Bits and bobs

1. So Israel is at it again, if one can say that they
ever cease. A policy of absolute aggression, it would
seem. Whenever the Gazans act up, Israel says,
¨Either you control the militants or we will have to
do it¨. Could it be anymore blatant? The only way to
stop us from assaulting you/continuing to assault you
further is if you declare war upon yourselves, hunt
down yourselves and slaughter yourselves so we do not
have to.

Same thing straightaway with the Hizballah in Lebanon.
No chance of a prisoner swap this time, we´re too
busy obliterating you bastards and thank you for the
opportunity.

But if you`d like this carnage to stop, if you´d like
this airforce/artillery/tank/naval blockade and
general shooting-fish-in-a-barrel invasion to stop,
Lebanon, you can do it very simply: Start a civil war
right now to ¨control¨ the Hizballah, never mind that
they are the strongest military force in the country.
Its a foreign policy of hyperaggression. Naturally
the West sits back and does nothing, as usual. Must
wait for Israel to finish its job first, of course.

Will Syria take this opportunity to re-occupy Lebanon
as Hizballah takes a huge shitkicking? Of course that
would be lining up to be the next fish in the barrel,
but if they could re-trench themselves, it would be
quite a political victory for them. Likely they´ll
not have the nerve, as Israel wouldn´t hesitate to
pound them into the stone age at the slightest
opportunity. But if Israel attacks Hiz. near the
Syrian border...

It made me think of all that Colin Powell b.s. about the military doctrine of
`overwhelming force`, ie, the American high-tech, low risk death-from-above approach
to warfare. Basically the doctrine says, never go to war, until you have a 9 to 1 advantage,
or is that 19 to 1? That way you can achieve your miltary objective easily and put the fear of
hellfire into the rest of world. Of course its attributed to the deep military thinking of Powell
and his Pentagon boys, but let`s give credit where credit is due: the Israelis, who`ve been pounding
the shit out of civilian populations since decades. And look at what it has gotten them:
occupation without end.

2.Congratulations Floyd $%&!ing Landis! (Yes, Floyd
reads my blog all the time.) That 17th stage victory
was worthy of the hallowed name of Eddy Merckx. What a
piece of riding, what a spectacular attack the like of
which you never see anymore. Well, I never do anyway.
Truth is, I was rooting for Landis to win the Tour
ever since that poor bastard Jan Ullrich got
blackballed the day before the Tour de France was due
to start. And now Ullrich has been fired from
T-Mobile Team, of which he has been the pillar since
1997. What a disaster.

In a sense I liked Landis for a similar reason to
liking Ullrich: attitude. Landis never shows that
Lance Armstrong, I-am-the-centre-of-the-Universe
attitude, just this laid-back but very determined
understated sort of thing. I like that. And Landis
did it without a powerhouse team like T-Mobile much less Armstrong`s New
York Yankees of cycling.

Still, the Phonak boys really busted their arses the
whole way for him, sacrificing everything for the
leader, as it should be.

Enough.