Hi, I’m Brian and I am interested in talking about recent Middle East crisis with people from foreign countries. If you are interested,

1. Do you think US should withdraw from Iraq? Why? Why not?

2. What do you think about the war between Israel and Lebanon? What should the world do about it?

Please post your opinion in English as I don’t read Japanese. I am looking forward to talking to you!

1.No. It’s too late to withdraw from Iraq now. If what i heard is correct, because the US took out the oppressor,Saddam, many tribes are fighting each other. Sure, it’s party Iraqis’ fault for fighting each other when their lives are about to get better. But why are they fighting? ’Cuz the Americans like to fight and fight and fight and meddle with foreign affairs. Americans were the ones that wanted to destroy the "wmd" and make Iraq a better place for ITS PEOPLE.
It’d be very irresponsible to leave Iraqis in a civil war that the Americans kind of started, don’t u think?

2.dunno much about that. I’m guessing Israel’s gonna win for sure if they go on a full-scale war. But what can u do? Times like these, you kinda wish that the US would go to another war in the Middle East. But eh...not to be a racist or anything, but Jews are rich, and they DO control the US, so that’s out.
I guess we just hafta hope that the UN would step in? =S 　

なあ・・・
どうして日本語理解できないのに”ちょっと聞いてよ”のコーナーがわかるんだ？
どうして、こんなとっぴおしもないスレを立てるんだ？もっと妥当な掲示板があるだろうに。
お前は日本人か？英語力をためにして遊んでるのか？Res.1がお前かお前の日本人の友達の意図を見抜いて正確にレスを返してるけど、レバノンの話と日本がどう絡むとかそういう話ならいいがお前はお前はなぜ日本人に意見を求めたいんだ？お前がユダヤ人で日本人の中にも賛同者がほしいのか？
それと日本語でやれ
日本にいたとき７年間いても一言も日本語しゃべれんアメリカ人の教師がいたが、俺はそういう奴が嫌いだ。
下手糞でも日本語でやれ、それが礼儀だし、下手糞でも俺達はカナダで英語を使っている。

　

Thanks, S!

1.I agree with you that it is too late for US to withdraw from Iraq. If they did, it’s like saying "Okay, I give up." They never would do that. Plus, they want secure oil supplier as well.

Some people say if the US government loses support from its nation, they might re-think. I personally think as long as terror threat exists, US won’t lose its support.

2. This situation is really difficult to solve since they hate each other. And you are right about "Jews are rich, and they DO control the US." Jews tend to live in big cities and have lots of famous people who have power to lobby the government.

Lebanon has backup from Iran and Syria. This war will take a long time.....

What do you think?

　

Supposing the Iraqis will have a better time without the American occupation seems more and more wrong as the true nature of this occupation is revealed day by day. First of all, whos’ interests are being fought for? I should say it’s the interests of the American Banker financiers, arms manufacturing industry and global oil companies. In view of this, one can understand why the US war planners commit terrible crimes such as Faluja, Haditha and the "shock and awe" campaign that is said to have killed 44 thousand civilians. It is this state terror of the USA which is necessary to secure control of the Iraqi economy for exploitation.

There has been extensive research done on this subject to convince any willing to take the time and read it. Therefor my answer is an obvious yes to American withdrawal from Iraq, the repressive regime the US is supporting in Iraq *needs to be replaced* by one that truly has the Iraqi peoples interests at heart. My suggestion to the Iraqi people is to build up a movement that can take control of the Iraqi economy and democratically plan society to provide for the needs of all Iraqis and put an end to foreign exploitation. 　

Hi Brian, -something worth talking about for a change, thanks.

US withdrawal?
The US should not have attacked in the first place, the war was fought on false pretenses, but not just that... it seems as if it had been the logical culmination of a decade of starving a people off through economic sanctions... that is a crime against humanity in and of itself. Actually the last Bush administration had an opportunity to support a coup-de’tat of some of Saddam’s generals at the end of the last gulf-war. However, and you probably already know this, the Americans did not lend their support and watched this early opportunity for regime change slip out of their hands.

back to the q 1. I wish, but I suspect that anglo-american intentions was to incite sectarian violence and destabilize Iraq to create a situation in which their permanent presence in necessary. If you recall the allegations of ’false flag operations’ conducted by the SAS in 2005-- i feel that this may not be a special case, but one of many operations conducted by the Anglo-American occupiers.

I personally believe that a withdrawal from Iraq undermine US Neo-con strategy to secure the middle-east, but I feel that it may lessen the damage inflicted upon the credibility of American style democracy in the world. Many consider it is too late now, I don’t think so-- However, a withdrawal should come in tandem with a massive UN peace keeping force to keep sectarian violence at bay, and enough finances to rebuild Iraqi infrastructure. -- I could see this happening, seeing how oil rich the state is.

2. Israel and Lebanon, sigh... Hesbollah should have known better than to create a pretext for Olmert to wage war...
the cease fire is now in place, this makes me hopeful, but don’t you find it a little annoying that the two states most influential in the process of drafting a resolution is the US and France? I find this more than a little problematic considering America’s tacit acquiesence of Israeli bombardment.. as for France I apologize, but I am not well informed on this matter...

