Thank you, Charlie. I have no answers, only thoughts and wishes.
Eliot Cohen nailed it. We are in a terrible place in the world. Trump, who says extraordinary often horrific things, may become President again. How could we get to such a place? One day he is friends with Netanyahu , the next he praises Hezbollah.
Thank you, Charlie. I have no answers, only thoughts and wishes.
Eliot Cohen nailed it. We are in a terrible place in the world. Trump, who says extraordinary often horrific things, may become President again. How could we get to such a place? One day he is friends with Netanyahu , the next he praises Hezbollah.
No group or individual who states that terrorism is justifiable should be tolerated in this world. People being what they are, I expect there will always be wars. But punishing people who have done nothing--that can never be right. I would like the Palestinian people to have medicine and water, I don’t want children in hospital to die. But then I can only begin to feel the anger and despair of the Israelis which causes a father to be glad his eight-year-old daughter is dead. He thinks if she were captured by Hamas her life would be so horrific it would not be worth living. Hearing him tore my soul. How can they not be in the extremes of anguish? How could the Israelis not want to crush those responsible? As for Hamas--the Israelis are welcome to them. They don’t deserve a second thought. But take the time to think about inflicting the same pain on a family who might really have wished to live anywhere in the world but Gaza and had no choice in the matter. Yes, Hamas is their government, but by popular vote? Should all the people be considered evil? I so badly wish there were an answer to this catastrophe. I would like Palestinian civilians or at least children to be given safe passage. But how do you determine if an adult might work for Hamas? In a situation worsened by intelligence failure this does not seem possible.
Remember when we left Afghanistan and were told that intelligence could be adequately accessed over the horizon? That in country intelligence work was not necessary? It didn’t work so well for Israel, and they have about the best intel capabilities in the world. Supposedly Hamas went dark. Without electronic signals it becomes tough to get information. They may have worked in small cells of people thus lowering the possibility of leaks and greatly increasing the chances that a leaker will be easily identified and killed. The technique has been tried by terrorists before. (Russia--19th century. Dostoevsky fictionalizes the story in his novel The Possessed. The point is these things could only be discovered through embedded agents. We really need to think this over. Doubtless more info is forthcoming on the intelligence front, so I should hold my fire until then.
I am also despondent about the attention span, or lack thereof, in the US. We seem to have all but forgotten zUkraine. Remember, their civilians are being taken out knowingly by Putin. It was not the idea of the Russian people to go to war. It was just Putin’s egotistical desire to rule everything that had ever been zRussia. You can’t go back. Otherwise the Mongol Hordes could return to kick Putin out. Right? Perhaps that thinking is too far outside the box. I feel sorry for those being drafted into a war not of their own making. Putin is not a true elected leader. He decides the percentage by which he wishes to win, and that is what he gets (I should be referencing all sorts of people including Masha Gessen, Anne Applebaum, Bill Browder, David Remnick and dozens of other astute historians). We must stop Putin from pursuing his megalomaniacal plans. The Ukrainian people should be getting our support too, and at levels commensurate with Israel. The two-faced stance of most House Republicans on this issue is absolutely incredible, not to mention short-sighted. If Putin wins in Europe, guess who will support Israel’s enemies and win in the Middle East? Putin.
Thank you, Charlie. I have no answers, only thoughts and wishes.
Eliot Cohen nailed it. We are in a terrible place in the world. Trump, who says extraordinary often horrific things, may become President again. How could we get to such a place? One day he is friends with Netanyahu , the next he praises Hezbollah.
No group or individual who states that terrorism is justifiable should be tolerated in this world. People being what they are, I expect there will always be wars. But punishing people who have done nothing--that can never be right. I would like the Palestinian people to have medicine and water, I don’t want children in hospital to die. But then I can only begin to feel the anger and despair of the Israelis which causes a father to be glad his eight-year-old daughter is dead. He thinks if she were captured by Hamas her life would be so horrific it would not be worth living. Hearing him tore my soul. How can they not be in the extremes of anguish? How could the Israelis not want to crush those responsible? As for Hamas--the Israelis are welcome to them. They don’t deserve a second thought. But take the time to think about inflicting the same pain on a family who might really have wished to live anywhere in the world but Gaza and had no choice in the matter. Yes, Hamas is their government, but by popular vote? Should all the people be considered evil? I so badly wish there were an answer to this catastrophe. I would like Palestinian civilians or at least children to be given safe passage. But how do you determine if an adult might work for Hamas? In a situation worsened by intelligence failure this does not seem possible.
Remember when we left Afghanistan and were told that intelligence could be adequately accessed over the horizon? That in country intelligence work was not necessary? It didn’t work so well for Israel, and they have about the best intel capabilities in the world. Supposedly Hamas went dark. Without electronic signals it becomes tough to get information. They may have worked in small cells of people thus lowering the possibility of leaks and greatly increasing the chances that a leaker will be easily identified and killed. The technique has been tried by terrorists before. (Russia--19th century. Dostoevsky fictionalizes the story in his novel The Possessed. The point is these things could only be discovered through embedded agents. We really need to think this over. Doubtless more info is forthcoming on the intelligence front, so I should hold my fire until then.
I am also despondent about the attention span, or lack thereof, in the US. We seem to have all but forgotten zUkraine. Remember, their civilians are being taken out knowingly by Putin. It was not the idea of the Russian people to go to war. It was just Putin’s egotistical desire to rule everything that had ever been zRussia. You can’t go back. Otherwise the Mongol Hordes could return to kick Putin out. Right? Perhaps that thinking is too far outside the box. I feel sorry for those being drafted into a war not of their own making. Putin is not a true elected leader. He decides the percentage by which he wishes to win, and that is what he gets (I should be referencing all sorts of people including Masha Gessen, Anne Applebaum, Bill Browder, David Remnick and dozens of other astute historians). We must stop Putin from pursuing his megalomaniacal plans. The Ukrainian people should be getting our support too, and at levels commensurate with Israel. The two-faced stance of most House Republicans on this issue is absolutely incredible, not to mention short-sighted. If Putin wins in Europe, guess who will support Israel’s enemies and win in the Middle East? Putin.