I TALK to myself. I admit it, I do. Just yesterday I found myself very loudly debating the skirmishes in the Middle East with, well, me.
This conflict scares me, and it should scare you too. It should scare us a lot. I'm amazed at how peaceful life here in Charlottesville is, and how easily we forget that right now, as we read this, people are shooting each other. Right now, people are killing each other. Right now people are fighting a war that will not end anytime soon.
Don't be confused, and do not be mistaken; War is raging in the Middle East. The world is not at peace when helicopter gunships fire rockets into cities, or tanks shoot at snipers in buildings. The world is not at peace when American naval ships are bombed and American servicemen are placed at their highest peacetime alert level, a level reserved for conditions when an attack is considered imminent.
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A world not at peace is a scary thought and this world is not at peace. Aside from the Persian Gulf War, which I doubt many students can vividly remember anyway, our generation has lived in a relatively peaceful environment. In this current presidential race, political debates center around topics like health care and tax cuts. Issues such as military strength or conflicting American alliances are largely ignored.
Right here at the University we are isolated from most international events. Few students actually are concerned with the world situation, and fewer still are concerned with the persons and organizations involved.
The thought of picking up my daughter's grade school history textbook years from now and reading of this year 2000 Middle Eastern War scares me.
Any conflict, especially one in the Middle East where tensions run high, and where much of the world has a vital oil interest, should be cause for concern. There is the possibility of a widening war, which could encompass other Arab states against Israel and eventually require the new American president, fresh off the campaign trail, to make life altering decisions about American troops. More pressing even, radical groups and radical ideas have gained strong popularity among many Middle Easterners. They threaten to make this world an even scarier place.
One group in particular threatens not only to stir up the limitless hatred of the region, but in doing so, does not even propose an effective solution.
In the streets of the West Bank and in Gaza, demonstrations by Palestinians recently introduced a new flag much of the world had never seen. It is a yellow flag with a raised fist holding an AK-47 machine gun. The flag is a symbol of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which was condemned by American and Israeli governments as a terrorist organization.
Terrorist organizations have one purpose: They attempt to change governments with bombs and guns. But many Palestinian Arabs consider the Hezbollah freedom fighters. Recently their forces took a small piece of southern Lebanon after battle with Israeli troops. This was the first time in modern history that an armed group has seized back military control from Israel through force. The Hezbollah launched rockets and even organized suicide bombers in preparation for possible future conflicts.
What is scarier still are the claims made by the Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. According to Nasrallah, peace will never be made with the Israelis until they agree to give back all of their land to the Palestinian people. Nasrallah and his supporters believe the Israeli government is a government of occupation.
Before World War II, there was no Israeli state, but with the victorious Allied Powers' creation of such a state, Israel has in effect occupied Palestinian territory and today unjustly rules the Palestinian people. The Hezbollah believe that "there is no legal and legitimate state called Israel," in essence, that the state of Israel has no right to exist.
Such rhetoric is frightening and will never bring peace to the region or to the world. There is no way to begin possible peace negotiations under such demands. Are the Israeli people really expected to sit at a conference table and bargain the details of their own destruction? In such a context, peace can never be achieved.
But the Hezbollah have been gaining supporters. They maintain that any peace deal reached not including the complete disassociation of the Israeli state is unacceptable. Such an attitude will never bring peace; it will only prolong this year 2000 Middle Eastern War.
The world is a scary place. Especially when there are faceless organizations that pursue unreasonable demands. At the University, we are fortunate to live our lives free from fears that many other people are forced to face every day. We don't have rubber bullets fired or rocks thrown our way.
There are people who do. If we choose not to realize how frightening the world can be, then radical ideas like those of the Hezbollah will only increase in popularity.
(Luke Ryan is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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