PLEASE use this. It's important people know why 600 Lebanese have died. More will. Consider this.
Bush refers to the wider region. He doesn't mean the Middle East, but the Caucasus -- the area between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.
Draw a line from Lankaran, Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean coast south of Beirut. Then read The Next Oil Frontier in BusinessWeek online. Chevron was first, the company that named a ship after Condoleeza Rice, then a Director.

What's REALLY going on?

i cannot justify any loss of life in anyway, but at least there's a reason to any madness (well, most of 'em anyways)
The building in question was a derelict 4 storey building. the israeli air force had spent time and effort with announcements, telling all civilians to flee southern lebanon and leave the hezbollah alone. you'd think, just like they did that people would evacuate. unfortunately, several families did not leave, o their own free will. hence the carnage.
the israeli airforce released a video showing hezbollah millitants firing rockets into israel from residential areas. naturally, such sites would be targeted for bombing. the onus now is for the civillians in the area to escape far away from such sites before the hammer falls.
Sky News did a story recently on wave of child casualties during such incidents. Usually, kids from 7-16 flock around the fighters even during the fighting. it's normal childish bravado. unfortunatley it has gotten lots of them killed before.
It's not an easy pill to swallow, but we play Hezbollah's game when we shift all the blame to israel.
Ultimately, the people who brought grief to lebanon in july 2006 weren't jews. They were the Hizbollah terrorists. Pure and simple.
BTW, the day Qana happened, hezbollah rained down over 100 missiles at israel. the katyushas have only a small warhead, imagine if they had 500kg warheads. U know the carnage they would have cheerfully caused?

Let's stop deceiving ourselves. these Hezbollah don't care much about their own people. they just want the slaughter to ontinue unabated.

BTW, i can't recall ever hearing the lebanese president condemning Hizbollah,

Finally, all terrorist groups need/want is public opinion in their favour as they continue their campaign of bloodbath and terror. I hope y'all heard what Al Qaeda said. not content with the 'freedom' of the midle east, their new aim now is the reclamation of all muslim lands from iraq to SPAIN. i hope the spanish people heard that. I wonder where Nigeria fits in all that.

Are you Zionist or are you one of those rare Nigerians that has swallowed the ZIonist tag line hook line and sinker as well as fish and boat? DO you know anything about the history of the region, or understand human psychology? All your rants suggest that you have a huge racial bias that hezbollah and hamas and other groups are crazed islamists hellbent on killing their own people and all jews and its in their nature. If you cannot see fault on both sides, if you cannot see why a country like Israel is constantly and will be constantly "under seige" as you put it you are an idiot. I am not a Zionist or Hezbollah sympathizer, I do not side with extremists, but I can understand why both sides take that position. The Zionist movement is as evil in its essence as the Jihadists extremists movement that want to create Islamists nations out of the whole world. They are all a small population of their respective populaces, the difference being the Zionist have almost unlimited power in comparison. It is the same extremist racist bigot crazy thought that fuels suicide bombers as well as Israeli Air Force bombers to bomb whole villages because a hezbolla fighter fired a rocket from that village twenty minutes ago.

So please, readup on the region and the history of the region and understand the motivation for both sides before spewing your bigoted, baseless GARBAGE. Do not even get me started on how the Jews of Israel are not even the Jews of biblical times and are Ashkenazi jews, of East European descent converted to Judaism during the Byzantine empire in the 10th century and who now comprise of 90% of modern day Israel. They where not direct descendants of their middle easter counterparts. So even the religious and descendant based claims that forms the foundations of the claim of Israeli land in the religion is mostly baseless and a fraud. But what is done is done and we have to move forward in resolving conflict in the region.

