Striking parallels

You don't need to be intimately familiar with the politics and history of the State of Israel to see the striking parallels between the damning Winograd Commission Partial Report on the debacle known as the Second Lebanon War and the criticism surrounding the Bush administration on the debacle known as the Iraq War. They say that Ehud Olmert has an approval rating of 2-3%- yes, you read that correctly: 2 or 3%! Of the entire Israeli electorate! Bush's 33% looks good compared to that! And yet, Olmert has the audacity to go on public television and state that he will not resign despite the findings of the commission. Hubris doesn't even begin to describe it!

Just read some of these lines and tell me they don't sound familiar:

• "He made up his mind hastily"
• "He is responsible for the fact that the goals of the campaign were not set out clearly and carefully"
• "Made a personal contribution to the fact that the declared goals were over-ambitious and not feasible"
• Decisions were made "without close study of the complex features of the front and of its military, political, and diplomatic options available

The list can go on, if you want. But what is truly striking, though, is across the spectrum reaction to this report. Almost everyone, not including Olmert's family perhaps, is calling for him to resign. So much so, that there are reports that one of the largest demonstrations ever in Israel will take place on Thursday evening in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. They are estimating over 400,000 people! And what past demonstrations would this one rival in numbers? Only the one held after Rabin's assasination and after the massacres at Sabra and Shatillah. That's it.

And for what purpose? To let the government know exactly how they feel about last summer's war. Why? Because 119 soldiers died. Yes- the public is outraged because 119 soldiers died. Unbelievable!

It's true- we as Americans will never fully comprehend the earth-shattering consequences of war until every single one of us tastes it. Until we each know someone who sacrificed for their country. Because thousands of American soldiers have died so far in this disaster of a war, and countless books have been written, countless inquiries have been made, but it's still not obvious to many in this country how their leaders misled and lied for their own selfish reasons, and still refuse to be held accountable for their actions.

I always nodded my head in passive agreement in the past, but it really struck me as I was driving home this evening from work listening to an interview of an Israeli reservist that perhaps only a mandatory draft could start getting people to really care again about preciousness of each and every life that serves to defend the country.