Enrich This, Punk!

The almighty United Nations Security Council has now threatened the Iranian regime with (gasp, monocle-shatter) … more discussions if it does not suspend uranium enrichment by August 31st. Yes, nuke-hungry Iranian theocrats, cower before the awesome prospect of further bickering between the world’s leading powers as to whether to do anything about you. Doesn’t the [...]

The Toll on Southern Beirut

My Lebanese friend reminds me about the staggering destruction parts of Beirut have been subjected to in the past few weeks. Though we at small-d have little patience for those who think the war against folks like Hezbollah is not worth fighting (though there is wide room for disagreement on tactics) one should not become [...]

Quote of the Day

“The liberal’s notion that reasoning in the spirit of affable compromise is the only truly human way of meeting one’s opponent overlooks the important part played by force and grace. And his unctuous notion that evil must not be seriously combated because the person who attempts to oppose it may ultimately have to use physical [...]

Political Science, Hezbollah Style

“I’m a political science student, and according to international law, as long as one inch of Arab land is occupied, as long as one Palestinian or Lebanese is in an Israeli jail, Hezbollah has the right to strike anywhere in Israel, even Tel Aviv.”
– Ahmad Sabri, 19 year old Saudi Arabian, articulates his recipe for [...]

More About that Bombing…

As I wrote a few days ago, there has been widespread outrage in certain precincts about the bombing of a UN observer outpost in Southern Lebanon by the Israeli Air Force. Kofi Annan immediately lashed out with the accusation that the targeting was intentional. Prime Minister Olmert rejected this charge but pledged a full and [...]

Strategic Crossroads

Some thoughts from Ze’ev Schiff, long one of the most astute military analysts on the Israeli scene. Schiff writes that after two weeks of fighting it is clear that Israel has still not achieved its strategic objectives. This dynamic has raised the unacceptable spectre that Israel is of strategic parity with Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah and what this [...]

What to Do?

Some interesting thoughts from a retired major general and former peacekeeper, a Canadian no less. He makes particularly intriguing comments about Israel’s supposedly disproportionate use of force, Hizbollah’s use of the bombed UN post as cover, and what an international intervention might look like. He also seems to actually know what he’s talking about (happy [...]

The Perils of “Proportionality”

There’s been much talk of Israel’s military operation against Hizbollah in Lebanon being “disproportionate.” I’m tempted not to take such criticisms seriously, and to suspect that those making them are flailing around desperately for some epithet to tag Israel with because Hizbollah’s brazen provocation and terrorism makes the standard blame-and-bash Israel line a little trickier [...]

The Perils of Proximity

Over at Harry’s Place, Gene has posted a very interesting photo that might shed some light on the UN bombing incident. This reinforces various things I have been hearing about the UN outposts and Hezbollah locations being extremely close together.
But we will wait and see what the investigation unearths.

Kings of Infinite Hate

I feel the need to voice one small objection to my colleague’s brilliant dissection of the world’s morally mediocre split-the-different-ists (below). (And sorry for all the piggy-backing, no pun intended. I hope to add something more substantive in due course). In critiquing Kofi Anna’s approach to the current Israel-Hizbollah conflagration, my partner in crime endorses [...]