And if you are Nigerian and/or African I am extremely appaled and ashamed we have people like you, you are the type of person that would probably have been a house boy as they called it in colonial times or a house negro in slave times. Creating an Apartheid nation and then wondering why the surrounding area attacks you and calling them terrorists is stupidity at its finest. I suppose the IRA where crazed lunatics? Or the blacks who revolted against slavery where bloodthirsty terrorists. Readup on how the state of Israel was created after the British mandate, it was founded by terrorists tactics. You cannot isolate a conflict or situation and start appropriating blame without context. Readup on some history dumbass.

spoken like someone who hasn't had a suicide bomb balst in his neighbourhood in recent times. FYI, these security checks were put in place to check suicide attacks and other terrorist incidents. How u can even question the necessity behind suh an action escapes me. why do u think Bin Laden hasn't been able to attack israel? why did he go all the ay o the US and psain to carry out attacks?

If u were an american, and u knew that in 1981 Hezbollah blew up a us base, killing 241 Us marines in one fell swoop, would u not encourage someone in stamping them out?

spoken like a true right winger. Yeah I would want them stamped out. The question is how. You would say if Hezbollah then went to Nigeria to seek refuge the US would be justified in dropping a nuke or bombarding Nigeria to the ground since Hezbollah was among us. Right? lay waste to all the country and infastructure and villages since the group lives within there. Ever bother to ask why Hezbollah blew up the US base, find out what is driving people to Hezbollah and fueling them, you really think it is an unconditional, inbred hatred of the US and its freedoms. Are you that stupid? I am not disputing what the security checkpoints are for, I am disputing how that action, along with others I mentioned including also building a 25+ foot wall fuels the people against them. It is not and will not never solve the problem.

its just self preservation. when u r surrounded on all sides by enemies who want ur head on a plate u would understand d rationale behind trying to create barriers. Hezbollah is being funded by iran and syria. if an end to dis violence is to be achieved,d international community has to put d squeeze on dese two nations.

Self preservation, self defence etc certainly are no excuses for the massacre of innocent men, women and children by Israel.

Someone wrote about 911, what was the outcome, illegal invasion of Iraq with more than 100 times the number of deaths on 911 and yet more are still dying everyday based on the lies of a few people.

I asked someone if he was against OBJ's action in Odi and he said yes and I asked him to tell me the difference between his actions and that of Israel and he started stammering.

The killing of any innocent person is wrong regardless of who is doing the killing.

Unfortunately, some of us understand the word terrorist to mean arabs or muslims because the West wants us to when in reality many non arabs or non muslims are doing the same thing, only they are now refered to as freedom fighters and not terrorists.

Real shame the world is full of blatant liars.

@TayoD

I thnk you better get all your facts right before asking me any question. Before you ask me why did the terrorists (pictured to us on CNN) blew up the World Trade center, ask yourself with all their technology, how 3 planes took off from American airports, left their flight routes and hit 3 American targets? Ask yourself why is it that of all the countries in the world, America is always or as they claim having enemies? Ask yourself if they are fighting for peace and against terror, why havent they dealt with the IRA, the Basque Movement, The Tamil Tigers, the rebels raping, maming and killing people daily in Congo? Ask yourself why 3000 jews that worked in the trade center, were never there on the day of 911?

The main fact is America operates the kill and divide rule, if you know what that means. As far as I am concerned, The greatest land on earth rich with resources is Africa and the greatest land on earth rich with oil is the Middle East, but thee 2 areas will never see peace. Problems are always created on the underground so as to maintain a division, thereby not allowing the people to stand with one voice so as not to control their resources, this giving chance for your so called 1st World countries to become rich of the resources wile we sit and mope with amazement at ther technology.

Have you ever asked yourself why does so many people hate America? Why don't they hate France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Philipines, Nigeria, South Africa, I can go on and on? Why don't you ask yourself what gives one man the right to make WMD and not another? And we are all here watching the anihalation of a whole nation because of 2 soldiers, common be real? Are you telling me the losses havent exceeded 2 soldiers or are those their so called Messiahs, considering they don't believe in our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

God told them in the Bible that they shall never see peace and shall ever see their Promised Land. What they are fighting for, only they know and one day it shall come to be judged. Wake up from your sleep and stop allowing another man steal from you to become greater than you while you are there singing him songs of praise.

You may have your opinions, but basically these are mine and anyone who follow the trends of things, will know it is so, but one day it shall come to change just as the Romans, the Greeks, the British, even Germany once conquered and fell.

