Quotes of the Morning: Breaking Off a Peace

“For the past month the United States has worked urgently to end the violence that Hezbollah and its sponsors have imposed on the people of Lebanon and Israel.”
-Washington Post, August 16, 2006

“Ah yes. We were in the center of it from the very beginning working hard to bring peace…”
-Skippy

“After all, I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling and it wouldn't have been clear what I was shuttling to do […] I have no interest in diplomacy for the sake of returning Lebanon and Israel to the status quo ante."
-Condoleeza Rice, July 21, 2006

“In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. ‘It’s a moment of clarification,’ President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. ‘It’s now become clear why we don’t have peace in the Middle East.’ He described the relationship between Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the ‘root causes of instability,’ and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end the crisis. Two days later, despite calls from several governments for the United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until ‘the conditions are conducive.’”
-Sy Hersh, The New Yorker, August 14, 2006

“Except for Condi. She was waiting for things to happen.”
-Skippy

"’I don't think there is an expectation that this (U.N.) force is going to physically disarm Hezbollah,’ Rice said. ‘I think it's a little bit of a misreading about how you disarm a militia. You have to have a plan, first of all, for the disarmament of the militia, and then the hope is that some people lay down their arms voluntarily.’
If Hezbollah resists international demands to disarm, Rice said, ‘one would have to assume that there will be others who are willing to call Hezbollah what we are willing to call it, which is a terrorist organization.’"
-USA Today, August 16, 2006

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but it takes a bombing run to really screw up someone’s afternoon. Yep, the U.S. is deeply involved in bringing peace between Lebanon and Israel.”
-Skippy

“The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.”
-Sy Hersh, The New Yorker, August 14, 2006