Trouble, strife and all things (NOT) nice.

I was just reading up about the Israel vs Hezbollah (plus Iran, Tehran and every other –ran) – and yes I know that in some places it is spelt Hezballah/Hizbollah/Hizbollah. But in Newsweek its spelt Hezbollah. Anyway, so I was catching up on all the news online today coz the local paper doesn’t cover much ground on this issue as it is too busy talking about the (multitude of) problems in India itself to care much about overseas problems. Unless, of course, they are very major. [btw, if I hurt the sentiments of any random Indian person who just happens to come across my blog on the www, I should have been more specific – I meant the newspaper which used to come to my house, I think it’s the Times of India, until my mother decided economic times is much better and started subscribing only to that. That was a couple of days ago.] So compounded with the fact that my internet hasn’t been working for the last 2 days or sth, this meant that I couldn’t access news at all, except through my dad coz he goes to work and they have internet there – DUH. Ok I realize I have rambled.

Yeah. So I was reading and it struck me that if the US of A, lead by that oh-so-great George W. Bush, hadn’t taken to violently invading Iraq a couple of years ago, or if it starts to stop blindly supporting Israel, we wouldn’t be having such an escalated problem. Talking about USA’s invasion of Iraq, it was completely uncalled for. [I know everyone knows this, but since I think it’s a pertinent perpetrator of the current problem in Israel/Iran, I have to include this as well.]

The UN didn’t even sanction this action by USA, and George Bush, conveniently decided that he was correct in his stand, even though practically no other member country of the UN Security Council sided with him, and went ahead with the invasion. The fact that he is the president of the country which provides the largest percentage of the UN’s funds and that without this substantial amount of funds provided by USA, the UN would not be even half as effective as it is now (its not exactly THAT effective now even), was not lost on the world as well as Bush himself. So, he calmly, coolly and confidently went on to invade Iraq.

And when he did so, apart from all the other more obvious adverse effects that we hear about – such as terrible behaviour on the part of the US troops in Iraq, and governmental crisis in Iraq etc. – there was another negative effect. Or so I believe. USA unwittingly showed other countries that violence is an option for the settlement of an international disagreement. The world saw that the USA violated Iraq ruthlessly, killing thousands of innocent civilians (notice I am not even mentioning Saddaam Hussein – his capture was like one small benefit that resulted from this war) and got away with it completely scot-free. Of course, now the USA is realizing, or they have already realized, that maybe, taking over a whole other country which is so different in ideology from their own country, is no mean-feat. They now know not to, so easily, do the same thing all over again with another country because they have realized that if they do so, the whole aftermath, along with any unforeseen circumstances (guerilla warfare etc.) have to be handled by them. And that no other country, maybe with the exception of UK (due to that monkey, Tony Blair) in the case of USA, is going to help them. Or have anything to do with them.

USA basically sanctioned this method of settling international, cross-border disagreements – they have showed the whole world that violence is something that a country can commit against another country, and get away with it. And in my opinion, that is exactly why Israel has done this. It has shamelessly taken advantage of its relationship (watch Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 please – though I only watched a bit of it. Actually don’t watch it. Its rather confusing. It implies that USA has secret ties with both Arab countries and Israel. Ok I don’t remember exactly, so if I have got this point wrong, please tell me someone) with USA and of the mysterious power it has over Bush’s administration.

I am not saying that Hizbollah and Iran (maybe more Tehran actually) is not at fault. They started this whole thing. But this issue has been resolved before without any bloodshed (read Newsweek July 31st issue) and prisoners and dead bodies have exchanged hands (between Israel and Iran). So Israel, being the obviously superior country with more firepower and backup in terms of armed personnel as well as international support (from USA!!!!!!!!!), should have looked at this issue more rationally and tried to come to a peaceful resolution. I mean, its ok if they had shed some blood, but this much!

As of today, the death toll, according to http://www.cnn.com/ stands at 1000 people altogether, and the VAST majority of those dead people come from Iran, not Israel. Israel, as well as USA and the rest of the world, know that they are going to win this war. They know this. And yet they continue to – dare I say – invade Iran and kill innocent civilians, who when polled by Newsweek reporters, say that they want no part in this war and that they are more concerned with internal problems and issues.

