Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to You got nothing.

you mis-read
alcaray — (archived)

It seems that everywhere I said central government, you read Hezbollah. Was that on purpose?

So you don't think there's any way to build up the Lebanese central government and get them to support the war on terror. OK, that's a valid, if politically convenient belief. I don't think that any amount of force short of nuclear sterilization of all life in Lebanon can destroy Hezbollah, if the citizens don't want you to destroy H.

As far as motivations are concerned, yeh foreign aid is one of many carrots in the patch (I guess that's what you meant by "bribe"). There are a lot of sticks too, but: you have to be careful with the sticks because they screw up the whole hearts and minds effort. Sometimes sticks can be behind the scenes and out of the news. If they leak though, then can be a bigger disaster than if you just publicly threatened to bomb their airport.

The best method is the liberal application of time. The Lebanese people and their government (mostly) are quite liberal. They will become more so if we don't push them into the camp of the enemy.

Man, the Lebanese are just figuring out how to be a democracy without the Syrians. This shit is not helping.

Feuds only end in one of two ways; 1) one or both factions are entirely destroyed, 2) Over time both of the sides gradually decide they no longer want the feud. That's it. That's all there is to choose from. Maybe it makes sense to go for #1 if your side actually has the means to obliterate completely the other side. But if you don't have those means, isn't it stupid to keep trying? There are ways to encourage outcome #2.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (53 posts)