In the past week or so as you all must know, Israel and Hezbollah have been battling each other in southern Lebanon. This situation has the potential to quickly get out of control and poses many problems to us here in America.
Israel had several soldiers taken prisoner by Hezbollah, the extremist muslim group that occupies most of south Lebanon. Israel retaliated by bombing much of the infrastructure of Beirut, including the airport and a UN OutPost (oops!!!). Hezbollah has several seats in the legislature of Lebanon though its operations are generally not supported by the majority of the Lebanese government. Enter Syria/Iran/etc. who finance and arm Hezbollah. Lebanon has been under the control of Syria to one degree or another for many years, and now Syria chooses to use Hezbollah to further its goals, which include constant threats and violence against Israel.
There are several issues we as Americans should consider. We have had many of our soldiers kidnapped over the years and have generally not bombed a country into the stoneage for it, especially when done by a non-sanctioned group. Israelis tend to have hot-heads, and usually do not care about the "big picture" when undertaking operations, which is fine, since they are a sovereign nation.
The problem is that the US government continues to fund Israel and many other countries with billions of dollars in foreign aid. If you want to give Israel, Egypt, Tanzania, and the rest of the third world money, that's good, but don't make me give it through tax dollars, especially when Israel is directly contributing to the high prices we are paying at the gas station. After Israel launched this recent attack, oil went up by several dollars per barrel, which will translate to 20-40 cents extra at the pump.
My recommendation is this: repeal the federal gas tax, giving everyone an immediate 18 cents per gallon cut. To make up the resulting budget deficit, cut off all foreign aid to everyone. Why force Arab-Americans to pay for Israeli buildings and Jewish-Americans to pay for Saudi mosques?
Israel is right to do what it thinks it needs to do to secure its country, but I shouldn't have to pay for it.
2 comments:
ermI do agree that we shouldn't pay more in taxes for this conflict. If one wants to give money, they should donate it on their own time. I agree.
I know it shouldn't be funny, but if Israel hit the U.N. building, they had it coming. They're nothing and all they do is screw up the world.
Also, oil was up anyway before the attack. It's Syria's fault and Iran's fault and the U.S.'s fault, not Israel's. If you wanna blame someone, blame the U.S. gov't and the Arabs.
i think the USA should stay out of this war. no matter what side we choose, we will suffer the consequences tremendously. besides, we're never going to solve a 5000 year (or more) feud.
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