since everyone is so appalled with Isreal, here is an
article you all need to read:

http://digg.com/world_news/Hezbollah_s_Dangerous_Ball_Bearings




--- Kendall David Corbett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> This is an article about a student in my town, and
> the impact the Israel/Lebanon situation has had on
> him and his family.
> 
> Kendall 
> 
> An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's
> redundant!)
> 
> The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
> unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the
> world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on
> the unreasonable man.
> 
> -George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
> 
> 
> Violence hits close for UW student
> By JARED MILLER
> Star-Tribune staff writer Thursday, July 27, 2006
> 
> 
> 
> Richard Semaan, a Lebanese man studying at the
> University of Wyoming in Laramie, is struggling to
> keep tabs on family and friends displaced by the
> bombinig in his home country. Photo by Jaren Miller,
> Casper Star-Tribune.
>  
>  
> LARAMIE -- Richard Semaan is a busy University of
> Wyoming doctoral student, but these days he spends
> most of his time watching TV and surfing the Web.
> 
> The 26-year-old Lebanese man carefully monitors
> 24-hour news channels and scours Arabic and English
> Web sites for any scraps of information about his
> embattled country.
> 
> "If you have somebody in the line of fire, how
> productive can you be?" said Semaan, who studies a
> specialized engineering field called experimental
> turbulence.
> 
> Semaan's parents and his older brother last week
> fled the Beirut suburbs for the mountains after food
> and water became scarce and a bomb exploded nearby.
> They're betting Israel won't target the rural,
> Christian area, he said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "Something must go terribly, terribly wrong to be
> hit there," Semaan said.
> 
> Contact with his mother, a retired teacher, and his
> father, a retired accountant, has been spotty since
> the move. He said Israeli forces have attacked
> communication towers, and the family's rented
> apartment has no telephone service.
> 
> However, Semaan regularly discusses the war with
> friends in Lebanon who say they feel helpless
> against the bombardment. Semaan struggles with
> conflicting emotions as he watches coverage of
> Israeli warplanes pummeling his country.
> 
> "I can't tell you I wish I was there -- I'll be in
> the line of danger," Semaan said. "But at the same
> time, for some reason I'm wishing I was there."
> 
> Semaan is no stranger to war. He's too young to
> remember the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, but
> his family suffered major losses in the subsequent
> civil wars that made Beirut a poster child for
> Middle East violence in the 1990s.
> 
> "Our house got totally destroyed in that war,"
> Semaan said. "It was burned to the ground, and we
> virtually lost everything there, and we had to
> rebuild.
> 
> "From that experience, I can relate to what's
> happening now. It's a big tragedy."
> 
> Semaan was vacationing in Lebanon a day before
> Hezbollah guerillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
> Within hours, Israeli forces unleashed a nearly
> relentless assault on Lebanon that has killed
> roughly 400 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and
> displaced more than 500,000, according to wire
> reports. Hezbollah continues to shell parts of
> northern Israel in retaliation.
> 
> Semaan said Hezbollah made a strategic mistake by
> snatching the soldiers, and now the Lebanese people
> are being "collectively punished" for its actions.
> The proof, he said, is the targets Israel is
> choosing.
> 
> "Some of the targets are unexplainable," he said.
> "They're hitting lighthouses, wheat silos, farms,
> factories. What does that have to do with
> Hezbollah?"
> 
> Israel, meanwhile, says Hezbollah fighters use
> civilian areas to conceal their arsenal of missiles
> and take human shields.
> 
> What's more demoralizing, Semaan said, is that
> Lebanon had been undergoing massive rebuilding since
> the end of the civil war in 2000 and was expecting a
> strong tourist season.
> 
> "We just want to be in peace, and Lebanon has paid a
> really, really heavy price for the conflicts in the
> region," he said.
> 
> Semaan also is saddened by the U.S. government's
> position on the war, which is to allow the Israeli
> bombardment to continue until Hezbollah is crippled.
> President Bush has declined to call for an end to
> the bombing.
> 
> "What I learned when I arrived here is you have to
> make a difference between U.S. foreign policy and
> the American people," Semaan said. "But it's
> apparent that the United States has always backed
> Israel in all its wars and all its conflicts with
> its neighbors."
> 
> Semaan said many Lebanese, including himself, would
> like to see Hezbollah disarmed and a lasting peace
> in the region. But he predicts the destruction will
> deepen sympathy for the radical Islamic group, and
> could embolden a new generation of guerilla
> fighters.
> 
> The Bush administration views Hezbollah as a
> terrorist group, but many Lebanese see it as an army
> of "freedom fighters" credited with ending the
> Israeli occupation, Semaan said.
> 
> The violence "will only increase radicalism," he
> said. "What's happening is despite a lot of people
> in Lebanon not wanting Hezbollah to remain armed,
> now people are having sympathy for them because
> basically if you're looking at your country being
> destroyed, you don't care who's hitting back."
> 
> Over the next few days, Semaan knows he must return
> to his studies, but he fears a humanitarian crisis
> and worries that his country won't have the means to
> rebuild again.
> 
> "There is nothing left standing," Semaan said. "I
> can see the only way for us coming back is with
> international help."
> 
> Semaan believes an end to the immediate violence
> will require work by the United States and all the
> regional players.
> 
> He is less optimistic about the chances for
> sustained peace in Lebanon and the Middle East.
> 
> "I don't see it now," he said, shaking his head. "I
> don't see it now."
> 
> Reach reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> Kendall Corbett
> Coordinator of Consumer Activities 
> Wyoming INstitute for Disabilities - WIND
> College of Health Sciences
> University of Wyoming
> 1000 E. University Avenue, Dept. 4298
> Laramie, WY  82070
> (307) 766-2853
> [log in to unmask]
> www.wind.uwyo.edu
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kendall David Corbett
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
> Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 1:27 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [C-PALSY] Disability Rights (now
> mideast crisis?)
> 
> If I remember correctly, the present Israeli/Hamas
> conflict started when
> Israel attacked Lebanon after the kidnapping of an
> Israeli soldier.
> Soldiers go into the service knowing that they'll be
> in harm's way.
> Poorly targeted mortar attacks don't seem to be an
> appropriate response
> 
=== message truncated ===


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