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August 18, 2006
WB: Uncle Sam to the Rescue
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Here we have the Lebanese financial genius at work: (1) Hezballah promises to help pay for reconstruction in the South, quickly and generously (Iran provides much of the funds) (2) Worried about the political impact of Hezballah’s largesse, Hariri Inc. promise to also pay for reconstruction in areas of the country that are of vital interest to them (“Saudi” Arabia is supposed to provide the actual funds) (3) Ever worried about being marginalized, the American mid-wife wants in on the action and promises funds (the US taxpayer who just paid for the bombs, will pay again, both to replace the bombs and for reconstruction). (4) American largesse triggers French largesse.
Another example why (unless you are Syrian) there is only one way for foreigners to do well in business in Lebanon: by refraining from doing business in Lebanon. And the Syrians? Well they are not foreigners. Duh…
That country is the equivalent of the Venus fly-trap.
Posted by: Guthman Bey | Aug 18 2006 18:22 utc | 2
— and while our people go without in NOLA and the Gulf States….
There are no words for the contempt and disgust that I feel. Our people in diaspora — allowed to rot, lost and unclaimed by people who are not fit to speak about anything pertaining to justice. There will be no justice until this swill is punished hard and without mercy…probably not in my lifetime — but I want to spit to get the bad taste out of my mouth right now…
Posted by: Elie | Aug 18 2006 18:51 utc | 3
Yeah, I did a lot of reporting on New Orleans last year. A part of me died covering the willful cruelty.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 18 2006 19:54 utc | 4
As well as I, Malooga, the gentrification and disinvestment must be going well down there.
BTW, anybody heard from onzaga lately? Wonder how hir is holding up in the ex-“chocolate city.” /snark.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 18 2006 20:04 utc | 5
@Elie:
If it’s any consolation, aid from the Bush administration is unlikely to be useful anyway. I’m guessing that, when all is said and done, the “$50 million in aid” will take the form of:
–> A great big lump of cash to any Christians they can find in the area whose religion is approximately equal to the American fundamentalist one
–>A tentative program to give money to people who turn in members of Hezbollah, which will be discontinued after the first month results in nothing more than the capture of three drunk American businessmen too drunk to defend themselves, a Chinese tourist, and three Israeli agents provocateurs. (The Chinese tourist, being the only captive not to speak English, will be tortured by the CIA, who will be unable to figure out what language is being spoken and assume that the victim is merely holding out.)
–> Two hundred and fifty MBAs and assorted Republican “advisors” at $500000 apiece, who will stay in a hotel in northern Lebanon and not set food outside the pool area for the year of their stay
–> 12 warehouses of Spam, to feed the displaced (Spam contains pork, so which displaced will these be?)
–> A coupon for $1 million off your next $10 million purchase of grain from Monsanto (GM varieties only)
The rest will never make it there.
Oh, and after six months, it will be discovered that 3/4 of the Spam has been stolen and most of the remainder is in damaged, leaking cans…
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Aug 18 2006 20:16 utc | 6
Many Israeli Soldiers Are Critical
“We fought for nothing. We cleared houses that will be reoccupied in no time,” said Ilia Marshak, a 22-year-old infantryman who spent a week in Lebanon.
Marshak said his unit was hindered by a lack of information, poor training and untested equipment. In one instance, Israeli troops occupying two houses inadvertently fired at each other because…
…of poor communication between their commanders.
“We almost killed each other,” he said. “We shot like blind people. … We shot sheep and goats.”…
Israeli newspapers quoted disgruntled reservists as saying they had no provisions in Lebanon, were sent into battle with outdated or faulty equipment and insufficient supplies, and received little or no training.
“I personally haven’t thrown a grenade in 15 years, and I thought I’d get a chance to do so before going north,” an unidentified reservist in an elite infantry brigade was quoted as telling the Maariv daily.
