Ideology
With the events in Israel and Lebanon, along with last Friday's shooting, I've been neglecting the drug war for a bit here. However, I'm stepping away from the blog until next Tuesday, and I'm handing over the keys to Dominic Holden, a local activist and one of the founders of Seattle's annual Hempfest festival. He's still involved in some good projects around here in Seattle, as he gets to work on issues related to drug policy full time.
Before I go, I'd meant to post up some thoughts about Bill Clinton's speech last night, but I got caught up in a serious discussion with Das of Sunbreak City in the comments both here and at his place. The part of Clinton's remarks last night that really resonated with me was the distinction he made between a philosophy and an ideology. People who are driven by philosophy are rooted in facts, while those driven by ideology define their own facts. He mainly referred to economic matters with his speech, but much of how we interpret what's happening in the Levant reveals how we're rooted. As much as I want to believe that Israel is strategically defending itself, I'm becoming more and more convinced that they've become blinded by an ideology that believes that the existence of groups like Hizbullah is solely a function of radical Islam and that defeating it is simply a matter of killing those who refuse to denounce the radicalism. The reality is that Hizbullah is a political movement that owes its existence to political considerations and a widespread mistrust of Israeli intentions. The inability of Israeli policy-makers and the usual suspects from the Bush Administration to deal with these facts should be pretty alarming to anyone who wants to promote a lasting peace in this region.
The following is my final response to Das (edited somewhat from the original comment), who I want to thank for having a good discussion today.
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Isolated bands of terrorists do not become political movements by luck or random chance. They become political movements when they become viewed as protectors of a region. What Israelis are struggling to deal with right now is the fact that Israeli foreign policy mistakes have been the catalyst for these movements. Israelis have been able to successfully justify the policies they've implemented to themselves without regard for the lives of average Palestinians, but the growth of groups like Hizbullah and Hamas have happened because of it. Palestinians and others who've been harmed by Israeli actions now view Hizbullah (or Hamas) as a necessary bulwark against an uncaring Israeli war machine. But the Israelis and their sympathizers instead continue to blame Islam instead.
I obviously don't believe that this was the goal of Israeli policy. But bombing the entire country of Lebanon is only going to make Hizbullah stronger, no matter how many Iranian rocket launchers are destroyed and how many combatants are killed. The people who are left will just be even more inclined to sympathize with the extremist paranoia of Hizbullah and recognize that there needs to be a heavily armed counterweight to deter Israel.
It's right to call Hizbullah terrorists. They have had a long history of unjustified attacks on Israeli civilians. But it's a mistake to believe that it was realistic to expect the Lebanese government to be able to just go in there and disarm them. You may find it irrational that Hizbullah is paranoid about Israeli intentions, but that sentiment is shared by millions of others in that country. What Israel is doing now will just make that paranoia even stronger.
Hamas and Hizbullah will never be wiped out by any external force. They will only die when the paranoia that created its existence becomes obsolete. This takes years, maybe decades. The lesson that we all need to learn is the history of Hizbullah and Hamas making the transition into a political movement and to keep Al Qaeda from following the same trajectory on a much larger scale.
Before I go, I'd meant to post up some thoughts about Bill Clinton's speech last night, but I got caught up in a serious discussion with Das of Sunbreak City in the comments both here and at his place. The part of Clinton's remarks last night that really resonated with me was the distinction he made between a philosophy and an ideology. People who are driven by philosophy are rooted in facts, while those driven by ideology define their own facts. He mainly referred to economic matters with his speech, but much of how we interpret what's happening in the Levant reveals how we're rooted. As much as I want to believe that Israel is strategically defending itself, I'm becoming more and more convinced that they've become blinded by an ideology that believes that the existence of groups like Hizbullah is solely a function of radical Islam and that defeating it is simply a matter of killing those who refuse to denounce the radicalism. The reality is that Hizbullah is a political movement that owes its existence to political considerations and a widespread mistrust of Israeli intentions. The inability of Israeli policy-makers and the usual suspects from the Bush Administration to deal with these facts should be pretty alarming to anyone who wants to promote a lasting peace in this region.
The following is my final response to Das (edited somewhat from the original comment), who I want to thank for having a good discussion today.
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Israel wiping out Hezbollah is strengthening Hezbollah. How?Well, I never used that language. Israel is not wiping out Hizbullah. Israel can never wipe out Hizbullah. Neither can Iran, Syria, or Lebanon. Hizbullah represents a failure from years ago, when a small group of foreign sponsored terrorists were able to grow into a political movement in southern Lebanon. Hamas went through the same trajectory.
Isolated bands of terrorists do not become political movements by luck or random chance. They become political movements when they become viewed as protectors of a region. What Israelis are struggling to deal with right now is the fact that Israeli foreign policy mistakes have been the catalyst for these movements. Israelis have been able to successfully justify the policies they've implemented to themselves without regard for the lives of average Palestinians, but the growth of groups like Hizbullah and Hamas have happened because of it. Palestinians and others who've been harmed by Israeli actions now view Hizbullah (or Hamas) as a necessary bulwark against an uncaring Israeli war machine. But the Israelis and their sympathizers instead continue to blame Islam instead.
I obviously don't believe that this was the goal of Israeli policy. But bombing the entire country of Lebanon is only going to make Hizbullah stronger, no matter how many Iranian rocket launchers are destroyed and how many combatants are killed. The people who are left will just be even more inclined to sympathize with the extremist paranoia of Hizbullah and recognize that there needs to be a heavily armed counterweight to deter Israel.
It's right to call Hizbullah terrorists. They have had a long history of unjustified attacks on Israeli civilians. But it's a mistake to believe that it was realistic to expect the Lebanese government to be able to just go in there and disarm them. You may find it irrational that Hizbullah is paranoid about Israeli intentions, but that sentiment is shared by millions of others in that country. What Israel is doing now will just make that paranoia even stronger.
Hamas and Hizbullah will never be wiped out by any external force. They will only die when the paranoia that created its existence becomes obsolete. This takes years, maybe decades. The lesson that we all need to learn is the history of Hizbullah and Hamas making the transition into a political movement and to keep Al Qaeda from following the same trajectory on a much larger scale.
posted by thehim at 11:41 PM
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