We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence," she said. "A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo.
In other words, terrorism is the root cause of the current problem, and we're not going to support a cease-fire which leaves Hezbollah in their bunkers on the Israeli border, ready to attack again. Which got me to thinking about another example of people using the same words to express different realities. When we hear Israel has the right to defend itself, what that means depends who's talking.
Bush: Hurry up, Ehud --Lebanon needs help liberating itself from Hezbollah, but I can't hold off France, China, Russia & the UN forever.
Kofi Annan: Boys will be boys! Random killing of your citizens is just the price you pay for living next to Arabs. If Israeli citizens are killed, Israel may kill some Arabs indiscriminately to retaliate, but you can't expect civilization to take root in that part of the world.
Sigh. I am extremely tired of the soft bigotry of low expectations where the Middle East is concerned.
