Friday, July 9, 2010

Fadlallah Fallout

In true US fashion, a 20-year CNN veteran was fired for saying something nice about Fadlallah. Check out the Slate article on the subject.

Also h/t to Slate for this article by Foreign Policy: The Sheikh Who Got Away.

I told myself I wouldn't comment on this anymore, because it really ticks me off. The corollary to "if you criticize Israel you're an anti-Semite" is "if you compliment the wrong person you're a traitor." The Middle East is not a black and white subject. About the only thing that's black and white is Al-Qa'eda. They are bad. But as I've explained before, if the Shi'ites in Lebanon are being screwed over, and Hizbollah helps them (hospitals, security, etc.), then how can you expect the Shi'ites to join the US in condemning Hizbollah? If the Palestinians in Gaza are so ticked off at corruption in the Fatah Party that they elect Hamas because they're not corrupt, then how can the US condemn those democratic elections?

The Foreign Policy article I linked to above says:
The United States always preferred blunt instruments and simple epithets -- crude tools indeed for a complex man.
That's our problem with the entire Middle East.

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