Is there a problem?
The neocons' next warI'm in the familiar position of being confused by Salon's and Sidney Blumenthal's point of view about terrorism matters. There is apparently supposed to be something wrong with helping our ally learn whether the terrorist group (plain and simple) Hezbollah is being resupplied from other countries. (Naturally Blumenthal finds it necessary to note that there is a "secret program" involved.) I wasn't aware that Hezbollah had any geopolitical significance or was worthy of the slightest respect or restraint from the United States. Now, if Syria and/or Iran is trying to secretly resupply a belligerent terrorist group, and Israel finds out about it, whose fault will it be if Israel opts to "widen the Middle East conflict to Iran and Syria"? If the U.S. is making it harder for Iran and Syria to secretly support terrorist groups, why is that not an unalloyed good?
By secretly providing NSA intelligence to Israel and undermining the hapless Condi Rice, hardliners in the Bush administration are trying to widen the Middle East conflict to Iran and Syria, not stop it.
Aug. 3, 2006 | The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program. - Sidney Blumenthal, Salon
Blumenthal believes there is a neocon plot afoot to somehow induce Israel to bomb Syria and Iran, as he puts it "to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war." I think expressing the concern in a way that includes the phrase "four-front war" tends to undermine Blumenthal's thesis. It would probably take a lot to provoke Israel to attack two large nominally neutral countries in the region at a time when it is otherwise engaged. It's not like Hezbollah is at the end of its missile stocks, a point when interdicting the resupply pipeline could end its ability to launch against Israeli targets. And it's not like a U.S. intelligence briefing is going to trigger any epiphanies within the IDF ("So that's how they've been getting them!")
The real question Blumenthal's piece raises is why we should not take sides in a fight between our close ally Israel and a terror group on the State Department's list. We should be helping them eradicate Hezbollah. It's not a hard call. Remember the 1994 Jewish Community Center bombing in Buenos Aires? Hezbollah. The 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and ensuing murder of Navy diver Robert Stethem? Hezbollah. The 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon? Hezbollah. The Terry Anderson and Terry Waite abductions? Hezbollah. You get the idea.
posted at 12:36 AM
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