Ritalin Diplomacy

Luke 14:31-32 (New Living Translation)

“What king would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors and discussing whether his army of ten thousand is strong enough to defeat the twenty thousand soldiers who are marching against him? If he is not able, then while the enemy is still far away, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace.”

The war in Lebanon is over….for now.

The Bush administration seems satisfied with the arrangement. In a recent interview with USA Today’s Susan Page, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was even willing to express the bizarre notion that the Lebanese government had been strengthened over the past six weeks of conflict:

“I have no doubt it's been strengthened, I think, for a couple of reasons. First of all the Foreign - the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Siniora led his government and his people through this extraordinarily trying time with dignity, with strength. I was in Rome when he spoke to the assembled there. It was passionate, but it was also concrete and here are the things that we need to do.”

“And I hear a lot about how Nasrallah has emerged from this, but Nasrallah is going to have to face what has become of those populations in the south and the great devastation that Hezbollah brought on. Prime Minister Siniora is someone who, with great dignity and great aplomb, has led his people out of that terrible situation, not of his own making, to, I think, an international standing that is quite remarkable.”

In answer to the question of whether or not Hezbollah was now going to be disarmed, Secretary Rice offered this astounding response:

“Susan, I don't think there is an expectation that this force is going to physically disarm Hezbollah. I think it's a little bit of a misreading of how you disarm a militia. You have to have a plan, first of all, for the disarmament of a militia, and then the hope is that some people lay down their arms voluntarily. You have *kentulminaries* where heavy arms are, but the disarmament of militias is essentially a political agreement and the Lebanese Government has said that it intends to live up to its obligations under Resolution 1559 and something called the Taif Accord, which was signed in 1989 in Saudi Arabia — it shows you how long we've been at this — that they will not have any groups in Lebanon carrying arms that are not a part of the central security forces of Lebanon.”

George Orwell must be turning over in his grave. Defeat equals victory; armed and dangerous terrorists equals disarmed and peaceful Lebanese villagers.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had a decidedly different take on events. In a statement to Hezbollah’s leadership he declared unequivocally:

“Your unprecedented holy war and steadfastness are beyond the limits of my description. It's a divine victory. It is a victory of Islam,” Khamenei said in the message read by an announcer on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.”

The Arab street has also expressed a strong sense of agreement with the Ayatollah:

“Babies have been named “Hezbollah” and “Nasrallah.” Even some die-hard secularists are praising the Shiite fundamentalist militia in the wake of its cease-fire with Israel - saying its fighters restored their feelings of honor and dignity.”

The sad truth of the matter is that Hezbollah won, and no amount of State Department glad-handing or diplomatic pronouncements will change that. Israel is in a much more precarious position than it was before the war started. With its victory, whether moral, tactical, or strategic, Hezbollah has been able to paint Jews as America's lackeys, blood-thirsty Zionists, and themselves as champions of freedom and human rights.

It may take months for the full impact of the victory to be sorted out, but some things are already certain – Israel is still in the cross-hairs, Hezbollah is still very much in business, and the diplomatic turn away from Israel and toward Hezbollah, Hamas, and other supporters of terror has begun in earnest. In time I think Israel is going to be regarded as an international pariah and then international pressure is going to mount to find a peaceful way to dismantle the Jewish state, a sanitized new millennium version of the final solution.

When are we going to wake up and face the truth? The aim of Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fascism, Islamic extremism, or whatever else you care to call it is the destruction or subjugation of Islam’s enemies so that it can establish dominance in the world.

In a recent interview with C-Span’s Brian Lamb, Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch, made the following observation:

“Islam is the only religion in the world that has a developed doctrine theology and legal system that mandates violence against unbelievers and mandates that Muslims must wage war in order to establish the homogeneity of the Islamic social order over the world. Now, these things are objectively verifiable facts. Anyone can look at the Koran. Anyone can look at the Muslim sources, the Muslim history, Muslim legal texts and so on and find that to be true.”

Some Muslim scholars attempt to deny this, but events in the world and the growing strength of Muslim fundamentalism is evidence that’s hard to refute. Violence, and the support of violence to achieve Muslim aims, is becoming more and more the order of the day. And, it’s all codified within Muslim Holy Writ. The most familiar of the Koran’s passages regarding this twisted philosophy can be found in Surah 9:29:

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

And, when it comes to anti-Semitism, the Koran is replete with examples, as the following from Surah 5 illustrates:

“Say: “Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of who some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped Evil; - these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more stray from the even path!” When they come to you, they say, “We believe”: but in fact they enter with a mind against Faith, and they go out with the same. But Allah knows fully all that they hide. You see many of them racing each other in sin and rancor, and their eating of things forbidden. Evil indeed are the things that they do. Why do not the Rabbis and the doctors of law forbid them from their (habit of) uttering sinful words and eating things forbidden? Evil indeed are their works. The Jews say, “Allah’s hand is tied up.” But their hands are tied up and be they accursed for the (blasphemy) they utter. Nay, both His hands are widely outstretched: He gives and spends (of His bounty) as He pleases. But the revelation that comes to you from Allah increases in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. Amongst them we have placed enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgment. Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it, but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah does not love those who do mischief.” (Surah 5:60-64)

The world is careening toward Armageddon and the Bush administration is satisfied with the arrangements to appease terror’s most able practitioners. Some victory, Secretary Rice. Muslim fundamentalists are bent on killing every Jew on the face of the earth and you’re fine with the way things turned out in Lebanon. Muslims are now naming their children Nasrallah and Hezbollah, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is working feverishly to develop atomic weapons and you’re threatening sanctions and giving flowery speeches. How impressive! It’s as if the devil himself were attacking and the defenders were armed with money and sonnets. Well, like the devil, Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah, Hezbollah, Hamas, Osama, and millions of other Islamic fanatics are laughing at you. While you may be impressed with your own words, they realize they’ve got you in state of stupor, that you're practicing Ritalin diplomacy like a child in a room full of devils. They’re just waiting till you take enough of your own medicine to go to sleep. When that happens, the real mayhem will follow.

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