May 20, 2008, - 3:48 pm
So, This is With Whom Obama Wants to Negotiate
By Debbie Schlussel
This is whom most Muslims in Dearbornistan openly support. This is also with whom Obama wants to negotiate and whose sponsor state, Iran, with whom Obama wants to negotiate. And it’s also whom President Bush enabled by doing nothing, by inviting Iran to negotiate with us in Iraq, and by sending Condi Clueless to fete Bashar Al-Assad:
For two and a half days, Hussein al-Haj Obaid lay on the floor of a darkened warehouse in west Beirut, blindfolded and terrified. Militiamen loyal to Hezbollah had kidnapped him at a checkpoint after killing his nephew right in front of him.
Throughout those awful days, as his kidnappers kicked and punched him, applied electrical shocks to his genitals and insulted him with sectarian taunts, he could hear the chatter of gunfire and the crash of rocket-propelled grenades outside, where Hezbollah and its allies were taking control of the capital.
He returned to this northern village only after family members won his release just over a week ago by threatening the kidnappers with retaliation. By that time Mr. Obaid, a Sunni Muslim, had gained a whole new way of seeing his Shiite countrymen and his native land . . . .
Mr. Obaid was one of many Sunni men who drove to Beirut after hearing that Hezbollah was attacking the offices of his political patron, Mr. Hariri. On arriving in the city, he stopped at a checkpoint, where militiamen asked him where he was from.
He barely had time to answer, he said, before the men – who recognized him as a Sunni from his northern accent – opened fire on the car, riddling it with bullets and killing Mr. Obaid’s young nephew, Abdo.
Mr. Obaid got out and tried to run, but the men caught him and took him to a warehouse, where he endured two and a half days of torture. He took off his shirt to show a reporter the fresh scars.
“They gave me a hard, hard time, brother,” said Mr. Obaid, who speaks English with a strong Australian accent, a legacy of 13 years he spent in that country.
“They did not even ask for my ID card, they just hear my voice,” Mr. Obaid said. “They treated us like animals, like animals.” . . .
Before long, a sense of communal victimhood and rage spread. On the way to a funeral on May 10 for one of the young Sunni men killed during the battles, mourners walked in a procession while chanting, “Shiites are the enemies of God.”
As the pallbearers approached a store owned by a Shiite man, some mourners rushed in and urged the man to close it out of respect. He refused, and the mourners began smashing his windows with rocks and chairs. Enraged, the man got his AK-47 assault rifle and began firing into the crowd, killing two mourners and wounding others.
As terrified mourners ran from the scene, the funeral procession turned into a sectarian riot, with Sunnis angrily destroying every store owned by Shiites in the neighborhood.
At one point, as the rioters reached an abandoned juice shop, they stopped to eat kiwis, strawberries and carrots. But one angry mourner turned on them in rage.
“What are you doing?” he shouted. “You can’t eat these fruits, they are forbidden. They were bought with Shiite money.” . . .
When Hezbollah fighters drove up into the mountains, many of their Druse allies deserted them or even changed sides, preferring to fight alongside their fellow Druse against the Shiite invaders.
Yes, not only are Hezbollah and Shi’ites worldwide in a revival–thanks to Bush (and Paul Bremer and Dan Senor) for creating a contiguous Shi’ite crescent–but they are fighting with Sunnis and Druze and everyone else around Lebanon.
The “Religion of Peace” can’t even get along with each other. And we and Israel are supposed to make peace with them?!
Of course I condemn Obama’s willingness to negotiate with these lunatics. However, I really wonder how different his position is from all other presidents of the last 30 years and the European countries. All our presidents beginning with Carter have appeased the Iranians, bar none. Most of them weren’t stupid enough to overtly say that is what they were doing, so Obama might not be substantively different from them, just more stupid by being so open about it.
c f on May 20, 2008 at 4:28 pm