As I said here Hezbollah is a nationalist movement, a poltical organization and civil defense army for the imporverished residents of Lebanon. As Juan Cole succinctly points out;
What is Hizbullah?
Western and Israeli pundits keep comparing Hizbullah to al-Qaeda. It is a huge conceptual error. There is a crucial difference between an international terrorist network like al-Qaeda, which can be disrupted by good old policing techniques (such as inserting an agent in the Western Union office in Karachi), and a sub-nationalist movement.
Al-Qaeda is some 5,000 multinational volunteers organized in tiny cells.
Hizbullah is a mass expression of subnationalism that has the loyalty of some 1.3 million highly connected and politically mobilized peasants and slum dwellers. Over a relatively compact area.
I take sub-nationalism as a concept from Anthony D. Smith. It would be most familiar to Western readers under the rubric of the Irish Catholics of North Ireland, or even the Scots of the UK. Subnationalism, like the larger, over-arching nationalism, is a mass movement.
Thus, a very large number of the Pushtuns in Afghanistan are sub-nationalists with a commitment to Pushtun dominance. They deeply resent the victory of the Northern Alliance (i.e. Tajiks, Hazara Shiites, and Uzbeks) in 2001-2002. A lot of what our press calls resurgent "Taliban" activity is just Pushtun irredentism. There are approximately 14 million Pushtuns in Afghanistan and another 14 million or so in Pakistan.
The continuing war in Afghanistan is not against the Taliban but the Pashtun, poor farmers and their only economical crop.
Fierce clashes around Afghan opium centre
War on Afghan opium farming an "absolute disaster"
So why is Canada involved in this opium war? Which the Harpocrites refuse to call a war! And which is causing the deaths of our troops. Why be where we are not wanted. Afghan Farmers Resentful
Oh yeah we are protecting democracy, Afghani women and girls and their ability to go to school and work in the new fledgling Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Islamic republic. Afghan 'virtue' cops concern diplomats
A republic that allowed a Canadian to die for opening a school for women and girls. A Canadian abandoned by the Harpocrites, doing the real work of reconstruction, which was what the current Afghan mission was supposed to be about, but of course isn't.
A tip o the blog to Rusty Idols for this.
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Israel
Lebanon
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3 comments:
Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization? What are you smoking?
Just how many rockets do they have to indiscriminately fire into Israeli suburbs before they qualify as terrorists?
Note that when Israel hits civilians in Lebanon, they are not doing it on purpose, and the IDF goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties. On the other hand, when Hezbollah hits civilians in Israel, they have accomplished their mission.
Ah well, as a "libertarian communist" you are obviously deeply confused. I wonder if you even recognize that such a label is an oxymoron (that is, the forcible confiscation of property by a state - and perhaps even the existence of a state - is antithetical to libertarianism).
Perhaps you do, and everything you write is ironic. If that is the case, then I can understand your assertion that Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization - perhaps in another post you have argued that down is up and black is white.
Political parties working within the governmental structure of the country they are a part of do NOT have their own army and wepons. We are NOT talking about a form of "National Guard" here in that they do not submit themselves to a higher governmental authority.
Hezbollah, through their own statements and actions, is a terrorist organization. They are NOT the government of Lebanon.
Imagine, if you will, a gang of Americans started kidnapping and killing Mexicans in the town of Algodonis across the border from Yuma, Arizona. The government of Mexico launches a protest to this action. This gang of Americans then started lobbing rockets into this Mexico town and our government, the U.S. Government allowed this action to take place.
Is the gang terrorist or a civil defense militia?
Now imangine, that members of this gang are elected members of our U.S. Congress but still kidnap people from across the border in a different country, and continue to lob missles/rockets into this foreign country.
Does this sound like the way real civilized people behave? ... NO, it is a gang commited to terrorist acts!
If this were happening in this country, they would be removed.
With out a real government commitment and power to change things in Lebanon, the Lebanonese government and army have been hijacked by the more powerfully backed gang known as Hezbollah. Until they get rid of their militia, they can not be looked upon as a ligitimate political force. They remain a gang of hate, not of political representation.
Ed; Israel goes out of its way to not harm civilians, lets look at the death and injury tolls shall we. ten to one, Israel kills more effectively than Hezbollah. As for armed factions in the State lets see, how about the Confederate States in the US prior to the civil war. Or the armed gangs in Fascist Italy and Germany, who then went on to support the Fascists in Spain with support and arms from Britain, US and France. Hmm. Seems like the Spanish Civil War is more akin to Lebanon today. External governments supplying one side with weapons demanding a moratorium on weapons being supplied to the other side.
As for Libertarian Communist being an oxymoron I already addressed this here
and here
ECJ:
Good points you have made except it has happened in the US of A. Lets see the founding of Texas was land ripped off Mexico by armed members of Congress, the invasion of Nicarauga by members of the Confederate States, again elected and armed, The invasion of Cuba by members of the Confederate States, the mere existance of the Conferedate States in the U.S.
Armed Fascist movements in Europe during the Thirties.
And just for that matter any Cold War regime supported by the US was usually a military gang. Oh like Chile for instance.
Hezbollah is a government in South Lebanon, hence their armed forces are the armed forces of South Lebanon. As legitimate as the army of the Government of Lebanon.
Calling them terrorists is a deliberate distortion of the 'facts'.
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