No war but the class war
Israel : Ireland : War
OK, one cry I've heard over t'interweb has been: What choice did Israel have, it had its soldiers kidnapped, its towns recketted - Shirley, it has a duty to defend itself and its citizens.
This is, relatively, a strong argument - Hizbullah must stop or be stopped, and are viscious and dangerous bone-headed twats.
The problem lies with the face of a counter-example. For all its cruelties and visciousness, Britain during the northern Irish troubles never reacted in this way. the parrallels are instructive. The IRA ran it's attacks across the border, Amargh bandit country. Most of their weapons were in the republic. Carrying a bomb across a border is much the same as rocketting it over, after all.
Ireland had government ministers, like Charles Haughey who sympathised with the IRA's cause. Its courts dragged their feet over extradition to the UK - and the US still doesn't wan t IRA suspects there to be extradited to the UK (Of course, many in the US joined the Libyeans in supplying the IRA).
Yet Britain weathered the attacks, took the casualties, and despite the odd mistake, resolved the situation through collaboration with the Irish government, rather than by a total reinvasion of Ireland.
What stopped Israel orking with Lebanon, and trying to secure a long-term mutual peace? The Irish only gave up their claim with the six counties very late in the game, surely Israel could live with whatever formal political stance LLabanon took in favour of practical solutions on the ground to deal with hizbollah.
posted by Bill at 08:57
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