US Client State Invades Lebanon and Battles the Democratically Elected Government of Hezbollah

The 14-16 July weekend edition of USA Today has as its primary cover story a piece about Israeli terrorism entitled "Mideast nears regional war." From the beginning of the narrative, Israel is portrayed as the protagonist who launches aerial attacks on "enemy strongholds in Lebanon." This was purportedly done in response to Hezbollah attacking Israeli towns with rockets. The initial problem that I have with this rhetorical dichotomy of Hezbollah and Lebanon is that Hezbollah is a democratically elected major party in Lebanon, credited by the Council on Foreign Relations as having 14 seats in Lebanon's 128-member parliament (though I believe it may have more) with 2 ministers in government and a third supported by Hezbollah. So in essence, a reference to Hezbollah is really a reference to the Lebanese government. The US State Department labels Hezbollah as a terrorist group and in March 2005 passed a resolution condemning Hezbollah 380 to 3 (thanks to all the Democrats for their courage in confronting the use of rhetoric to cause misperceptions in pursuing neoliberal/neoconservative foreign policy objectives. Mid East scholar Stephen Zunes contacted and queried congressional offices about the specifics of the terror attacks by Hezbollah in the last decade, no examples could be given. The US does not support Lebanese democracy, because the US only supports democracy that in turn supports neoliberal corporate mercantilism. Hezbollah is actually a politically legitimate group organized in 1982 that was effective in deterring Israel's illegal (declared so by the UN Security Council in its efforts to order Israeli withdrawal) US supported invasion of Lebanon (See Noam Chomsky's Failed States). It is actually not unfair to identify the "nation" of Israel as a giant US military base, thus support for Israel is not really support for the average Jew, purported to be "God's Chosen People." This assertion of Jew's and Israel as chosen by God is really the reason why so many Americans tacitly support the nation of Israel and its illegal, immoral invasion of foreign lands and its historical claim to which is does is not legitimate. This myth has been perpetuated by unscrupulous Christian demagogues such as Pat Robertson, who are really just mouthpieces for the Military Industrial Congressional Complex and their respective neoliberal corporate agenda which far from perpetuates the ideals of the truly pacific faith of Christianity.
The USA Today article mentions that Hezbollah is blamed for a suicide bombing in Beirut in 1983 that killed 241 US Marines, perhaps to inflame US hatred of Hezbollah. When I was assigned to HHC Brigade 187 Infantry Regiment I served under the command of one CPL Collins who was a Marine living in the barracks in Beirut when a truck was pulled up to the building and an explosive device detonated. Incidentally, CPL Collins was featured in Michael Moore's Farenheight 911; he was the thin Soldier who mentioned that when returned to his hometown he would become involved in the Democratic Party after years of being a conservative. The article states that Hezbollah seeks the "destruction of Israel." A more appropriate context for this rhetoric may be that Hezbollah and the Lebanese people that they were elected by, seek to reclaim the Palestinian lands that Israel stole illegally in the 1950's in a military takeover. Indeed, Israel's "right to exist" is in fact questionable. Both sides of the conflict present logical plausible arguments, something that should be dealt with, at length, elsewhere...