one and, as in World War II, the enemy — in this case, Iran — is telling us exactly what it intends to do: wipe Israel off the map. As Hitler rebuilt the Wehrmacht, flaunting the Treaty of Versailles, Ahmadinejad builds his nukes and the missiles to carry them, in the face of ineffective sanctions. And Hezbollah wants Lebanon.
The latest warning in the current gathering storm comes from Sheik Yazeeb Khader, a Hamas political activist and editor based in Ramallah in the West Bank. He told the Washington Times that the current turmoil in Lebanon is part of an inexorable process that began last year in Gaza when Hamas wrested control of Gaza and which will spread across the Middle East.
"What happened in Gaza in 2007 is an achievement; now it is happening in 2008 in Lebanon," Khader said in the interview. "It's going to happen in 2009 in Jordan, and it's going to happen in 2010 in Egypt. We are seeing a redrawing of the map of the Middle East where the forces of resistance and steadfastness are the ones moving the things on the ground."
The real tragedy here is that we know who's calling the shots in Lebanon. The Financial Times quotes a senior U.S. administration official as accusing Iran of giving its terrorist puppet, Hezbollah, a "green light" for the current chaos and Syria of calling its Lebanese allies to take to the streets as well.
So what are we doing about it? State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has called on "those who have influence over Syria and Iran to encourage those countries to use their influence with Hezbollah." But he missed the point. Syria and Iran are using their influence with Hezbollah, giving it money, weapons and orders.
President Bush arrives in Israel on Wednesday to celebrate that nation's 60th birthday. Ze'ev Boim, a lawmaker from Israel's governing Kadima party, says: "What's going on in Lebanon at this hour is actually the overthrow of Lebanon by Hezbollah. The democratic Lebanese government will become a puppet government — an Iranian dream." Particularly in a conflict with Israel.
Bush has said he'd be willing to meet with beleaguered Lebanese President Fouad Siniora this weekend at Sharm el-Sheikh. That's if Hezbollah would let Siniora out of the country — or back in. It's time to offer the Lebanese more than moral support anyway.
None of the remaining presidential contenders has linked Lebanon to Iraq as part of Iran and Syria's grand designs for the Middle East. The focus is on Iraq. Hillary made noises about nuking Iran if it attacked Israel, but not about forestalling the attack in the first place. McCain wants to win in Iraq. Obama wants to channel Neville Chamberlain and talk to mad Mahmoud.
Our success in Iraq cannot be viewed in a vacuum. It's part of a global chess game in which only our enemies seem to be thinking more than one move ahead. Iran's support of insurgents in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon begins in the same training camps that former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton suggests we take out. This is why we can't withdraw from Iraq or from the Middle East.
The problems the West faces will not be solved in Baghdad or Beirut, but rather in Damascus and Tehran, and not by "aggressive" personal diplomacy by Barack Obama or anyone else.
We should stop treating the symptoms and remove the cancer.
Comments
HAMAS & Hezbollah are riding high on a crest of cockiness with its roots in Islamic supremacism & triumphalism and its crown burnished by decades of increasing success and lack of resistance. They brag about their plans because they know that nobody will do anything to stop them. Indeed, they are the equivalent of the Nazi reign of terror from the last century.
IBD has one error: the cancer is not limited to Damascus & Tehran. Islam is the cancer, and it has metastasized, with neoplasms all over the world. It must be totally eradicated to save civilization.
The Republican National Convention should dump McCain and nominate John Bolton.
ABSOLUTELY!!! I WOULD GLADLY AND IN HONOR VOTE FOR JOHN BOLTON.
I agree with the last line of that article,and Bolton would
definitely be a better choice than McCain.
Is it too late to get Him in there?