<p>friggin idiots</p>
<p>this is nice too...victory eh?
<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Mideast_Conflict%5B/url%5D">http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Mideast_Conflict</a></p>
<p>Oh the irony of the 1st link.</p>
<p>I know...first of all it was the dutch, not the jews who printed the cartoon. Second of all, they just look like giant @$$'s for doing this contest. I actually thought that I read it wrong when I first saw it.</p>
<p>If that's not a recipe for disaster...</p>
<p>Ya and with the 2nd link about how they are bragging about how they won...wow that's a good way to provoke Israel (who obviously were the winners)</p>
<p>
It was the Danish, not the Dutch.</p>
<p>Crazy Arabs. Despite the fact that they make up well over 1/5 of the world's population and control the most important and valuable commodity on the planet, they still live in poverty wherever they are and blame everyone but themselves for their situation.</p>
<p>Well, actually, you have to hand it to the Iranians. The point I believe they're trying to make is to demonstrate how far Western Liberal countries will go to decry the lack of tolerence and the right to free speech when it comes to cartoons depicting Muhhamed, yet cry foul when there are cartoons mocking the Holocaust. To Muslims, depicting Muhhamed is one of the gravest sins you can committ (i.e. denying the Holocaust in the West). </p>
<p>Secondly, from a perception standpoint, Hezbollah did win. Their ability to wage war against Israel may certainly have been reduced, they took casualties, had much of Lebanon's infrastructure destroyed, but they also obtained a ceasefire with Israel rather then occupation and complete destruction and inflicted more casualties against Israel and it's troops then other organizations have been able to for the last 20 years. Which, when taken in context of previous Arab-Israeli conflicts IS victory. Hezbollah could never hope for a victory in the since of the word that say, Gulf War I was a victory, but they could hope to achieve exactly what they did: strategic stalemate, positive public perception and praise and support from much of the Arab world (even though they are a Shi'ite organization).</p>
<p>Of course, the test for Hezbollah will come not immeadiately, but "the day after the day after." That is when they must demonstrate an ability to produce results without violence (namely the reconstruction of Lebanon's economy and infrastructure which their war is responsible for). I am somewhat skeptical of this argument however, as I can very easily see the blame being shifted to Israel.</p>
<p>Finally, nodnard: Middle Eastern Arabs comprise only roughly 4.7% of the world's population. And Iranians are not Arab, they are Persian. Historical enemies of the Arabs. Do some homework.</p>
<p>^ finally someone who knows what they're talking about!! You have no idea how many discussions I have seen on here that make me want to pound my head against a very hard object.
Did you get that win/lost thing from NPR? they had a segment on that today, very intersting. And the "day after the day after " did you read that editorial in the Times entitled "the morning after the morning after"? </p>
<p>Still, I must say that there are no victories in the middle-east, only losers. and sadly, the biggest loser is the U.S and our foreign policy.</p>
<p>1/5th of the world's population? Arabs don't even make up 1/5 of the Muslim population, much less WORLD population.</p>
<p>Parents everywhere: Please kindly inform your kids the differences between Arab and Muslim, Persian and Arab and the and the differences between Islam's two largest sects Shi'a and Sunni. Thank you. This message has been approved by George Bush.</p>
<p>Actually, in retrospect, the biggets losers are the innocent civilians who must pick up the pieces after everything is said and done. The losers are the men, women and children who must plan funerals and somehow find their way back to normalcy. </p>
<p>I wonder if Hezbollah will become absorbed in mainstream Lebanese politics or pushed to the wayside in favor of more moderate thinking?</p>
<p>There's a quote in the article by a Lebanese resident asking why Israel was targeting them - meanwhile it also stated that there was a Hezbollah rocket launcher erected in the courtyard. Until Lebanon and its citizens take control of their own country, this conflict will continue.</p>
<p>^ yes, i agree with you but i also must ask you, how do you suppose the lebanese citizens would go about this task? in an environment where Anti-American/Israeli extremism is everywhere, how can anyone openly advocate for the disarming of Hezbollah without fear of reproach/death?</p>
<p>An unidentified Lebanese man once told a reporter (I can't remember if I saw this in the Times or heard it on NPR) that he wished both sides would stop the fighitng and come to an agreement, but he said if he ever expressed this he would be beaten and dragged through the streets. Nasrallah and Hezbollah are everywhere in Lebanon. In Lebanon, their side is the only side. How can you expect anyone to stand up against that?</p>
<p>its funny how people call Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. yes, both there actions are deplorable and condemable. no man blowing himself up can be seen as a good act;however, hamas is fighting a war. there is a difference between hamas and al-quida. al-quida kills americans and iraqi men,women and children in there evil attacks. hamas attacks israel and israel only. how come israel illegal settlments, and cruel checkpoints not considered part of terrorism. they terrorize the palestenian people. the other day, i saw a women cry because she gave birth to a newborn at a checkpoint, because the israeli's wont let them pass. how come thats not terrorism? how about when israeli's demolish your home to make way for thier homes. how about when israeli children are shot at after they threw rocks.
