Civilian infrastructure like homes and whole villages, hospitals and schools, water and electrical facilities, public buildings and offices, industrial complexes, airports, roads and bridges have been massively destroyed in Southern Lebanon. A humanitarian crisis of major proportions is already on hand with stricken areas isolated by the Israeli military’s deliberate destruction of roads and bridges, closing off escape routes for refugees (the Hezbollah have not turned tail and continue to fight) as well as passageways for humanitarian aid and relief workers.
And yet Israel refuses any ceasefire. It wants to destroy as much of Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah’s stronghold, as it can. It wants to reduce this area into a depopulated wasteland, euphemistically termed a “buffer zone.” Only after having done so will the Israeli government consider Israel safe from any future attacks by the Hezbollah. Only then will it agree to an UN-brokered ceasefire that will even mobilize an international force to help safeguard this “buffer zone” for them and keep the Lebanese out.
It is backed up in this strategy by the U.S. even as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appears busy doing shuttle diplomacy to allegedly broker a ceasefire and gives press conferences with an appropriate somber face ruing the civilian casualties in the raging conflict.
The U.S. has in fact vetoed a United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution condemning Israel and has opposed calls for an immediate ceasefire. Based on reports, the U.S. is further intensifying its interventionist role by rushing the delivery to Israel of precision-guided bombs capable of massive destruction. The U.S. strategic geopolitical interests in this oil-rich part of the world are once again revealed as it cynically utilizes Israel’s latest war of aggression in its drive to eliminate all opposition to U.S. dominance in the region.
