Comments on: The right to fight

By: genegrant

genegrant — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Very well done here. It absolutely amazes me no one else has found, let alone written about this. And let me just say that finding those quotes/perspectives are what separates the grown ups from the kids in news gathering.

The premise of this thesis is fascinating on a lot of levels. At the time of it’s writing I have no doubt it was right in the sweet spot on this issue. In the refraction of today’s times…and her record as a representative…it makes it more interesting still.

Wilson, as demonstrated here, has a lot of intellectual layers. But over the ten years of her Congressional tenure this has not fully come to the surface. A lot of that may be her personality and comfort zone, but there’s a part of me that feels an opportunity may have been lost by NOT getting this side of her out there earlier in the Senate push. The lost opportunity was not seating the notion that her level of intellect is, in fact, Senatorial.

By: chemboy

chemboy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jim,
Hezbollah is a national liberation movement by their own design of objectives. In its 1985 manifesto Hezbollah listed its three main goals as: 1. Eradication of “Western colonialism” in Lebanon, 2. Bringing those to justice who committed atrocities during the war,
3. Establishing an Islamic government in Lebanon.

By: jimscarantino

jimscarantino — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t think so, chemboy. National liberation movement means a movement that takes up arms to throw off colonial rule. The Lebanese Civil War wasn’t about that. Lebanon was not ruled at the time by a foreign power. It fractured along religious and ethnic lines. Since then Hezbollah (this is not a defense, just an observation) has participated in governing Lebanon with its previous enemies.

A more accurate theoretical test case of her theory would be the Tibetans if they took up arms and did not use terror against Chinese civilians.

By: chemboy

chemboy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hey Jim Scarantino did you know that Hezbollah first started up during the Lebanese Civil War in the early 1980s as a MILITIA of Shia followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini? That means they’ve been qualified as a national liberation movement.

By: jimscarantino

jimscarantino — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The author shows a limited understanding of Hezbollah. Perhaps David posed Hezbollah as a straw man to test the limit’s of Wilson’s view. But Hezbollah is not a national liberation movement. It is a political party (The Party of God) that has participated in Lebanon’s elections. Lebanon is not a colony of any imperial power.

I don’t see much that’s controversial here. After all, we are nation born out of armed rebellion against an imperial power.

By: chemboy

chemboy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Very interesting story. Well written Mr. Alire; you obviously did your homework.