[Peace-discuss] Gill on lebanese war

[C. G. Estabrook]

[I asked David Gill, the Democratic candidate for Congress in our 
district, about his views on the Lebanese war.  His answer (and my 
reply) are below.  I'll post any follow-up.  --CGE]

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David--

I may have missed it, but I haven't seen anything from you on the 
Lebanese war.  Would you have a statement about it that I could post to 
the mailing list of AWARE, our local anti-war group?

Regards,
Carl

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Hi Carl,

While the actions of Hezbollah were immoral and violated international 
law, I agree with many observers around the world who feel that the 
Israeli response has been woefully excessive.  The Bush Administration 
has also been irresponsible in failing to join the rest of the Security 
Council in their early calls for a cease fire.

Best wishes,
David

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David--

With the further perspective of a month, I hope you'll agree that 
"excessive" and "irresponsible" are inappropriate to characterize the 
actions of Israel and the US respectively.  The word "criminal" would do 
better in both cases.

Would Israel have been justified in killing only half as many civilians, 
or destroying only half as much of Lebanon?  Did US support for what all 
  agree was a long-planned assault result from inattention?

It's not errors in the application of policy that need to be corrected: 
the policies of the US and its chief client need to be reversed in the 
Middle East in general -- notably in regard to the Palestinians. 
Hezbollah said that they were acting in sympathy with the Palestinians, 
and, although it was not much reported here, Israel ravaged the occupied 
territories while it was attacking Lebanon.

The shocking response of the Democratic party was to condemn our Iraqi 
puppet prime minister for not supporting the Israeli assault!

Unlike most of your Democratic colleagues, do you actually support the 
ending of US and Israeli occupations in the Middle East?  Your answer to 
my earlier question about the Champaign-Urbana referendums left me 
puzzled.  Would you in fact vote for them?

Regards, Carl

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