I'm humbled and saddened this morning as I read about and look at pictures of the prisoner swap that happened on the Israel-Lebanon border this morning. The picture of the two black coffins carrying the remains of the two soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah is captivating. And it reminds me how high we value these human beings- even bodies, just bodies, being returned to their families for a proper burial and a proper mourning. A value so high that they were worth not just other bodies in exchange, but the freedom of a cold blooded murderer. People can debate forever whether or not the price was too high, but at least we can now, sadly, remove two names from list of the missing for whom we prayed every week for two years.

We place a high value on these things. And for that, I'm proud.

Life just kinda sucks sometimes

My uncle in Israel died this morning.

In the span of 3.5 months, my grandmother lost her husband and son.
In the span of 9 months, my mother lost her father, brother, and two very close friends.

Life just kinda sucks sometimes.

My uncle had diabetes for a long time. He was notorious for never taking care of himself. Last year, he had a stroke that paralyzed half of his body. Even after that, he still ate foods he shouldn't have and just a month ago, had to have one of his legs amputated. My mom left two weeks ago to visit him and is actually on a plane back to NY now, that is scheduled to land at 5pm in Newark. When she left he was ok. She still doesn't know that she's booked on a 9pm flight out of JFK with my aunt to return to Israel for her brother's funeral.

Life just kinda sucks sometimes.

Clarification

It looks like I need to clarify my previous post. David read my post and came to the conclusion that I was proposing we reintroduce a mandatory draft into the armed forces.

I'll say it plainly: I am not an advocate for a mandatory draft and I don't support the idea of reinstituting it here in this country.

The point of my post was to highlight the striking parallels between the criticisms of Olmert's handling of the Second Lebanon War and Bush's handling of the Iraq War. The point was also to highlight where these two diverge: where Israel appoints independent commissions who release no-holds-barred truthful analysis of the actions of their leaders, the United States is still playing through the "debate" as to whether our "leaders" lied and misled this country into a senseless war, the consequences of which we will experience for a long time to come.

Yes- I do believe that President Bush and VP Cheney deliberately misled the country- and there's enough proof out there to support the claim, starting with the false assertions that Hussein was complicit in the 9/11 attacks and that Iraq had clear ties to Al-Qaeda. We know that to be false. But yet, the administration continues to peddle that theory. I can go on, but that's not the point of this post. David- I have no desire to label my "opponents" as evil and vile, especially not for the hell of it. (And shall we point to the myriad of Republicans out there who label their "opponents" as unpatriotic, America-haters, anti-family, baby-killers, evil, etc. This is not just a "Democratic" issue.)

The point here is this: Outrage from the Israeli public on the handling of this war fueled the impetus for the commission and the commission verdict was unanimous. They hold their leaders accountable for their actions to a much higher degree than we do in this country.

One major difference between Israelis and Americans is clear (besides for all others): every single Israeli knows someone who is serving, who once served, who was injured, who was killed. They are clearly more sensitive to every single soldier's death. The comments I heard on NPR made it obvious: "119 soldiers are in the ground." Those were his exact words! We blink at 119 and move on.

The bottom line is I think a draft would make people more sensitive and aware of the devestations of war, especially those not being fought on our soil (and if that point is not obvious, just take a look at the country's reaction to 9/11, the Columbine shootings, Va Tech, Oklahoma City, etc. We react much differently when it happens here, but when 20 soldiers are killed by a roadside bomb, we read the article and move on). But that doesn't mean I practically support the concept as policy.

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.