“Now, how may seconds do we get after we pull the pi..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 18 2006 20:21 utc | 7
Related, sort of:
“An anti-Semitism awareness group has criticised Sweden’s plans to host an international aid conference for Lebanon as ”discriminatory” saying the meeting should also address the needs of Israeli victims of the conflict.”
link
Posted by: someone | Aug 18 2006 20:36 utc | 8
I have a friend in the Lower Ninth Ward who wants to know where he can get a rocket that will go as far as West Palm.
Posted by: Roger Bigod | Aug 18 2006 20:40 utc | 9
A few more details from the article that Malooga excerpted above…
METULLA, Israel – Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Lebanon say the army was slow to rescue wounded comrades and suffered from a lack of supplies so dire that they had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas….
Israel’s largest paper, Yediot Ahronot, quoted one soldier as saying thirsty troops threw chlorine tablets into filthy water in sheep and cow troughs. Another said his unit took canteens from dead guerrillas.
“When you’re thirsty and have to keep fighting, you don’t think a lot, and there is no time to feel disgusted,” the unidentified soldier was quoted as saying.
The newspaper said helicopters were hindered from delivering food supplies or carrying out rescue operations because commanders feared the aircraft would be shot down. In some cases, soldiers bled to death because they were not rescued in time, Yediot Ahronot said.
The army had no immediate comment Friday.
Comrades of the two soldiers captured by Hezbollah sent a petition to the prime minister Thursday accusing the government of abandoning the men.
“We went to reserve duty with the certainty that all of Israel’s citizens, and the Israeli government, believe in the same value that every combatant learns from his first day in basic training — you don’t leave friends behind,” the soldiers wrote. “This is a moral low point. The Israeli government has abandoned two IDF (Israeli Defense Force) combatants that it sent on a mission.”
The petition was being circulated Friday; it was unclear how many soldiers had signed it.
While such sentiments aren’t shared by all soldiers, even some senior commanders acknowledge the army came up short in Lebanon.
When soldier Gil Ovadia returned home, his commander made no mention of victory in an address to their battalion. Instead, the commander told them the war was over, said they did a good job, and advised that they be prepared to come back soon and fight again.
“We’ll be back in Lebanon in a few months, maybe years,” Ovadia said.
Posted by: Bea | Aug 18 2006 20:42 utc | 10
Re New Orleans vs. Lebanon reconstruction –
Thursday night, comedian Jon Stewart had sarcastic fun with that — after Hezbollah finishes with Lebanon, they will take on fixing up New Orleans. (paraphrase) after all, while Hezbollah may be a rag-tag undereducated gun-toting militia, at least they’re not FEMA.
Hezbollah seems to have an almost Germanic efficiency and work ethic.
Maybe life will imitate art, and Hezbollah will make the offer to the US.
If Bush hadn’t been so arrogant and uncaring after Katrina hit, lives could have been saved — good use could have been made of Cuban volunteer doctors – about 1000 of them were ready to fly in instantly, with more available shortly. The doctors sat around with their emergency backpacks, waiting for permission to fly out. They have been trained to work under difficult conditions in disaster areas.
For the kind of training these doctors get, see
Washington Post story and the comment after it.
Posted by: Owl | Aug 18 2006 21:46 utc | 11
This part here from Malooga’s link is pretty telling
“Israel’s largest paper, Yediot Ahronot, quoted one soldier as saying thirsty troops threw chlorine tablets into filthy water in sheep and cow troughs. Another said his unit took canteens from dead guerrillas.
“When you’re thirsty and have to keep fighting, you don’t think a lot, and there is no time to feel disgusted,” the unidentified soldier was quoted as saying.”
And the zionists call us anti-semites!
.
fuckin assholes anyone who has witnessed the way that young Israeli skinhead thugs treat Israeli Arabs nevermind Palestinian ones would be under no illusion about most Israeli’s attitude to their kaffirs, niggas or whatever they call them.