Well stated Medube.

Some don't even understand what the US is up to and yet they are the type that will be ready to die for the US.

It's all about politics and interests.

Someone wrote to me talking about the US wanting to take control of all the major trade routes in the world by causing problems in Afghanistan, Iraq, now Lebanon, with the ultimate aim of going to war with China.

911, world trade centre, any links? And today the world is watching Israel kill innocent ones and even when the international community is calling for a cease fire, Israel has said no simply because the US is ok with the killing.

The rantings of Medube are so imbeccilic that they are not worthy of a a response.

As far as the conflict btw Isreal and Hezbollah is concerned,Isreal had no option but tot respond to the threats posed to it by Hezbollah.Lets not forget,Hezbollah is an Islamic fundamentallist organisation committed to the eradication of infidels from muslim land.This is not a case of land dispute,since as the UN noted ,Isreal had withdrawn from alll of Lebanese land.Hezbollah continued to acquire weapons and fire rockets into Israel despite this.

All this would have been prevented if Security Council Resolutions were implemented to disarm Hesbollah  and allow the Lebanese Army to take care of secrity in South Lebanon.There should no room in the modern world for a foreign sponsored private militia to run riot.Can u imagine if in Nigeria there existed a well armed religious militia sponsored by foreign govts which took it it upon itself to wage war on our nieghbors for one reason or the other.

The State alone should have the sole possesion of means of coercion.Ther should be no room fro private militia answerable to no one.We won't want it in Nigeria,neither should we want it in Nigeria

4 Play:

The rantings of Medube are so imbeccilic that they are not worthy of a a response.

Interesting reply. Easy for you to say and I expected nothing more considering you have turned yourself into a slave and second hand citizen in another man's country and blabbering away.

My dad always said, know your facts well before opening your mouth, and hence I advise you the same.

Are they no kidnappings going on in our Naija (Niger Delta) to be precise? When did you see our government send in the troops and airforce to wipe out the whole villages or communities because of these kidnaps? They dont because it is not democratic or civilised in our modern age. Now you tell me sitting down in UK and supporting the US and co? Followng all reasons that were put forward regarding Iraq, which have you seen to be true? Is it the discovery of WMDs or is it the link with Saddam and the 911 bombing? The fact is there isnt and the main reason for the invasion of Iraq was solely because of oil wealth same as Afgahnistan which happened after the 911 bombin which only took place after a large oil cache was found in the Caspian sea, how coincidental

My friend, I dont not blame your ignorance rather I pray for people like you to wake up and join everyone else in standing up against this domination and opression which we face due to our own faults. If your America is so strong and so sure, why not invade North Korea which is directly threatening the US in the face? Why all of a sudden is Mr. Bush interested in allowing the UN which he condemned b4 entering Iraq to take due course on the North Korea Issue? Why all of a sudden is Mr. Bush so interested in dialogue with North Korea, something which he did not believe was needed with Iraq? Why, I will tell you, because firstly North Korea doesnt have oil to repay back and second North Korea mean all they say and Mr. Bush doesnt want his ass smoked

Look at this and tell me this is the way to fight terrorism.

And this proves that you and your America, Israel and the UK are right and the rest of us with the whole world are very wrong, abi?

@medube
First of all u suggest that the Nigerian Govt is restrained in its response to challenges to it.Obviously u don't know about Odi where over 1000 civillians died within 24 hrs of fighting.That's twice the amount the more powerful Isrealis have managed to kill in 2weeks of fighting.

The US is not always in the right but they do make efforts to dothre right thing.It is because of the US that we Blacks are still alive.If Nazi Germany had won the War,could i imagine what they would have done to Black people.

Lets not kid ourselves either in thinking our colonial masters gave us independence because of our effforts.It was the Truman adminstration that compelled the European colonial masters as part of the Marshall Plan to free the colonial territries.