How can USA stand by and watch this?? They are even supplying extra ammunition to Israel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!! What we need now is not violence but peaceful coexistence!!!!!! I mean there’s no getting around geography you know, if you’re situated in a place, you’re situated in a place. You can’t just change your neighbours!! If Israel is next to iran now, those two countries have to learn to coexist, or all the people who live there will become nothing more than refugees, and will have impoverished lives [i dont even want to start talking about the economic and social problems right now, coz that is a WHOLE other issue].

In fact, that area will become another Africa, and we all know the MULTIDUDE of problems Africa is going through right now. And we know who’s going to be more affected by the violence don’t we? The evidence is there, staring right at us, IRAN. OK Israel civilians are dying and North Israel is getting bombed, and Hizbollah is fighting back, yes I know that Iran is not completely rid of fault. Part of the blame does lie with them. But Israel, being the superior country here, should stop this incessant violence!

I’m just happy that the UN is doing SOMETHING, and its doing that something fast. Apparently a new resolution has been passed and Israel and Iran have signed a peace treaty, but I can’t get exact details on that now coz the internet connection here (I’m in my friend’s place) is screwed up. Oh and I also heard that Israel is still (STILL!??!?!?!) invading Iran and moving their ground troops further in. [I so have to check on these two things once I get access.]

It all comes down to USA really. USA and that screwed up administration. Oh and the screwed up population which keeps voting in popularity polls FOR Bush, instead of against him. Clinton was so diplomatic in comparison. Bush is all gung-ho and violence and Clinton always took care not to ruffle too many feathers – politically at least. I am NOT talking about his personal life. Just because he cheated on his wife [I AM NOT SAYING THAT THIS IS OK], doesn’t mean that he was a bad President. I mean, whenever mentions Clinton nowadays, the first thing [don’t deny this] that comes to people’s minds is that issue with Monica Lewinsky. I can’t recall the actual details of what exactly happened on account of being like in primary school or sth. Yeah. But seriously, take it from me, if I am saying that Clinton is better, I REALLY think Bush sucks as Mr. President.

Oh well. These are just my views anyway. Please, please do feel free to comment on anything that I’ve written – if I’ve made a mistake, please comment as well. And if you want to write something longer than what you can type on the tagboard, you can click the tab which says “Comments,” that is situated below this post. I’d really appreciate if someone goes for or against (YES! I want to argue!!!) my view or if someone has anything, generally, to say about this issue. =D [I don't even care if you don't put your name and instead just type a comment with your name as 'anonymous.' SEE! i am so nice!!]

omG! I just realized that this is my first post after coming to India that does not deal with my depression or my incessant complaints about the negative qualities that India, unfortunately, possesses. Oh well. I guess its coz I don’t really want to blog about MUN. My committee sucks. Thank god for delegates like my co-delegate. They do all the work and the rest of us just sit around and make noise. And some of us just make random comments sometimes. But apart from that, we just goof around. And I yawn. And think desperately of going home. Yes. ECOSOC is BORING unless you know what you’re doing, like my co-delegate who I mentioned earlier. He is so involved! Does everything, signs everything, writes everything, discusses everything, comments on everything, waves his placard for everything etc. you get my drift. So proactive. And all I do is yawn.

I think I’m more cut out for debate than I am for MUN. At least for debate, you have a proper topic, and all the speakers are decent, and there’s discipline amongst the general public, as well as the speakers. And they have better topics. In fact, the topics I have for this MUN are pretty debatable in a proper debate – one is on African gender inequality and the other is on Improving the conditions of a country stricken with natural disaster by way of improving their resistance (eg. Early warning system, infrastructure etc.) and by providing both short-term and long-term (effective) aid to these countries.

You know, I actually kind of miss debate. Crap. Oh well.

P.S. Sok, I WILL (and I have done some already) do my homework ok! Stop broadcasting that I haven’t done it on the www man! Someone could read it (LIKE MY TEACHER!!!!).

Ok I have to go now coz my eyes are tired. *eyes droop shut*