Robert on Hearts and Minds and Hezbollah

(Mike's Note: Our friend Robert was in Montreal last week to see family, and came home with this story...)

My aunt has a friend with a house in Lebanon and she spoke to her last week.  Her friend has been there all summer and her house is in the mountains which is apparently pretty safe, compared to Beirut anyway. The day after the bombing started a month ago, this lady finds dozens, hundreds of people walking past her house in the mountains.  These people are not poor but they have escaped the shelling in Beirut with literally the clothes on their backs and not much else.  There are an estimated 800,000 of these folks and my aunt's friend tells her that people were coming to her door, asking for water, food, blankets.  She said she offered what assistance she could but there were so many people, the situation was bad and getting worse.

The next day, the cavalry came to the rescue.  Who arrived with supplies, water, food, blankets?  Hezbollah.  Think of it, within 24 hours, Hezbollah had the organization on the ground to deliver these supplies to these desperate people.

Hezbollah.  24 hours.

Imagine for a moment you are an average Lebanese person.  Through no fault of your own, your city is being bombed to hell and you escape on foot to the mountains.  It's chaos for the first 24 hours but then help arrives.  Help for you, for your wife, your kids, your parents.

I've watched the situation in the Middle East and like most people here, every once in a while I wonder what on earth these people can be thinking to make the choices they make.  What could possess large numbers of people to associate themselves with these terrorists killing machines?  Water for their kids in a crisis, that's what.  That's why Hamas was elected in the territories, Hezbollah has seats in the Lebanese Parliament and Al Sadr would probably win an election if he ran in Iraq.

Hezbollah was there in 24 hours.  With those kind of results, they'd get a few votes in New Orleans.

I am not defending Hezbollah.  I know they are terrorists and Israel was minding its own business when it was attacked.  Guess what, if you believe we are involved in a battle between the forces of Good and Evil, don't you think Good should get a better PR department?  Why wouldn't Israel spend 10% of what it is spending on weapons, bombs, jet fuel, etc. on blankets, kosher meals and the like?

If anyone thinks we can shoot our way out of this global mess, think again.

Hearts and minds, people, Hearts and Minds.  That's the only hope.

(Come to think of it, maybe a little Hands and Feet would be helpful in that regard but what do I know, I'm just the resident atheist.)

Comments

[bobbie]

and robert isn't blogging why????

thank you - this is "perspective personified". what a window into the world we all need to look through. i am grateful.

[Mike]

I think the key to your comment, Bobbie, is the word "world."

We all need to work on our global worldviews.

[wilsonian]

So right, Mike.
And Robert must finally succumb to peer pressure.

Pressure, pressure, pressure.

[lynne]

Robert, looks like your fans are growing. You're a good guy, they are good people, who could blame them. Keep it coming...

[Mike]

If I may dare to speak for Robert, who must be doing some work for a change...

"I already have a blog, and you're reading it right now."

[Mike]

Now I feel bad. Robert took the day off and is spending the weekend in Niagara Falls with Denise and the kids. Nobody tell him what I said when he gets back.

Anymore thoughts on what he had to say?

[Heather]

Robert has as usual nailed it - very well.

[joseph]

I've hummed and hawwed about this, but the thought keeps coming back. The Roman Emperors had a simlilar plan: in those days they called it bread and circuses. You provide the basic necessities to the community, and they support you in times of warfare or political upheaval.

Part of realpolitick is the fact that the program of bread and circuses has been proven since the time of Rome (and probably prior) to garner at least some popular support. It is especially easy to be the provider if you are the one who controls the logistical access.

Write me off as a either a cynic, or an historian (or a combination). It's not all that difficult to see how and why Hezbollah can do what Robert's post says they did.

ps - since the middle east is not a sporting event, I don't feel I need to qualify the above by saying that I hope "one side wins". Robert is correct in saying that we don't shoot our way out of such messes.

[Mike]

Interesting take on the situation, Joseph. A couple of thoughts come to mind. From the Roman Empire to Hezbollah... and every ruling entity in between. I think you've just described the basics of Government 101.

Secondly, I wonder if there is room in our worldview for terrorists who are good to their people. The old rule books are all out the window now...

[joseph]

I think the notion that there are "terrorists who are good to their people" is actually part of the old rule book. For example, Jesus points to this sort of thing a few times when teaching about loving your enemies, not merely your family, friends or those who can repay you in some way. In the old rule book, every group looks after their own constituents - "do not even the gentiles do the same?" I think Jesus is explicit that such behavior is part of the old rule book: we tend to help those who a] are one of us (in this case Lebanese); or b] can return some sort of favour (in this case political).

It would be radical and Jesus-esque if Hezbollah sent some emergency relief to Haifa or Tiberias (or, as Robert asks, if Israel sent aid into Lebanon).

'Course, if they were all doing that, it might just lead to a whole chain of things...

[Robert]

The point is that it would not only be the humanitarian thing to do, it would be the smart political thing to do.
Thanks to all about getting my own blog but I have too little time and far too little to say and as we all know, there is nothing worse, NOTHING, than someone who starts a blog, feeds it a little and then just poof! she just ignores it for months at a time. That really blows when that happens.
(I say "she", but of course my comment could apply to anyone who starts a blog and then discovers she's lazy, lazy, lazy... not that I know anyone like that myself - I'm just saying.)

[Lorna]

why aren't we ?