POLITICS BY THE BULLET

WAR IS POLITICS  by other means. And as Pat Robertson told us in divinely counseling a small killing of the Venezuelan Chavez, assassination is cheaper and costs far less money and far less blood.  The Syrians will now find how much they have to pay for assassinating Lebanon’s Rafik Harriri. [story]

United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday.

The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council.

The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes.

The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut. The murder of Mr Hariri touched off an international outcry and hastened Syria’s departure from Lebanon in April after a 29-year pervasive military presence.

LIVE BY THE COMPUTER die by the computer. Hariri died by Syrian bullet with an assist by Lebanese hands.  The UN report splashes red paint everywhere. [story] 

And it paints a picture of a weak President who either does not know what his intelligence services are doing or cannot control them: a picture, as one diplomat put it, of “a dictatorship without a dictator”.

SOME WILL CALL FOR SANCTIONS and will be called weak willed by those who would crush the will of Syria for its politics by other means by bring war covert or overt to Syrian soil itself.  Charges of murder shoot across the international sky.  Charges of hypocrisy will flash far less brightly back.  The Middle East is but the most noted place where brother visits upon brother violent means for a controlling end, but here we fail to see the forest for the trees. 

OUTSIDE FORCES INVADE enter countries all the time for war political effect.  When others do it, we call it asassination and if we do it on a larger scale, we call it a noble cause.  War is politics by other means.  So our leaders are only politicians, not war criminals.  Hypocrisy is a forest big enough to fit us all, the fit to lead and the unfit both. Only one tree now grows in Lebanon.

POLITICIANS LEARN THE LESSONS of what is done in politics by other means.  The lesson learned is not stop what you do. The lesson is don’t get caught. 

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SYRIA FEELS THE HEAT [WaPo] "This is simply the beginning," said Farid El-Khazen, a Lebanese lawmaker and political scientist. "There is little room for maneuver left for the Syrians now. They have to cooperate fully to save themselves from more isolation or they opt for rejection of the report, claiming it is all political. Syria doesn't have a middle-ground option."

In Damascus, some Syrian government supporters were unusually open in expressing fear about the repercussions of the inquiry, which President Bush cited Friday in calling on the U.N. Security Council to take action. 

THE HERETIK HAS PREVIOUSLY NOTED we probably have already crossed into Syrian territory in engagements in "western" Iraq.  The last time Bush called for U.N. Security Council action, it was but a pretext for Bush to go it alone.  If this is a problem for only Syria and Lebanon, then let them sort it out.  But if this is a problem for the world, then the world and the United Nations should figure it out.  It will be interesting to hear how Bolton of all people speaks to the United Nations about this as he believes the organization hardly has right to exist and only holds back the hand of those who know better. 

ON THE OTHER HAND Bolton may not have much to say at the U.N. as he may be distracted by another investigation back in Washington, possibly involving a plan to invade another country under false pretext.  Bolton is quite familiar with politics by the bullet.  He may be distracted dodging a political bullet right now.

BOLTON SPEAK [NY Times] The Security Council is scheduled on Tuesday to take up the report by Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor in charge of the United Nations investigation of Mr. Hariri's assassination. John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said the report required a "strong follow-up" from the council members.

He suggested the focus ought to be on pressing Syria to end its noncooperation with the investigators which he called "diplo-speak for obstruction of justice."

"The report concludes there is probable cause to believe that high level Syrian officials were involved in the Hariri assassination, that there's clear evidence of obstruction of justice on the part of the Syrians, failure to cooperate, that is what the Security Council needs to take up in a serious way," Mr. Bolton said.

THE HERETIK HEARS Bolton call for follow-up at the United Nations and if Bolton is called in by Patrick Fitzgerald in regard to the PlameOut, The Heretik cannot wait to hear the man with the mustache and his views then on “diplo-speak for obstruction of justice.”  Hypocrisy and irony may hide behind a hairy lip.

Comments

[blogenfreude]

She's at it again.