Wednesday November 1, 2006

I've Been Thinking:

I follow very closely what Arab leaders have to say, especially when they speak about the United States and Israel.
So when Sheik Hassan Nasrallah gave a television interview to Al-Manar on Tuesday, I paid particular attention.

Nasrallah was being very defensive.
He said that the U.S. failed in Iraq and that the Arab world had risen to battle the United States.
He said that the Arab world should not be blamed for Islamic extremism, that the U.S. should be blamed and that the U.S. should also be blamed for the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nasrallah said the U.S. has "no future" in the Arab world and that "they will leave the Mid East, Arab and Islamic worlds just as they left Viet Nam, and I advise those who are counting on them to draw conclusion from the Viet Nam experience."

Nasrallah is so far from the truth.
He is feeling internal pressure arising out of the suggestion that terror and violence are endemic to the Arab world.
Certainly there are some similarities with Viet Nam, but only superficial similarities.

The war on terror is not Viet Nam.