Hanging With Hezbollah
Michael J. Totten
“If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” – Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, October 23, 2002
BEIRUT – After Hezbollah mounted a protest aimed at bringing down Lebanon’s elected government, several thousand demonstrators remained downtown and camped out in tents, effectively occupying the center of the city. They first tried to seize and occupy Prime Minister Fouad Seniora’s office in the Ottoman-era Serail. But Seniora warned Hezbollah that if his office were taken he could not control his “street.” Translation: If you seize the state’s institutions, the Sunni Muslims of Lebanon are going to kill you. Hezbollah knew this was true, and so they backed off. It didn’t hurt that the government of Saudi Arabia backed up Seniora on this point. But Hezbollah’s occupation of the neutral parts of downtown continues even into 2007.
I ventured downtown myself the day after the made-for-TV protest was over, when Hezbollah and friends no longer wanted attention from foreign media. Their lack of interest, if I could call it that, was instantly obvious. Ubiquitous security agents with the tell-tale sunglasses and earpieces stared at me coldly and turned their heads as I walked past.
Hundreds of tents were set up in parks, parking lots, and squares downtown, most of them made of white canvass. I snapped a few pictures, and nobody stepped in to stop me.
One group of tents in a parking lot across from the Hariri mosque were all made of black canvas. What’s up with the black tents, I wondered. So I walked over and lifted my camera to my face.
Five ear-pieced Hezbollah agents aggressively pounced on me at once.
And if that happens, you shall have nobody to blame but you. For hanging around with them to begin with.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
That comes with the territory. I believe Mike understands that.
Or at least, I hope he does...
And isn't that an M-16 Nasrallah is hoisting Saddam-like above his head?
It's got a curved clip but it sure looks like an M-16 to me...
Yup, that's an M-16 (or some other Stoner/AR-variant), curved clip or no. May just be the weird angle that the pic was taken at (relative to the rifle's long axis) or it may be that there are curved M-16 clips, not sure.
Best,
Lee
Also, Arnold, they're not called "Arabs" when they kill
JewsZionists. They're called "Palestinians": Noble fighters against oppression.I have become used to Mr. Harris' loathing for Arabs in general over the last 5 years. I understand where it comes from. I believe him when he claims that it's culture not race that drives his loathing. I have argued with him many times and at great length over the matter, without ever once resorting to things like "a small, unrepresentative sample of certain, non-mainstream, fringe elements of the Arab nation."
Arnold, also, knows that I'll generally tolerate most views so long as they do not go after me or my family personally, or go past certain boundaries of decent behavior.
So... WTF is Nasrallah doing with an M-16? Isn't that the "Weapon of the Zionist Oppressors" or something?
Of course Hezbollah is Islamist. What kind of f**king idiot would suggest otherwise?
I obviously do not share what Mr Coleman delicately describes as "your soft spot, this Muslim stuff". All things considered, I think professor Samuel Huntington was right in his evaluations of this 1400-year-old phenomenon, and that you are wrong.
And what I do espouse is an appreciation that the Arabs of the Middle East, although probably not more than a relatively small number of Arabs who live in the United States, at present largely represent an enemy population during a time of a protracted conflict among competing and mutually hostile civilizations.
I think it is self-evident that many if not the majority of them consider themselves in conflict with the United States, with our western values, and with our western allies. My response is to state the obvious, that we therefore are in a war with them and because of that, I regard their countries as enemy territory unless and until they are proven otherwise.
And the advice I give other Americans, including Michael Totten, is to put personal discretion ahead of meaningless valor and stay the hell out of crowds of frequently hostile and violent Arabs, who, among other standard operating procedures, frequently take western journalists as hostages for whatever subset of whatever frenzied and febrile cause they represent at some given moment.
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You certainly cannot fairly say I disagree with you or your invited contributing writers over too much else of consequence.
Nor could I imagine that you or they would expect all the people who comment on Dean's World to march in lockstep over every issue.
In any case, I have never personalized any argument with you, your family or anybody else's, for that matter. As for decency, I can tell you that although I prefer cats 10-1 over dogs, I've never kicked one of the latter.
Furthermore, I pay my utility bills more or less on time, and never give traffic cops cause to right me up a court citation. How else would you define "decency", and if so, how have I violated it or even come close?