In the case of Korea,do u ask yourself why the South which the Americans occupied turned out to be a prosperous democracy with economic giants like Samsung,LG,Daewoo,whereas the North occupied by the Soviet Union turned out to be a famine riden dictatorship where a million people have died from starvation and people live on food aid some of it from the US

It is true that the US has not always been on the good side of history but so has no other country.The fact of the matter is that a country which is responsible for one-third of World economic growth,80 percent of food aid,a humanitrian prgram that has helped save the lives of a milllion Africans through the funding of retrovirals desserves more praise than criticsm.

why don't other countries get the level of criticsm that the US get?because its the only superpower.Do u have any idea  how  Nigeria and Nigerians are seen around the world?Like a nation of crooks and anarchy.The fact that people are prejudiced against a nation does not initself justify the prejudice.When China becomes the only superpower it too will become the object of scorn and ridicule as is alread the case in South East aSIA.

Finally,why are we even focused about the conflict in the Middle East,are we Arabs?.In Darfur,200 thousand have died in a war launched by an Arab Govt against African Muslims yet we say nothing.U can be reat assured that in Arab chatrooms,nobody is discussing about the sufferings of Afriacans in Sudan,it is only the African that will be traumatised about the suffering s of other people while totally ignoring their own problems.Is it not interesting that in Nairaland there is no topic discussing the wars in Africa,only wars outside Africa,we follow only the onflicts that the international media chooses to show us and totallly ignire our own suffering,by the wy which country has sent the most food aid to SouthSudan where a million peopole died and Darfur,u guessed it the United States

4 Play,

Excuse my language but you seem to be suffering from complete ignorance, inferiority complex and believe me, half knowledge they say is very dangerous.

The statement above is based on the following statement made by a human being in this age and time.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The US is not always in the right but they do make efforts to dothre right thing.It is because of the US that we Blacks are still alive.If Nazi Germany had won the War,could i imagine what they would have done to Black people.

Lets not kid ourselves either in thinking our colonial masters gave us independence because of our effforts.It was the Truman adminstration that compelled the European colonial masters as part of the Marshall Plan to free the colonial territries.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Try to learn more on the Marshal Plan and see why it worked in rebuilding Europe but never implemented or never allowed to work in rebuilding Africa.

Please, stop displaying this level of ignorance as you are ridiculing Nigerians, abeg unless you are not a Nigerian.

All this bickering is irrelevant. Bye Bye Hezbolla. Good Riddance.

mariory my sentiments exactly. a militant group dat hides behind d skirts of housewives n children deserves to be wiped out , period. as unfortunate as it may seem in terms of civilian casualty d fact still remains dat hezbollah is a major threat to middle east stability.

The US is not always in the right but they do make efforts to dothre right thing.It is because of the US that we Blacks are still alive.If Nazi Germany had won the War,could i imagine what they would have done to Black people.

@ 4 play,
They used to the right thing before, not anymore. its not b/c of the US that Blacks are still alive (you have forgotten about slavery abi).

nilla:

@ 4 play,
They used to the right thing before, not anymore. its not b/c of the US that Blacks are still alive (you have forgotten about slavery abi).

Forget about @4play, I think hes talking out of his a***. Anyways, my opinion is simple, fair enough and well agreed hezbollah need to be dealt with, but why kill innocent. Why blow up the lebanese int airport? Why damage all constructed roads, bridges, infrastructures, etc, ? I wonder if it were the other way round, that Israel went in and kidnapped 2 hezbollah soldiers, would the world have sat down and watch hezbollah do to israel what we are seeing?

no

@ medube

i enjoyed and concur with your last 5 posts

toshmann:

no

Thank you, thats the point.

nilla:

@ medube

i enjoyed and concur with your last 5 posts

Thank you. Im only expressing my views given the fact we have and we see.

If anyone is watching Tony Blair live, you would have enjoyed a question thrown to him from a reporter:

"Is the United Nation only good for making meaningless resolutions?"