By the way does anyone perchance know what they do call Arabs? There will be at least one despicable pejorative
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 18 2006 21:50 utc | 12
People are always under the assumption that being anti-Israel and anti-Zionist is being anti-Jew and pro-Nazi and all that. Wrong. I am a Jew and cannot condone the evil acts that the Israeli regimes have done in the name of our faith and in the memory of those innocent Jewish victims who died under the regimes of Hitler and Stalin.
If the Israeli government treated its Arab and Muslim peoples at least half as well as the Persian “Islamic” government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad treats its Jewish minority, that would be a start.
Even though Persia is officially known now as the Islamic Republic, Jews, Zoroastrians and Christians are entitled to religious freedom and have a place in government. The country went through 3 renames (Persia to Iran to Islamic Republic: though the names Persia or Iran are still used by Western media) but I guess it is like the Czech Republic in that Czechs are the majority but the Slovak and German/Austrian minorities have rights too.
Try Saudi Arabia. What have Israel got to say about it!! If you are a practicing Jew there you are likely to disappear for good. Before America and Israel attack the Islamic Republic, they should consider cleaning up their own messes and being consistent.
Posted by: Cohen | Aug 18 2006 22:41 utc | 13
@Debs is Dead #12
Well, for starters, it is commonplace in Israel for government officials to refer to the demographic growth of their OWN Arab citizenry (leave aside now the Palestinians in the occupied territories) as a “cancer in the heart of the state.” In public speeches… totally just run-of-the mill stuff.
If you are interested in this topic, there is an organization in Haifa that publishes an annual political monitoring report that surveys expressions of discriminatory and racist policies and attitudes towards the Arab citizens on the part of the Israeli government, the press, the insitutions. It is very well written and quite eye-opening. http://www.mada-research.org.
Posted by: Bea | Aug 18 2006 23:06 utc | 14
For a lengthier snark on Hezbullah’s efficacy in disaster relief, see Replacing FEMA:
As the NYT reported on Tuesday, “hundreds of Hezbollah members spread over dozens of villages across southern Lebanon began cleaning, organizing and surveying damage. Men on bulldozers were busy cutting lanes through giant piles of rubble. Roads blocked with the remnants of buildings are now, just a day after a cease-fire began, fully passable. … Hezbollah men also traveled door to door checking on residents and asking them what help they needed.”
When Katrina hit, it took Bush days to direct a person to chair a task force to coordinate the relief efforts. It took days for the National Guard to appear on the scene. Despite FEMA having 500 buses on standby on the day of the storm, ready to be deployed, it took almost a week to get those buses to the Convention Center in New Orleans to begin evacuations there.
Nearly a year after the storm, hundreds of thousands of refugees still have not returned to their homes.
Rather than paying an emergency agency to explain to us why it’s not their job to respond to emergencies, or why if they did participate in relief work, it would maximize their “potential for failure,” let’s hire an organization that’s so dedicated to relief and reconstruction that they provide those services despite it not being their job. Let’s dismantle FEMA and bring Hezbollah to the Gulf Coast.
[lots more and worth the time to read]
Posted by: DeAnander | Aug 18 2006 23:08 utc | 15
I’m sure a nice, fat, no bid contract will be handed to Custer Battles. It follows the Bush plan for wise money management!
Posted by: Diogenes | Aug 19 2006 1:11 utc | 17
lotsa people on the same wavelength
ted rall: Why America Needs Hezbollah
Hours after a ceasefire halted a five-week war between Israel and Iranian-backed Islamic militias in Lebanon, reported the New York Times, “hundreds of Hezbollah members spread over dozens of villages across southern Lebanon began cleaning, organizing and surveying damage. Men on bulldozers were busy cutting lanes through giant piles of rubble. Roads blocked with the remnants of buildings are now, just a day after a ceasefire began, fully passable.” Who cares if Hezbollah is a State Department-designated terrorist organization? Unlike our worthless government, it gets things done!
The citizens of New Orleans desperately need Hezbollah’s can-do terrorist spirit. Outside the French Quarter tourist zone, writes Jed Horne in The New Republic, what was until 2005 our nation’s most charming city and cultural center remains “a disaster zone, an area five times the size of Manhattan.”
