A humanitarian crisis is brewing in Lebanon as Israel continues its indiscriminate bombardment, obviously meant to punish and subdue. Civilians are leaving Beirut with white flags of surrender, fashioned out of t-shirts, attached to their cars. Foreign nationals are being speedily removed, but what will become of Lebanese refugees?
In a speech this week, Hillary Clinton sanctioned this bombardment, saying:
I want us here in New York to imagine, if extremist terrorists were launching rocket attacks across the Mexican or Canadian border, would we stand by or would we defend America against these attacks from extremists?
This inane apples/oranges analogy completely disregards the decades of Arab/Israeli conflict that contextualizes this latest crisis, a context that would not apply to any hypothetical Canadian attack. The history of Mid East conflict demonstrates that no one is faultless and that all actions occur within a complex web of relations and an endless series of vendettas. Were terrorists to loom over the US at the Canada border and capture a couple of soldiers, I doubt that the US would respond by indiscriminately bombarding Canada. I suspect that the counter attacks would be much more targeted. The US has no history of conflict with Canada that would cause us to punish its citizens and such an action, anyway, would be absurd.
If Hillary, as future presidential candidate, is already pandering to the right- leaning middle and applying empty rhetoric, the Dems need to find another player.
