Opportunity will knock you out
Published by Sabotabby October 17th, 2007 in Bush is a cock, Imperialism for Dummies, WarWatch out, Palestinians and Israelis! Condoleezza Rice has seen another moment of opportunity:
Rice cautioned the going would be tough as she wrapped up four days of intense shuttle diplomacy during which she met twice with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to bridge wide gaps over a declaration the conference is to endorse.
“I do think it is moment of opportunity, but there is very hard work ahead,” Rice told reporters at a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who’s leading the Israeli negotiating team.
The last time Rice saw a moment of opportunity for the Palestinians was in regards to the death of Arafat and subsequent elections in 2005. We all know how that worked out.
Just last July, Prime Minister Poodle saw a moment of opportunity.
“I think there is a sense of possibility at the moment. I think this is a moment of opportunity,” Blair said in Ramallah after meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
After earlier talks in Jerusalem with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Blair said translating those possibilities “into something” would require work and thought “over time”.
Moments of opportunity take two things: Lots of work, and lots of time. Apparently, the Israelis and Palestinians just haven’t worked hard enough or been patient enough to see their moments of opportunity through to completion. It has nothing to do with the history of Western interference and imperialist designs in the region.
Of course, there are moments of opportunity all over the Middle East. Bush saw one when Israel bombed the crap out of Lebanon in July 2006. His administration saw one for Iraq in February 2006, just a few days after the bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites. As we all know, the Iraqis took full advantage of this moment of opportunity. There was another one in May of that year, with the *ahem* election of the current puppet government.
I guess the moral of this story is that if you live in the Middle East and a neocon mentions that he or she sees a moment of opportunity, stock up on bottled water and make a run for the nearest bomb shelter. Opportunity leaves a lot of corpses in its wake.
Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that tyhere’s something natural and inevitable about violence in the Middle East.
The violence is happening for specific reasons, and if conditions actually do change, the violence will end.
And let’s not also forget that we here in the good ol’ USA are not immune from things like assassination, death squads or suicide bombings. If conditions change, it could happen here.
“hard work ahead”. Hard work. Yeah.
I have a feeling an “opportunity” means more violence and more settlers.
Seriously, you actually are attempting to compare what happens in the US with what happens in the Middle East?
“Seriously, you actually are attempting to compare what happens in the US with what happens in the Middle East?”
You are SO right “J.”. I mean, it’s not like they’re really PEOPLE or anything. Sure they sorta look like regular people (except for those towels on their heads, amirite?), but appearances are deceiving, especially when dealing with brown people… [/snark]
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So “J.”, you got all pissy on the “Probloganda” thread - where’s your deep insight now? Do you have anything useful to say, or are you just trolling another thread?…
Well, “MikeEss,” here’s the useful thing I’m trying to say: comparing what happens in the Middle East on a regular basis to what happens in the United States on a regular basis is ridiculous.
Don’t get me wrong, the United States is no Utopia. We have lots of problems, but here’s the great thing– we actually debate the issues and attempt to form consensus. We don’t have repressive regimes that mandate a state religion, subjugate women, and makes homosexuality a crime punishable by death. I would have thought that a true liberal would speak out on such things.
But, instead, it simply becomes an attack on how stupid Bush is, how he stole the election, how Cheney wants to kill everyone, and how anything any Republican/conservative says is silly/evil/callous.
I get really tired of this name-calling from both sides of the political chamber, and I would love to hear a more constructive dialogue from everyone. Posts like this only serve to perpetuate this childish “I’ll show them” mentality.
If you disagree with the current approach, great. What exactly is wrong with it? How would you improve it? What is valid/not valid about the assumptions being made by the current administration, in your opinion? These sarcastic attacks on our current government leaders don’t really accomplish anything.
And, by the way, I am a “brown” person myself (although I don’t actually use that term), as well as a Christian. And, as such, I don’t consider anyone in the Middle East any less of a person than anyone from a Western European background… just like I would hope people wouldn’t consider me any less of a person because I happen to claim Latin American ancestry.
But again, you simply are resorting to your default tactics to impugn my character without knowing anything about me.
Let’s raise the level of debate both on this blog and nationally by debating actual ideas instead of merely trading insults.
-J.