AS I WRITE, highly civilized human beings across an ocean are trying to kill each other. George Orwell began one of his essays similarly; only then, he was referring to the swarms of Luftwaffe bombers besieging his beloved London. The scenery has changed somewhat since then, though less so than anyone might imagine. The Middle East, once and still a prize of empire, stands to inherit the demons of fascism. And we, whether we enjoy it or not, stand to inherit a struggle against theocracy, against fanaticism and against the frightening realization that prolonged war might be inevitable.
In his final novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four," Orwell asked, famously, "Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?" Today, with the right set of eyes, you can. That is, you begin to see the kind of world the Bush administration hopes to create -- one regime at a time. Today, you can watch as two powers, the United States and Iran, use proxy warfare to spread democracy and jihad, respectively. Even the term "proxy warfare" is evocative of the Cold War, and for good reason. Nevertheless, it deserves some clarification.
The essential point to bear in mind here is that Hezbollah is the militant scion of Iran, and America's relationship to Israel is -- how to put this mildly? -- cozy. Iran and Hezbollah, both fundamentalist Shiite regimes, work together in sinister symbiosis, with Iran providing near-bottomless funding to Hezbollah, while Hezbollah promotes Iranian policies in southern Lebanon. "Promotes Iranian policies" is a bit euphemistic, however, since that policy often involves the murdering of infidelsand the destruction of Israel. On the other hand, since its inception in 1948, Israel has relied on American support (and copious arms sales) to preserve its existence.
It's a bit reductive, I know, but hopefully the broader point emerges -- when Israel and Hezbollah wage war, the United States and the Iranian mullahs dictate the terms.
Nowhere is this better exemplified than in Lebanon. And nowhere can one better observe the careful calculation of the Bush administration's foreign policy, as well as the reluctant acceptance that, at least in the case of Iran and Hezbollah, war might indeed be the lesser evil.
Considering the simplistic but effectively true statement -- Iran manipulates Hezbollah and the United States manipulates Israel -- the current conflict seems broader, a part of a greater whole.
Hezbollah's capability to launch rockets into Israel, which we've now witnessed, used to be the greatest impediment to direct intervention in Iran. Any attempt to destroy Iran's secret nuclear refinement facilities would have likely resulted in Hezbollah attacking Israel, which would require American intervention, which would distract the American military from its original goal of disarming Iran. Put simply, Hezbollah was Iran's insurance policy against any foreign intervention. I use the past tense intentionally here, because one cannot deny Hezbollah's capability to do anything, much less wage guerilla warfare, has been weakened considerably.
If the ultimate goal of the Bush administration is to dismantle the Iranian nuclear program, the Hezbollah threat must be mitigated. The pregnant silence preceding Bush even mentioning a formal ceasefire, at the very least, suggests the administration didn't want the killing to stop. Perhaps they had another plan. Perhaps by allowing, even endorsing, an Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, the administration effectively kills two birds with one guided missile.
First, destabilizing Hezbollah permits one of the region's only democracies, the recognized government of Lebanon, to assume greater power. Second, it debilitates Iran's insurance policy, giving the United States more leverage during negotiations with Iran.
More than anything else, George Orwell's genius existed in his ability to identify and declare eternal hostility toward ideologies of evil. He saw it in the details. So as Iran and the United States prod each other with shrouded statesmanship, it's well worth regarding this relatively minor skirmish in Lebanon as forming only part of the whole. Frightening though it may be, the Bush administration, admittedly, sees the Middle East as an erasable tablet upon which it can redraw the political lines. Until their campaign of creative destruction ceases, we should never imagine the fighting in Lebanon as being anything other than a symptom of disease -- the plagues of Western hubris and Islamic fundamentalism at the same place and time.
Dan Keyserling is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at dkeyserling@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 4 days agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | 5 days agoAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
YOUNIS: Why every U.Va. student should say yes to English
By Ayat Younis | January 9, 2025Every student at the University, regardless of their primary field of study, can professionally and academically benefit from engaging with the English department.