What should the world do?, I think we should realize that the middleeast is not somebody elses business anymore. Ultimately, those states that control that exercise influence over the middle-east, particulary Iraq, SaudiArabia and Iran will be the powerbrokers of this century. What began as an issue of securing the lands unilaterally conceded by Britain to the Zionist movement in the Balfour declaration, now seems to have become soldered onto the currently developing struggle for dwindling energy supplies- namely oil. Not to be over abstracting the issue, but it isn’t far fetched to see American political and military support for Israel as part of their strategy to project their power and influence in the middleeast. Yet, the US isn’t the only power willing to exercise its influence over the region, as China is fostering ties with Iran (recall the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit a while back). Hesbollah is also being armed with weapons jointly developed by Iran and China (recall the silk-worm missle that almost sank one of Israel’s most advanced warships off the coast of Lebanon). I can foresee a n Iran that is more willing to challenge American hegemony in the region, but I fear that such a challenge may incite the Americans into attack. I just hope that when Iran builds its nuclear deterrence, they will prove the theory correct... as the US intelligence must have known that Iraq did not have any operational nukes when the US had invaded.

anyways, the point is the world should be very concerned of what happens in what is appearing more and more to be an Arab-Israeli stand-off, because an escalation of this war into a greater region-wide conflict (which it already arguably is) can cause gas prices to sky rocket with drastic consequences on the world economy.

The world should not hesitate to commit a large UN contingent, into Lebanon, and there should be a larger UN presence in Gaza and the West Bank, not just observers, but a reconstruction force willing to help Palestineans and Lebanese recreate infrastructure , this of course is in the hopes that better infrastructure will help alleviate that destitution that legitimate, but unfortunately aggressive paramilitary institutions like Hamas and Hesbollah feed on for their popular support.

oh and next time you post-up Brian, don’t write anything like "english only" on a Japanese web-site, it infuriates some people, and it isnt really polite. anyways, perhaps you can post-up your own opinions too , i am sure they are very insightful


Yusuke 　

Sure,lets go have coffee and talk english only.email me ,my name is Brian.i love japs and jews.Lets play!!! 　

Yusuke,

Thanks for your insightful opinion. I personally think the US won’t be able to withdraw from Iraq. If they did, they would be criticized for leaving Iraq in chaos.

The one thing the US irritates me is that the way they force democracy is not democratic at all. For example, they basically ignored UN and attacked Iraq.

Also, every time Bush or Rice talk about Middle East, they always talk strong, like "terrorists never win", etc. I think this has opposite effect and motivates the terrorists.

The UN ordered Israel stop attacking Lebanon. I don’t think this is the end of the war. They will start fighting again because they hate each other.

What do you think?
　

Totally, I agree with you, the US is mired in Iraq for the next few years, but I believe that this was the strategy... if you recall that the Americans are still in Germany, Italy, Japan, and also maintain arsenals of tactical nuclear weapons in a few NATO countries suggests that the old American strategy of maintaining an empire of bases will remain in place. By the way there is a book that I hear is pretty good book called The Sorrows ofEmpire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Old Republic, written by Chalmers Johnson... A Japan studies scholar who also worked for the US foreign service. He also has online articles on the "Empire of Bases," which I highly recommend everyone to read.

"The one thing the US irritates me is that the way they force democracy is not democratic at all. For example, they basically ignored UN and attacked Iraq."
--- absolutely, unfortunately, the UN wouldn’t stand a chance without American participation... which is ironic, because it seems like the US, often uses its veto powers in the security counsel, to shoot down progressive resolutions.

"Also, every time Bush or Rice talk about Middle East, they always talk strong, like "terrorists never win", etc. I think this has opposite effect and motivates the terrorists."

-its the very labels like "terrorist," which in my view is highly problematic, because such labels fail to take into account of the history of such partisan forces, and the underlying reasons for their existence. Many ’terrorist’ groups belong to marginalized populaces that have been oppressed by regimes supported and armed by Washington- such groups exist everywhere in the world, they are small, but are very motivated. In recent years, American intervention in the middleast, the presence of semi-permanent bases after the first Persian Gulf War in 90-91? has created a tide of resentment against the US military and US foreign policy. It is not only this, but also the hypocritical US government support for MONARCHIES in the middleeast that has fueled popular resentment among many Arabs.

actually though... many governments around the world have been propped up and funded by the CIA...
Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party is one such example... we’ve had them in power for half a century now...
... This is what democracy is Japan has come too... sad huh?


Anyways. wrapping up

Many people think that the conduct of the US and Israel in this war is a prelude to a larger regional war against Iran. But, I feel that the Hezbollah as a much weaker power has succeeded in this battle mainly because of the shear tenacity of its resistance against overwhelming force... any guerrilla force that survives the onslaught of such overwhelming technologies should be recognized as the victor-- but the civilian tolls have been heavy, and I feel that the ire of many Lebanese will be pointed not just at Israel, but also at Hezbolla for creating a pretext for the IDF to pound their homes.

I think this rather tenuous ceasefire will hold for now, because Israeli public opinion is turning against Olmert’s handling of the crisis, but I was surprised to read that many Israeli citizen’s wanted to go into Lebanon earlier and inflict much more punishment on Hezbollah- pure insanity if you ask me.

as for the fear-mongering in the US media concerning an impending regional war... I doubt it...
If the US attacks Iran you can expect Iran to retaliate by closing off its oil supplies to the US and its allies, which will in turn destabilized the world economy- if not sparking off a world-wide depression.

Watch for August 22nd though, apparently it is a significant religious day in the Islamic calendar and the Iranian president has decided to give the world a statement or answer concerning its nuclear weapons program on that date.
I think Iran will arm itself...
I am against nuclear proliferation and arms, but Bush’s attack on Iraq and the revelation of the non-existence of weapons of mass destruction has just proven the concept of nuclear deterrance.

Sorry for ranting Brian,

it would be fun if we can meet in person too, if your around in Vancouver.

My email add is nozaru108@hotmail.com
feel free to contact me anytime.

Best wishes,

Yusuke
ps sorry for the late reply, I’m mired in paper work.