its clear israel has an agenda. remove all arabs from thier "promised lands" in any possible mean. they could have negotiated for the release of the prisoners from hezbollah but they didnt, they wanted war, and like dumb fat americans we allowed them. its funny how israel is ALWAYS ON THE DEFENSE. once they say defense, our minds shut off from thinking. this is a sham, i am ashamed at this president and his handel of lebanon. i actually believed in him before it. the only way to win the war on terror is by gaining the favor of moderate muslim arabs. or kill everyone. but now lebanon is not moderates anymore. we only angered the middle east. lebanon, egypt, and jordan were the only allies we had. way to go dummy bush. we just lost an allies. we just made syria a bigger threat and so with iran. congrats dip-****.</p>
<p>*correction dead newborn</p>
<p>^ And I bet you wouldn't ur views borderline extremist? Taking an extreme arab side is just like taking the Israel side to an extreme.</p>
<p>Doing the holocaust thing is idiotic. They are just thinking about themselves and how it makes them think that they are inacting change...when really they are attacking people who didn't do $h!t to them (we are talking about the Holocaust...before there was big bad Israel). They are attacking innocent bystanders and their point is tainted because of this. I understand wat the previous poster said about it...but most people won't think that deep and even if u do, it's still crossing a line. Shock value backfire</p>
<p>Figgy, a couple of points:</p>
<p>1) Iran's point, as infantile as it is, is that the World tolerates the complete disrespect of a religion that has over 1 billion believers but cannot tolerate the questioning of the holocaust. Of course, two wrongs do not make a right, but that's the way it goes.</p>
<p>2) Nobody won the last war Figgy. Obviously, Israel has destroyed Lebanon and managed to kill close to 1,000 innocent civilians, so they can claim victory over Lebanon. Therefore, if Israel's objective was to destroy Lebanon and murder civilians, they did in fact win. But I was under the impression that Israel's aim was to destroy Hezbollah. If that's the case, Israel did not win. In fact, Hezbollah lost fewer fighters than Israel and neither side surrendered. Genrally speaking, most military strategists and political observers agree that nobody won this last war, which in-of-itself is a victory for Hezbollah. Let us face it, Israel's miliary has a budget 100 times larger than Hezbollah, is armed entirely with the newest US weapons that cost hundreds of billions of dollars to develop and manufacture and despite all that, and outnumbers Hezbollah 10 to 1. Despite all that, they could not defeat Hezbollah. </p>
<p>Still, you would expect both sides to claim victory...when in reality, both sides were losers. What I find shameful is that the US president publically announced Israel as the winner and blamed Hezbollah entirely for this last war. As the leader of a supposedly neutral country, you would expect the US leader to be more even handed. But I hope you realize that nobody ever wins a war. War creates orphans, widows and widowers. It makes thousands of people homeless and plants the seeds for future wars. War only has losers.</p>
<p>Nodnard, there are 300 million Arabs in the World, which means 5% of the World's population, not 20% as you seem to think. Big difference between 1/20 and 1/5 you know? Of those, only 75 million are citizens of countries that actually have oil. The remaining 225 million Arabs come from countries that have no oil whatsoever. Egypt and Sudan alone have over 100 million people and not a drop of oil to show for it! Syria, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, Somalia and Oman also have no oil. Furthermore, oil doesn't make a country rich, if that country has no other source of income.</p>
<p>I guarantee you won't see Jews and Israelis burning down buildings, issuing threats, and stampeding like savages in response to these.</p>
<p>Like I said, it is infantile. This reaction, which is admitedly wrong on so many levels, is due to the disrespect the World has shown Muslims when those cartoons were published. I remember even as European and US governments responded by saying that they could not penalize the newspapers who printed them or appologize for the cartoons because it would infringe freedom of expression, a British historian was being tried, found guilty and ultimately incarcerated for writing a controversial version of the holocaust.</p>
<p>Alexandre: And that historian should be released immediately.</p>