Like Wole Soyinka once said, 5 nations decide what happen in the world today made up of over 200 countries and yet we call it a United Nations

medube
i can see u have been deceived. this is a grafted computer work
if i might ask u, btw isreal and lebanon who fires rocket.
is it becos isreal does not dispay or buy in the act of show biz that the arabs are used to?
look at the pix u posted u could see without any enhancement that the words written on it were in arabic and not hebrew maybe u have made up ur mindnot to understand the tricks involve in the middle east war.

if hezbollah willconitnue to use civilians as human sheild so be it. if i might ask has hezbollah ever said they r sorry for the sucide bombings for the rockets that hit civilians isreal or u want to tell me those ones r not civilians they r jews?
probably jews are not civilians ? but u hear the isrealli govt saying sorry for every civilian death even if we know the civilians in lebanon see it as an act of matyrdom

please dont fall for this arab mind games

i think the issue is that due to wetsern media propaganda, the world seems not to value human life if the human life is not of the favored countries. that is why when 2 israeli soldiers die, or 2 british soldiers, or 2 US marines it is front page news and when iraqis die, of afghans, or lebanese or palestinians, it is statistics.


i feel like crying each time i watch the horror in lebanon. not that i support hezbolla, but i think israel should do better.

kaecy5:

medube
i can see u have been deceived. this is a grafted computer work
if i might ask u, between isreal and lebanon who fires rocket.
is it because isreal does not dispay or buy in the act of show biz that the arabs are used to?
look at the pix u posted u could see without any enhancement that the words written on it were in arabic and not hebrew maybe u have made up your mindnot to understand the tricks involve in the middle east war.

Is it that you are dumb or what? The missiles are going to Lebanon, what did you expect them to write in Chinese or Igbo? Were the flyers thrown into beirut and other suburbs asking them to deny hezbollah and move out in Hebrew? And for your information, if you dont already know, you do have Arabic Israelis especially those by the border with Lebanon and Syria, so go learn.

@kaecy,

what do u min by arab mind games? those kids whose lil lives were bombed out prematuredly? no brother.

hezbolla is a terrorist organisation. no doubt they started all this,but israel should know that there are people who are suffering for what does not concern them. may be u are being biased as a christain. lebanon has a large christain population. hope u know? may be they have more christains than israel. anyway, that's not the issue, israel should be more careful, after all God also created those lebanese

toshmann:

i think the issue is that due to wetsern media propaganda, the world seems not to value human life if the human life is not of the favored countries. that is why when 2 israeli soldiers die, or 2 british soldiers, or 2 US marines it is front page news and when iraqis die, of afghans, or lebanese or palestinians, it is statistics.

Thank you for a very interesting point, that Ive been trying to make since. Another Tsunami hit Indonesia just about at the start of this war which has taken well over 1000 lives, but are you seeing it in the news as much as the last which took a few tourists? Are you seeing it as much as we were seeing, the hurricanes in the US? NO becos we are THIRD WORLD, how sad

@ kaecy
SInce u clear sighted enuf to see that the letters written on the motars were arabic,i guess u will be able to see that there is no point in tryin to kill hezbollah for the past 18days and 90% of the people killed are inocent civilians.Contrary to that,65% of people that hexbollah killed are actually isreali combatants.
@ All isreali supporters
Where did ur human side and rationale crawl into.Why are u all buyin this American/isreali propaganda?Hezbollah is not religiously inclined my dear people.They are there because isreal still holds lebanese prisoners and isreal refused to vacate some piece of land that belongs to lebanon.How about isreal give back what rightfully belongs to lebanon and then wait and see if hezbollah will attack it?Why is their"isrealis" godfather"US" not telling isreal to do the right thing.Th ewhole world cant be wrong and only isreal and the US are right.