…
You know the U.S. has gone Third World when bombed-out Lebanese get a better deal than we do. Remember how hurricane victims couldn’t get through to FEMA’s perpetually busy hotline? Promising that Hezbollah personnel “in the towns and villages will turn to those whose homes are badly damaged and help rebuild them,” Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah ordered Hezbollah militants to canvass damaged neighborhoods and begin repairs at once. Hezbollah gives out “decent and suitable furniture” and a year’s free rent to all Lebanese who lost their homes. Unlike the racist government officials who managed the botched response along the Gulf Coast last year, where whites were rescued while blacks were shot, the Shiite terrorist group’s offer also applies to Sunnis, Christians and even Jews.
“Hezbollah’s reputation as an efficient grass-roots social service network,” reported the Times, “was in evidence everywhere. Young men with walkie-talkies and clipboards were in the battered Shiite neighborhoods on the southern edge of Bint Jbail, taking notes on the extent of the damage. Hezbollah men also traveled door to door checking on residents and asking them what help they needed.” With terrorists like that, who needs FEMA?
seriously though, what the gulf coast needs are their own indigenous resistance orgs, as the NOAA is still predicting an unusually active hurricane season. my suggestion: combining the radicalized citizenry of biloxi & naw’leans into missNOLA…
Posted by: b real | Aug 19 2006 2:53 utc | 18
Annie, that was a surprise – sorry, yes, it is missing. I liked the story so much that I saved it for myself, plus the comments, plus the Q and A live discussion with the author and student answering all kinds of questions.
Cindy Loose has written a great story about Melissa Mitchell, who very badly wanted to study medicine, who disliked the idea of getting very rich by practicing medicine, who did not want to join the military to get a scholarship, and who just wanted to help poor people. It is quite long.
I managed to relocate the main story and the Q & A live discussion using Google.
I also did it from the Washington Post message page where it said, the article may have moved or not be available.
Just type in the name of the author and the subject:
“Cindy Loose” Cuba
That should give you the story as well as thee Q & A session.
Although I tried below, I just cannot make live links properly — when I test them, I get the same message, that the story has been moved or may no longer be available.
The Cuban Solution
But the Howard University undergrad was too poor herself to attend med school.
That’s when Cuba’s maximum leader offered a helping hand. By Cindy Loose …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901380.html
Post Magazine: Med School Libre
Cindy Loose fields questions and comments about her story of an American whose medical education is being funded by the government of Fidel Castro.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/17/DI2006071700843.html
The Cuban Solution
Post Magazine: Med School Libre
Posted by: Owl | Aug 19 2006 7:37 utc | 20
Owl :
If you just chop off th ‘
‘ you added at the end of your links they’ll probably work.
Viewers can do the same manually in their browsers. After the error page comes up, go to the location bar and chop off everything at the end of the URL after the ‘html’.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 19 2006 10:32 utc | 21
@Cohen #13:
Welcome to the club, lansman. You are not alone here. Pull up a chair and pour yourself a glass of mogen david. Or, maybe a wheatgrass juice — its pretty early in the morning to start in with the sweet drek.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 19 2006 13:35 utc | 22
Custer Battles: 01 – The People: 00
Verdict Against Iraq Contractor Overturned
This hails as a serious sign of things to come. What did Blackwater say?
“We take care of our own..”
Indeed. And if that ever fails, you have a sock-puppet to issue your pardons..Talk about redundant fail-safes..
more to come so says Dante…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 19 2006 18:25 utc | 23
The empire can never relinquish the threat of force, or the unaccountability of that force to moral consideration.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 19 2006 18:28 utc | 24
I was slightly surprised to see the articles in the US press posted here, such as ‘why the US needs Hezbolla’. Interesting, thanks.
The number of displaced is about the same – a million. I have read that to date, 250,000 Katrina internal refugees have not returned to their original home, defined loosely, i.e. New Orleans. No idea if the number is exact, or even if such a number can be reliably estimated. It may be way off, I have visited New Orleans, but I haven’t kept up with the various numbers.
