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It will totally screw up the balance of the board if you go from being one of the most liberal members to its most conservative. Take back what you said.

Well you asked for a discussion
 

It was very considerate of him to put it at the end instead of in the middle of that post, which is a part of the internet I will never read.

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I thought everyone would be excited by the fact that Wonk finally dropped the mask of compassion to reveal the slavering fascist that you just know all of us elitist, condescending, uber-PC liberals have lurking inside. Way to go, Wonk.

Well you asked for a discussion
 

You should read the rest of it. Everyone will disagree (probably violently) with at least one of my opinions. Should be fun.

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Not solely, no. I do think that Hezbollah in particular is special to Israel, though. They're camped out across the border, have dug more warrens than a pack of rabbits, and like tossing missles into Northern Israel.

That's unacceptable, of course, and Israel needs to do something, and I don't pretend to know what the optimal solution is. I do see, though, that the slogging is much tougher than Israel anticipated, and I suspect that another long term war and occuption, while maybe necessary here, is not at all what Israel had in mind.

Similar deal with Iraq. Declaring that organizations must be "destroyed" led us to the shit that we're in now in Iraq, and it leads us to the rationale where we have to invade and indefinitely occupy every potential terrorist threat on the planet.

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I just finished "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby. Less loaned me his copy. Did you read it? Did you like it?

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What organization were we trying to destroy in Iraq?


Hezbollah as a military entity must be destroyed. Should Israel do this through a house-to-house war? No. The cost would be too high. And I don't think destroying Hezbollah as a military entity means killing every last soldier or blowing up every last tunnel (not that I wouldn't applaud that occurrence.)

But I do not see this as solely an Israeli problem or obligation. Security council resolution and all that.

Hamas is a terror organization. Hezbollah is an army. There is a very important difference.

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It's very good. I read it when I knew almost nothing about the game and it was still a great story. Don't be put off by the stupid hollywood movie they tried to make out of it (the Red Sox for fuck's sake). I highly recommend it.

ETA: duh. You read it already.

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The Terrorist Menace. Duh.

Here, you and I agree. But I think that Hezbollah appears to be very well entrenched, willing to fight hard, drawing sympathy from the Arab governments that initially condemned their actions, and uninterested in diplomatic solutions where they lay down their arms like Sinn Fein. I'm not seeing that kind of intermediate solution at the moment.

Nor do I.

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Not genocide. Restoring order. Just like what Israel is doing in Lebanon, but on a global scale. The idea is to stop the terror and the genocide. Then spend the time and the resources to build infrastructure, institutions, establish markets.

If we're really going to stop the genocide and the terrorism, then we have to be prepared to go all the way. Applying band-aids to those wounds we find it politically expedient to treat is like trying to stop the heroin trade one street dealer at a time.

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I'm sorry, you believe Northern Ireland achieved an "imediate solution?"

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No, which is why I said they achieved an "intermediate" solution.

You know, somewhere in between nuking Belfast, and surrendering the entire island.

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Whenever I get down on myself for not being able to read, or spell, you almost immediately make me feel better. I know it's not really appropriate for a Friday, but thanks.

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I'm actually being the ultimate liberal. We need a government so big it runs the whole world, because the people everywhere are too venial and stupid and bloodthirsty to run themselves.

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You know my ancestors, the Italians, had their home in Ireland and the UK, before you lot took it. You fuckers are living on my birth right, and mucking it all up growing potatos instead of spaghetti plants or grape vines.