if a man were to kill the murderer of his wife, will he not be convicted just the same?

let's put the middle east crisis into perspective.

say, for example, hizbollah is the ku klux klan (kkk). its members, definitely caucasian, pretty much look like the average bob, carl or bill (without the white masks of course). no doubt, they're part of the kkk because they believe in its principles, twisted as it may seem to the rest of us. they've terrorized before, but hey, for as long as they aren't very active, let the government grant them their liberties to coexist with the rest of peaceful america.

one saturday evening, kkk-member carl (fictional) who lives in little rock, arkansas (non fictional) decides to have some fun... he convinces his friends and fellow kkk-members bob and bill (made up characters) to drive all the way to memphis, tennessee (real place). why memphis -- who really knows? perhaps they've all had a little too much to drink at the local tavern. or maybe the thought of a little adventure outside little rock seemed more exciting than spending the rest of the night with the wife at home while she gossiped about the neighbors, with rollers in her hair.

so the three agree and head east to memphis in an old rusty pickup. after two toilet stops and a purchase of marlboro reds in a 7-11, they finally arrive in the outskirts of memphis.

to make a long story short, the three kidnap two city cops (both black) and torch the patrol car they were in. they drive back to little rock and are not heard from since. (the two cops' names, by the way, are tyler and ray -- both fictional.)

as dawn approaches, the governor of tennessee is awakened by a call from the memphis mayor. he relays what has just happened about two hours ago. according to witnesses, they saw three white men carry the cops into a rusty pickup with arkansas plates. police intelligence suspects they are from the kkk based in little rock. (don't you just love how efficient these intelligence networks are?)

the governor, flustered with the news, gets out of bed and paces around his room. this isn't the first time this has happened, he thinks. and on several instances before, the kkk has created widespread terror among his citizens with their eerie marches, burning effigies, and occasional murder. (but for the sake of this exercise, let's include the following charges: kidnapping citizens, burning government installations across tennessee, bombing public places such as parks and malls.) although these are pretty serious charges, these occurred across twenty years and with several years in between each attack, and so the federal government was never compelled to act harshly against it except label the group as a terrorist organization. but the governor will not stand for that now. he needs to act. and fast. he needs to show that tennessee has muscle. and whoever dares step on him shall feel his wrath.

without delay, tennessee governor sends arkansas governor an email stating that if arkansas does not disarm the kkk within a day, then tennessee will be forced to do it for them. arkansas governor is aghast. for he is powerless in completing this demand before the given deadline. his intelligence network is not as efficient as tennessee's and therefore cannot be relied on identifying key members and officers of the kkk. he implores tennessee to stand down. but the latter would not hear of any reason why they should.

tennessee, then, sends out more emails. this time to the citizenry of little rock. they also distribute flyers and pamphlets and k-mart coupons warning the civilians of little rock to evacuate within the day, for the state of tennessee will soon bombard their city with rockets to finally extinguish the terrors of the kkk. scratching their heads, the little rock folks don't really know where else to go. they've lived in little rock all their life. with their ancestral houses. their shops. their institutions. all the memories and history stored within the bricks and concrete of their city hall, monuments and homes. and so most decide to stay anyway, since they figured tennessee would be bombing kkk infested areas (not that anyone can properly identify where these really are). there are some though who do decide to evacuate... and so they pack up and leave (for unknown refuge). but then the attacks begin...

first the bus depots. then the freeways. afterwards, the airport. tennessee declares it has to destroy all infrastructure that the kkk might use to its advantage. but how are these refugees supposed to leave then? some are forced to return home. others decide to walk until they drop. for as long as they're out of the heat of the attacks. the kkk retaliates. on one occasion, they gather their friends' wives, children and elderly to shelter in a schoolhouse (which of course these people trusted) from which they launched their own rockets. the following day the school house collapses after a series of missiles hit it from tennessee. many innocent people die. tennessee wonders how that can happen. they're sure rockets were launched from that schoolhouse. well. they never really bothered verifying with intelligence in determining who exactly were inside. so, tough luck. so the war escalates. rockets from little rock create havoc in memphis. and missiles from memphis destroy little rock. casualties rise on both sides.

meanwhile, the federal government looks on, pleased that finally tennessee decides to eradicate the terrorists. but for humanitarian reasons, and so as not to be completely condemned by the international community, it sends a high government official to broker a ceasefire between the two states (more of a farce really, but truly serves as a decoy to further delay any moves towards real peace). but arkansas refuses to welcome this official. for it knows well that the federal government has in its power the ability to carry out the ceasefire instantly if it wanted to (by stopping tennessee to attack).

almost a month later, hundreds of fun-loving, fast-food grubbing, peaceful civilians have been killed, both from arkansas and tennessee. and despite tennessee's initial convictions that the way to settle the issue (which we may have forgotten goes back to the kidnapping -- on top of the other previous charges) was how it decided to act, trigger-happy kkk is still very much alive and kicking. and little is still known about the whereabouts of carl or bob or bill, or the state of either tyler or ray.

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has the world come closer to attaining sustainable peace through a holocaust of innocent civilians (israeli or lebanese)?

do you really believe that this war will eradicate terrorism?
... when a son or daughter of a killed civilian decides to dedicate his life to bring down israel (and the west) because of his loss (oh, looky here, new recruits for al qaeda!)
... when israel's display of might convinces existing terrorists that israel has to be brought down because of its arrogance in the middle east (and you'll never convince arabs to think otherwise)
... when terrorists realize that the way to create division in the world is to bring countries to war (so that sides will be taken as the world is showing now) which hopefully might escalate to new world wars

do you really believe peace can be attained?
... when perhaps hizbollah wanted this to happen from the very beginning in order to obtain the sympathies of its arab neighbors and islam brothers
... when this war can only highlight the chasm that exists between israel and its neighbors
... when the wars in the middle east never ever ended in peace anyway

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by condemning israel's attacks, it does not mean we agree with what hizbollah or hamas or the palestinians (or whoever) has done to similarly terrorize the israelis.

by condemning israel's attacks, it does not mean we are ignorant of terrorist propaganda. on the other hand, it may simply prove that governments are vulnerable and blindly responding to the silent intentions of these terrorists to awaken violence in the region.

by condemning israel's attacks, it simply means the world expects israel to rise above its (sorry to say) more savage (???) neighbors who are out for blood, and to act accordingly. no other country may have experienced persecution and terror as much as israel has and had (since the birth of its civilization), and it should be very much aware that retaliating at such a scale will not win them peace.

we condemn america's apathetic stance because it is supposed to defend the defenseless, as it claims. while we do not include hizbollah under the list of defenseless people, the lebanese are suffering israel's wrath.

we condemn america's apathetic stance because if this happened within its soil, it would have acted much differently to defend the innocent and save its citizens at the soonest possible time.

we condemn america's apathetic stance because it does not consider the scenarios that brought the region into the crisis (do they think they're still playing the world? or haven't they considered that the terrorists are beginning to move them like pawns?) and is still not considering scenarios that should bring the region to peace. (perhaps america is simply studying its options on how to further take control of the region? by leaving israel to attack hizbollah, america expects iran to soon interfere. once iran interferes, america again has reason to condemn iran and perhaps conduct another iraq invasion. let's de-nuke iran!)

so is iran playing the region or is america still in-charge? we do not really know for certain.

what's for certain is that war is not the answer. call me an idealist. i don't care. as i said before, you can't talk peace and have a gun. you can't teach kids to enjoy signing rockets just because they themselves are victims... we are bringing the world to a culture of revenge, when it should be about justice. if a man were to kill the murderer of his wife (in the states), will he not be convicted just the same?