The conditions and circumstances are so different it is perhaps not useful to compare.
Nevertheless, it is telling that the Katrina displaced never, afaik, be it internally in the US of internationally were labelled ‘internally displaced’ which is an official category in international parlance. They never joined the rank of refugees, as the Lebanese did right from the beginning, in the mainstream media, both in semi-official counts, and in press/TV stories, which heavily emphasised (outside the US) the aspect of destruction of homes, fleeing people, homeless people, shelters, the logistics of food and water, medical care, care for the handicapped, pregnant women giving birth (no US stories about that as far as I could see), and the uncertain future of all these people, to the detriment of the number of deaths, which were considered minor, and only quoted in comparison to the Israeli toll. WW2 is still present.
Why ?
1) The very idea of the US having the disgusting, demeaning problem of internal refugees cannot be accepted. As the world superpower, with money (err…) and hubris to spare, everyone must be happy and no exceptions are allowed. It is such a wonderful place, cohesive and anti-racist, rich, etc. that such problems cannot arise. Territory, social organization, etc. means that people relocate and create new lives elsewhere – up to a point, ok….. What lives exactly is not analyzed.
2) In an individualistic free market (quote unquote) system losers sink and winners rise, no matter what the causes…
‘
3) The Katrina refugees were climatic refugees – victims of ‘nature’. (Or of human folly..), a label that is not yet properly defined. That is not a category that the US will acknowledge any time soon (beyond the natural disasters discourse.)
The Lebanese victims, by contrast, are victims of aggression and war, and so do, in this particular case, have support.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 19 2006 18:36 utc | 25
Interesting Noirette.
The word “refugee” has many problematic implications: moral, causational, solutional, attitudinal, etc. Also, the very act of naming confers identity upon a group, and consequently, legitimizes its existence. It even leaves open the possibility of class action. Therefore the press could not name the Katrina displaced as refugees.
In Lebanon, we have the example of a politically savvy leadership and population. They understand Israeli “facts on the ground” quite well from watching the appropriation of the West Bank. And so they saw the PR value of returning post haste, en masse, with fanfare and maximum publicity. The Hezbollah money and organization helps, too — but the theater of the event, the spectacle, is most important. They are creating their own “facts on the ground” which make it exponentially harder for Israel to re-ignite the conflict. (I especially like the “Made in Israel” banners flying provocatively over the ruins. They would make great postcards once the tourist trade comes back.)
The tragedy of Katrina, is that we have no charismatic progressive leader to confront power in America today. Let’s not ever confuse Obama, and even Jesse, for Martin Luther King. If King were alive today, he would have, within one month, organized a march of the dispossed upon New Orleans, demanding that those rebuilding jobs ALL went to them, and that they were not leaving, even if they had to starve to death, until goverment took care of them, rebuilt their houses, and gave them jobs. That’s what those mysterious prisons which sprouted up in the countryside last summer were there for: To break the back of an incipient movement before it got off the ground. But they had nothing to worry about — no movement ever did get off the ground. Local activist organizations functioned like pressure valves, siphoning energy away from a mass movement, in seeking smaller, “more realistic,” local goals. And no leader of national stature stepped up — if one did, the media would have worked overtime to discredit him/her. And so the sheeple were reduced to looking after their daily existence, with no energy left over for collective action (which is the goal of the entire slave-wage system). They were split up and partitioned over the country, defusing their collective power, while assuaging the rest of us that “we were helping” (to deracinate them). Out of sight, out of mind: mission accomplished.
The poor who were insured and returned still have not gotten their insurance checks. Hezbollah sure looks like a better investment to me.
Imagine a million marchers, all wearing red “REFUGEE” tee-shirts, and singing “We shall overcome/rebuild,” descending upon New Orleans and demanding that they get their share of what’s theirs.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 19 2006 19:10 utc | 26