medube well i can see ur really passionate about it, but should i ask u wat do u want the jews to do ? fold their arms and watch hezbollah kill them? mind u jews are not christians that would turn the other cheek.
u tell me ur solution wat do u expect the jews to do. meanwhile like i said earlier the arabs are good are showbiz
and they see death from an isreali as matyrdoom. the funny part is they have groomed their children with these propanganda that the chidren hate jews from scratch. if u doubt u can go here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nadFX6T9N4s&mode=related&search=muslim and here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr9mH-hPjwU&search=muslim

and i wonder why it really hurts u anyway cos these guys have started fighting each other right from the begining even b4 goliath time so why is this fight different
an averag nigerian knows wat to do to stay alive we have beendoing that for years. so dont compare us with these folks jews or arabs alike

the basic question i ask u is simple wat if u and really wat ur a isrealite with so much enemies around u and u keep getting sucide bombers and rockets hauled at u wat will ur reponse be. and if u dont know inur pix those are katushers not f-14 missiles
take care

Nope man.Those are tank shells not katyushas.Get u facts straight man.And all u need do if u r surrounded by hate is for u not to do things that wld justify aggression towards u.U cant fight hate with agression.U will loose out in the long-run.

niterider:

SInce u clear sighted enough to see that the letters written on the motars were arabic,i guess u will be able to see that there is no point in tryin to kill hezbollah for the past 18days and 90% of the people killed are inocent civilians.Contrary to that,65% of people that hexbollah killed are actually isreali combatants.

dont be deceive hezbollah is not a military operation but a people oriented operations
inthe morning they r millitants according to US
in the nite they r civilians according to arabs
and when they die they die as civilians not militant or military men
tell me has hezbollah told u the number of militants dead? nope . but they tell u how many isrealli soldiers dead.
then they tell u how many civilians dead.
on a general note hezbollahs' are civilians carryin millitary operations, u can call them freedom fighters u can call them peace makers but if u dont have the guts to suffer the consequences of carrying a gun why carry it in the first place

kaecy5:

medube well i can see your really passionate about it, but should i ask u what do u want the jews to do ? fold their arms and watch hezbollah kill them? mind u jews are not christians that would turn the other cheek.
u tell me your solution what do u expect the jews to do. meanwhile like i said earlier the arabs are good are showbiz
and they see death from an isreali as matyrdoom. the funny part is they have groomed their children with these propanganda that the chidren hate jews from scratch. if u doubt u can go here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nadFX6T9N4s&mode=related&search=muslim and here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr9mH-hPjwU&search=muslim

and i wonder why it really hurts u anyway because these guys have started fighting each other right from the begining even before goliath time so why is this fight different
an averag nigerian knows what to do to stay alive we have beendoing that for years. so don't compare us with these folks jews or arabs alike

the basic question i ask u is simple what if u and really what your a isrealite with so much enemies around u and u keep getting sucide bombers and rockets hauled at u what will your reponse be. and if u don't know inur pix those are katushers not f-14 missiles
take care

My point is when something is done wrong, admit it. You say Hezbollah is fighting Israel right? Who is Israel fighting?

@Medube,

First, i think you really need to watch your lnguage.  If others respond to you the way you have responded, then we might have another conflagration here on nairaland.  You can make your points withouth throwing sly invectives.  I know you are passionate about your convictions, but so do others and you have no way of convincing us that it is your view that is superior.

Is it the job of the western nations to care for us in the 3rd world?  Of course, they will report what happens to them and has more direct bearing on their welfare than for others.  We are here killing our own like the recent slaying of Engineer Funsho Williams, and will we expect the U.S to come fish out the killers for us?  They do as much as they can, and while they may not be saints, we are in no way better than they are.  At least they care for their own people which is more than I can say of ourselves.

No one encourages or supports the killing of the innocent or even the guilty for that matter, but to every action there is a reaction.  For Lebanon to allow Hezbollah to take such root in their midst and allowed to operate freely, they are bound to suffer the consequences.  We see pictures of the Lebanese dead on the pages of the newpapers, what about the Isreali dead?  Are those corpses less valuable because they didn't make it to the front page of Al Jazeerah or other Arab newspapers and TV networks?  Why don't they show the damage caused in Isreal as well.

Hezbollah has sown the wind, and it is only fair that they reap the whirlwind.  I have absolutely no sympathy for Hezbollah, but I do feel for the innocent Lebanese, Christain or Muslim does not matter.  Hezbolah started this on their own terms, and it is only fair that Isreal ends it in their own terms.