Republican foreign policy

we'd appoint a special envoy who knows how hard diplomacy works (oops, nobody like that in THIS administration) and broker some assistance in there for the Lebanese government to DISPLACE Hezbollah and the essential services they provide for the people in southern Lebanon.

And Israel would have to back off and the United States would stop egging them on. They have a right to self-defense, but I'm concerned about the effectiveness of their targeting apparatus.

Of course, since Bush doesn't have any nicknamed cronies who can do the job, I guess we'll have to just sit back and watch the killing continue.

the cease fire is being resisted only by the US and Israel - because they have this ridiculous notion they can wipe out hezbollah in 3 weeks. Utter nonsense.

In the meantime while perusing this policy thousands of innocents will die and more young arabs will be radicalized towards terror groups.

A Precondition to any lasting settlement has to be a ceasefire. Should any group subsequently break the ceasefire they would be politically harmed by their own actions and have their bargaining position weakened in the eyes of the entire world. If Hezbollah doesn't honor a ceasefire it gives greater legitimacy to Israel to carryout its massive military operations.

right now both sides look like assholes. Hezbollah for starting all this and Israel for it's disproportionate response and targeting of lebanese people and infrastructure.

This problem isn't going to be solved until the Lebanese government is able to secure it's own southern border and exert sovereignty over it, instead of Hezbollah - that is the solution we should be working towards.

Bombin the crap out of Lebanon is only weakening the Lebonese government and moving us further away from that result.

Like I said - it's a ridiculous foreign policy that has zero common sense to it.

1. A complete cease fire by all parties
2. A withdrawal by all parties military and militia from the borders to be replaced by international peace keepers - most likely NATO
3. Reconstruction aid to Lebanon to repair the bomb damage, provide relief to victims
4. UN government types to help the Lebanese government organize effectively
5. Economic sanctions against any nation supplying arms to Hezbollah during a cease fire
6. then negotiate a permanent settlement all parties can agree to.

It aint easy, but it's a hell of a lot better than destabilizing the entire region and escalating the war

#4 is at #4 because the other things simply have to come first.

You have to build political will and trust, both with the government and the people - you dont do that by selling bombers while aggression is being carried out.

Sanctions on Iran are unilateral right now - most of the rest of the world is not sanctioning Iran - again our go it alone policy in action

We get others to step up by listening and taking on board some of their advice instead of going it alone, our way or the highway - by not simply rubber stamping EVERYTHING Israel does defacto. Those other countries could provide peace keepers or economic aid, or liberalized trade deals

Much of this so called global jihad isnt in fact- it's regional, and predicated on crappy conditions in those countries - where the people then blame outside influence on the US and Israel, sometimes rightly, sometimes not.

My point is there are a whole lot of things we could and should be doing - but it seems we are content to sit bak and watch the bombs drop for now.

Religion does play a huge role in the mess. However I do believe that much of that is just the vehicle used by the leaders to convey their goals - just as Republicans use Christianity in this country to further their goals (though obviously with a lot less death and destruction).

It's crucial to reform that we promote those who put forward a civilized religious message over those that don't so that radicalism begins to be turned back and marginalized. If you improve conditions people live in they have less time and less reason to be radicalized - Israelis cutting off revenue to Palestine recently was a stupendously stupid move for example.

Iraq isnt a mess because of ideology - unless you mean the Bush administrations.

Ultimately in any society you have to square the circle of leaders wanting more power and the people wanting security and decent lives without too much hardship. It's the leaders in these countries that simply won't give up their power and devolve some of it to the people.

In Iraq we tried to simply take it from them by force.

Can you be more specific about who comprises the holy consensus and if you mean it in regard to Lebanon (i.e., the "North")?

I studied Just and Limited War in college and under no circumstances would I consider the current military actions by Israel to be proportionate, but by the same token, what Hezbollah did was unprovoked and wouldn't have occured without the okay of Iran. Just and Limited War theory rarely accepts pre-emptive strikes and the Bush administration made pre-emptive strikes in the face of imminent threats (real or not, obviously) de riguer after 9/11. Do you believe that that's what Hezbollah was doing?

Frankly, I've not heard Israel call them proportionate - I don't think Israel answers the question directly - it cites other issues related to the military savvy and stamina of Hezbollah, thanks to its supporters outside of Lebanon.

"As for what I want in that part of the world?