barriomulas.com - Hezbollah and U.S. Foreign Policy

Hezbollah is a political and resistance movement in Lebanon. It is a formal political party and maintains an armed wing of the organization meant on opposing foreign colonialism and Jewish occupation. The organization receives its operating funds from donations and from the Iranian government (the U.S. too pumps millions of dollars into Lebanese politics and military (USAID, Washington Post). The group is quite popular as 87% of Lebanese support Hezbollah's fight with Israel. Hezbollah maintains a television channel, a radio station, a telecommunications network, and a large number of social programs in a country where welfare is almost non-existent.

In recent years Hezbollah had belonged to a parliamentary coalition which wielded 45% of the seats. The coalition had requested a national unity government and requested a little more than 1/3 of the cabinet posts (a demand I don't think is far fetched). The request was denied by the American University-educated, former Citibank-employed President (Washington Post). This has caused during recent years a deadlock tension in Lebanese politics.

The recent unrest comes from the government's attempting to close down Hezbollah's telecommunication network. The organization took this as a declaration of war and violence between both sides ensued. The Lebanese army finally agreed to withdrawal the government's shutdown of the network (Reuters) and Hezbollah agreed to formally back down (AP). Despite the truce by official players, civilian supporters of both sides continued fighting.

It's during such a sensitive moment that "The US is prepared to help strengthen Lebanon's army so it can disarm Hezbollah" as President Bush said in an interview with the BBC. According to Bush, Hezbollah "acted against its own people". I think he is failing to see how much of a part of everyday political and cultural life Hezbollah represents to its population. Whether or not you agree with them, they are a force to recon with. I am simply dumbfounded at how stupids American foreign policy is. Really. I can't think of any other word to sum it up.

I have been quite reserved on the issue in previous years but I must say that American policy makers are truly stupid. In 2006 64% of Americans still thought that Saddam had connections with Al Qaeda (New York Times). Hillary said on the Senate Floor that "He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members" (Official Senate Page). 33% of Americans in 2007 thought that Iraq carried out 9/11 (CBS). John McCain recently expressed that he "was concerned that Iran was training members of Al Qaeda in Iraq" (New York Times) Fucking Christ, these people voted to go to war in a region where they are obvious to the fact that Al Qaeda, Saddam, and Iran are mortal enemies. 74% of Iranians view Osaba Bin Laden negatively and 53% consider Al Qaeda a threat (World Public Opinion) and Saddam went to war with Iran for almost a decade. Ironically, both sides of the war received funding from the U.S. Government.

Shame on Americans for electing people of such caliber, and most of all for being so oblivious towards these things. I don't expect every citizen to be an expert on every hot spot in the world but if you are to elect politicians who invade countries, pay taxes to fund a foreign war, and watch family members fly off to battle the least you can do is fuckin' Wikipedia the country. Though 76% of Americans supported the War in Iraq during March 2003 (AP) 87% of young adults can't locate Iraq on a world map (CNN). 63% couldn't locate it on a map of the Middle East (National Geographic News).