The Poodle Yelps....(did anyone notice?)

The poodle made a speech on 1st August in Los Angeles to the "Los Angeles World Affairs Council", the full text of which is available at the poodle's own web site.

The speech itself is full of woolly references like "a complete renaissance of our strategy" and other meaningless oratory, and nothing of substance. Many of his comments reveal either total cynicsm, a belief in "the power of democracy", total acceptance of the Israeli version of events, and a lack of will to confront the Israeli aggressors.

I comment below on selected extracts from his speech:

"The purpose of the provocation that began the conflict was clear. It was to create chaos, division and bloodshed, to provoke retaliation by Israel that would lead to Arab and Muslim opinion being inflamed, not against those who started the aggression but against those who responded to it".

Stories about the incident which sparked Israel's action vary. My own recollection is that Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. I am now inclined to think that the sequence of events is as follows, based on articles such as those at http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=9401
and at http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/israeli_solders.html

1. Israeli soldiers cross the Lebanese border to make an arrest in a village close by.
2. Inside Lebanese territory, the military convoy is attacked by Hezbollah, killing 8 Israelis and taking two prisoner.

Later, a story surfaces that the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped on Israeli soil, and that a simultaneous rocket attack near a village called Shelomi was launched by Hezbollah as a distraction.

It's not clear-cut, but my gut instinct tells me that the sequence of events is as per 1 and 2 above. The "news" of the Shelomi "rocket attack" did not emerge until some time after the Hezbollah capture (not kidnapping - the Israeli's were on Lebanese territory) of the 2 Israeli soldiers. There were no reports of casuaulties, and I have seen no real details of the supposed rocket attack. It is my opinion that the stotries of the rocket attack and that the Israelis were on Israeli soil were generated by Israel in order to justify the all-out war on Lebanon. If anyone can produce convincing evidence to the contrary, please add it to the comments here - I very much doubt that any convincing evidence will be available.

Given that my opinion is correct, the statement by the poodle above should be a condemnation of Israel.

"We will continue to do all we can to halt the hostilities."

A blatant lie - as of yesterday, US flights carrying ammunition to Israel were still refuelling in the UK.

"we will not win the battle against this global extremism unless we win it at the level of values as much as force, unless we show we are even-handed, fair and just in our application of those values to the world."

Poodles apparently have no concept of "even-handed" or "fair". Oterwise, his statement is correct.

"What are the values that govern the future of the world? Are they those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, division and hatred?"

How much tolerance, freedom, or respect do the Israelis grant the Palestinians? Even poodles have more of each of them (I mean dogs in general, not just British Prime Ministers).

"We committed ourselves to supporting Moderate, Mainstream Islam. In almost pristine form, the battles in Iraq or Afghanistan became battles between the majority of Muslims in either country who wanted democracy and the minority who realise that this rings the death-knell of their ideology."

[The following quote is out-of order, but directly related to my comments below]

"Its [terrorism's] purpose is explicitly to prevent those countries becoming democracies and not "Western style" democracies, any sort of democracy. "

And when the Palestinians used democratic process to elect HAMAS, did the West support the democratic process? No, they withdrew all funding, forcing the Palestinians even deeper into poverty and disarray. Is it any wonder that most Palestinians and their supporters view the West as duplicitous supporters of the oppressive Israeli regime? Are they wrong in this view? I see plenty of evidence that they are exactly right.

"To turn all of this around requires us first to perceive the nature of the struggle we are fighting and secondly to have a realistic strategy to win it. At present we are challenged on both fronts."

This is one of the few statements which I agree with - the West needs to treat Israel just like we treated Croatia. This is probably not what the poodle meant though.

"Suddenly, without warning, Hizbollah who have been continuing to operate in Southern Lebanon for two years in defiance of UN Resolution 1559, cross the UN blue line, kill eight Israeli soldiers and kidnap two more. They then fire rockets indiscriminately at the civilian population in Northern Israel."

Er, can we have a fact check here please? I know that my opinion may be wrong, but what does a poodle base it's opinion on? Who feeds it?

The speech goes on, so does the killing and the oppression. We need a regime change in the UK, the poodle needs to be put down.

Joe McGonagle