Beirut....Will we never learn?

It is so promising to see good ole' Condi Rice hanging out in the Middle East, refereeing what has become by now a tired conflict. What is unfortunate is that in the twenty plus years since our "Peacekeeping" force of Marines was killed in Beirut we have learned so little about Middle East politics. I will give credit to Bush for not immediately sending thousands of troops to pacify this region, but our policy in regards to the current conflict has been no less enlightened than are arming of the Taliban and Sadam Husein. The simple fact of the matter is that we do not understand Middle Eastern Politics. We do not understand them in theory or in practice. We tend to view the world through a western (if not American) set of binoculars. Unfortunately, we cannot possibly understand what is going on in the Middle East through this set of eyes.

First and foremost, if there is one thing to learn about the Middle East and in particular Lebanon, it is that nothing is as it seems. Yes it appears quite simple, Hezbollah, a terrorist organization is fighting against Israel. Nothing new here, a radical Islamic organization fighting against the world's only Jewish state. Unfortunately for all of us it just isn't that simple. See in the Middle East politics are not just discussed at a national level, but also at a secular (read religious) level, local level, tribal level, etc, etc. There is no easy comparison to garner in America outside of the Catholic Church taking up arms agains the Baptist Church, against the Seventh Day Adventist and so on and so on. Then within each of these groups you have a myriad of factions which each have their not only their own political agenda, but also their own militias, social services, and press offices with which to spread their opinion of the conflict. Such is the case with Hezbollah, an organization founded by the Shiite state of Iran in order to combat Israel. Hezbollah, not only is an organization whose fundamental principles often run perpendicular to the Lebanese government, but also an organization which still struggles to find an identity within the Muslim world. Caught between wanting to be a legitimate social and political organization and a true guerilla force, Hezbollah has worked at both aims and had measurable success in both arenas.

This is perhaps what makes this organization so dangerous. Not only is it an extention of the Tehran power apparatus (run by Ahjamenejad a ferverant anti-American, anti-western leader), but also a collection of loose Shiite tribal factions, all of which aspire to power and none of which care for the Jewish or American States. So what can be done in the midst of this crisis? Well that is a good question and one that American policy makers and diplomats have been trying to avoid. By allowing Israel to carry out continued operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the US has sent a clear signal that it believes Israel has the right to defend itself. The real question is how long a nation (no matter how great, technologically advanced, or militarily superior) can hold out when surrounded by neighbors who not only hate it, but are willing to die to see it's destruction. As Golda Meyer once said: "We will have peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us".