The Avenger, The Minions & The Protector
The Avenger: Somewhere in another realm, 241 Marines, 58 French soldiers, Navy Diver Robert Dean Stethem, 95 Argentinean Jews, and hundreds of other less-visible-but-no-less-important victims are avenged. In this world, their families and friends may be comforted by the fact that Imad Fayez Mughniyeh died in little pieces.
The Avenger: Somewhere in another realm, 241 Marines, 58 French soldiers, Navy Diver Robert Dean Stethem, 95 Argentinean Jews, and hundreds of other less-visible-but-no-less-important victims are avenged. In this world, their families and friends may be comforted by the fact that Imad Fayez Mughniyeh died in little pieces.
Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s “supreme commander,” was a believer in suicide bombs for others, while he lived comfortably in Damascus. He took hostages and orchestrated the wreckage of Lebanon by his minions, while he was safe in the arms of Junior Assad and his Iranian overlords. He orchestrated the bombings of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the Jewish Center there. He lived for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews. Someone lived for his destruction and killed him as he killed.
We owe someone thanks for the symmetry.
Haj Hussein Khalil, Hezbollah’s deputy for “political affairs” died in the same explosion.
That’s nice, too.
The Minions: Syria is Iran’s satrapy with all that implies about terrorism, about Lebanon and about Israel. But Damascus has become a vacation spot of sorts for politicians with delusions of importance and out-of-power wannabe Secretaries of State. Sen. Arlen Specter – who’s other chief occupation is grilling the NFL Commissioner about the destruction of New England Patriot tapes – visited recently, not for the first time.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, senior foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama, and once-National Security Advisor to President Carter, planned his trip apparently without notice to the U.S. Embassy. A spokesperson said his delegation would be “meeting with several different people, community leaders and government officials throughout the Middle East.” We’d like to know who he thinks is “leading communities” in Syria. Mr. Brzezinski was in charge when the Ayatollahs occupied Iran and our Embassy, and his administration ill-served both the American and the Iranian people.
Americans who treat Junior as if he deserves a seat at the diplomatic table – and that includes Condoleezza Rice, who invited the Syrians to Annapolis – serve as minions of the dictator. The Syrian and Lebanese people know that important Americans visit “President Assad,” and don’t hear a word about American support for individual rights and freedom. They are left to believe that Americans don’t care, and the implications of that are profound.
The Protector: We note sadly the passing of Congressman Tom Lantos, Holocaust survivor and champion of human rights. Mr. Lantos translated the brutality visited upon him and his people by the Nazis into a lifetime in pursuit of justice for those unable to defend themselves. He shone the spotlight on suffering in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Iraq and Iran, and he was a lion on behalf of Israel and the security of the Jewish people. (See JINSA Report #733 on his retirement.) There will never be another Holocaust survivor elected to Congress, and the implications of that are profound as well.