But I reserve the right to disagree with anyone who walks the face of this planet. Isn't that part of what you had in mind when you created this vehicle of opinion facilitation, for purposes of
"Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy"?
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
And, although I admire Mr. Totten's courage, I personally think he's either dumber than a bag of hammers or crazier than Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson rolled into one, for being over there. I like my head attached to my body, and places that may disagree with that viewpoint, I avoid.
But, since he's there, thanks for the report, and stay safe.
However, before you go too far into the Samuel Huntington camp you might want to consider that by "clash of civilizations" Huntington never meant a state of perpetual warfare and bloodshed, and he specifically denies that there is any monolithic Muslim entity, and believes that his thesis has been mis-stated by those who believe otherwise. You might enjoy this interview he gave to Islamica magazine as a starting point on that. To quote one small part:
First, you say “both sides,” but as I said, both sides are divided and Western countries collaborate with Muslim countries and vice versa. I think it’s a mistake, let me just repeat, to think in terms of two homogenous sides starkly confronting each other.
You might read the rest.
Ron: It gets annoying to be told on a daily basis in multiple threads and on multiple blogs that I believe things I don't. Especially right after you call me "intellectually dishonest" in a related thread. And in yet another thread today, one "Elisha" spewed a bunch more of this crap at me, much of it just plain inaccurate. It grows more than a little tiresome.
It also grows increasingly numbing to watch members of a persecuted ethnic group in one society be just hunky dory with gross character slurs and generalizations about another persecuted ethnic group in a different society.
Nasrallah may want people to think he took it as a battle trophy.
fhare:
"shortened and lightened SpecOps version of the M16" is covered under the "or some other Stoner/AR-variant" clause.
If you're going to fight a war, one of the first things you should do is figure out who your enemies are and who your allies are. We're fighting an asymetric war, which means that 'sides' are not represented by national, ethnic or religious boundaries. Some Arabs are at war with us, some are not.
If we're talking about ideological war, the majority of European Leftists are at war with us and our values. They always have been.
Millions of Arabic-speaking Middle Easterners aren't even Arabs. Most Lebanese speak Arabic, but many don't consider themselves to be 'Arabs'. From Ecce Libano's Why am I not an Arab?
Just like English, the Arabic language spread through conquest and colonialism. And so, today, to call an Iraqi Kurd, or a Chaldaean, or an Assyrian an Arab, or to call an Egyptian Copt an Arab, or to call a Lebanese Maronite or Druze or Melkite or Jew an Arab (all on account of their wielding of the Arabic language in one form or another), would be tantamount to cultural suppression and historical erasure. It would be as if I were to refer to Native Americans using labels that would have resonance only with European settlers and their modern American descendants (namely Spaniards, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and British). This sort of inaccuracy is akin to me referring to Irishmen or Scotsmen as “Englishmen” (on account of their use of their conqueror’s language); it’s as if I were to refer to a Swiss as a German or an Italian or a Frenchman, all on account of his/her use of respectively the German, Italian, and French languages.)
Arab colonialists are allied with the Islamists. Both share the dream of Pan Arabism/Pan Islamism, of uniting everyone under the Arab/Muslim banner, whether they want to be united or not.
The Iraqi Kurds aren't Arabs, but they are conservative Muslims, and they're genuine allies. The Middle East is full of people who are currently being oppressed by 'Arabist' colonialism and conquest. America is full of people who have narrowly escaped it. These are our allies.
I wouldn't have known most of this if I hadn't read MJTs blog. The media, with their lockstep coverage, ignores the parts of the Arab/Muslim world that can't be pigeonholed.
The media is willing to interview Hezbollah's leaders and to say what Hezbollah tells them to say, but they're not willing to challenge Hezbollah's authority (even though Hezbollah has no legitimate authority). We need independent reports.
The fact that I am a member of a persecuted minority is not relevant, because (a) Jews are not persecuted in this country and (b) Arabs are not persecuted in this country or, for that matter, in Arab countries (of course, Jews are). Being related to victims does not in any way limit by ability to call it like I see it.
As I've said before, if 95% of a group of a billion people is against suicide bombing, that still leaves me with a dangerously large number of people who are in support of it. And it precisely because, not in spite of the fact that, I'm the guy with relatives on the Eged bus to Tel Aviv that I will indeed call it like I see it.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.