Heroes, Villains, and the Leaders Who Use Them

Regarding the exchange of prisoners and corpses between Lebanon and Israel today, and sparked by a discussion at Josh Landis' blog:

One thing I noticed about Sami Quntar is that he was seventeen years old when he took part in the terrorist action in Israel for which he was convicted. He had been living as a child soldier, fighting with the militias in Beirut, since he was thirteen; he was from a broken home and being raised by a stepmother before he left to become a “fighter.”

I don’t like this propaganda blathering over Quntar either, and I am not trying to excuse the action of killing a father and child. I am pointing out that like many other juveniles involved in fighting during Lebanon’s civil war, Quntar in 1979 was out of control and fatherless and almost feral. War is grotesque, and strife like what we saw in Lebanon and what we see now in Iraq produces people who commit actions that are beyond belief. I think it’s situational, and that if such lost souls were not in the middle of civil disorder, they would be stealing cars and getting into fistfights. To make him into a towering monster or a valiant hero is to lose sight of who he really was in 1979 when he killed (or did not kill -see his story) those people.

The bigger picture is - if you want to get emotionally caught up in the propaganda stories of the different sides, then you will find plenty of reasons to confirm your beliefs - that your enemy is evil, barbaric, brutal and sub-human, that he worships bloodshed and butchery, that he has no mercy for you or your children.

This view is natural, but somewhat unevolved and does not include enough information about how humans operate.

I prescribe that all of you (at Syria Comment arguing about the reception of Quntar in Beirut today) take a deep breath and step back from the TV and the computer. Remember that all political leaders will use almost any barbarity to promote their own agendas. They will use the flag and patriotism and worship of their own fallen to push their followers to do things that defy common sense. Don’t fall for it in your own leaders, and don’t take it too seriously in the leaders of your enemies.

(Prime example: G.W. Bush using 9/11/01 to lead America into war against Iraq.)

Regarding visiting or not visiting Lebanon (not that Lebanese are weeping because of AIG’s snub): I live in America even though my government and its proxies have committed many, many crimes against people everywhere. What am I going to do, leave the country of my birth to become homeless, stateless? I plan to visit Lebanon and Syria even though all kinds of criminals live there, many of them leaders. I will drive through Ain el Helweh on my way to my village, even though somebody in that camp knows who killed my grandmother and how. In fact I might even meet residents of Ain el Helweh and shake their hands, not knowing who was involved in the death of my grandmother and the sack of my village in 1985. And in my village I will surely shake the hands of neighbors or even distant relations who collaborated with Israel, or beat up Palestinians, or invited right-wing Christian militia in to start the problems that led to 1985.

A Semitic prophet once said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” I have learned that human beings are profoundly fallible, as I am, and whatever darkness I see in someone else’s heart also lurks in my own.

I hope, with humility and a bit of despair, that this rant might persuade at least one of you to question your belief that your enemies are profoundly evil and not like you or your side at all. I’m sorry, but what you accuse your enemy of is too often true of your comrade, your countryman, your president as well.

(reposted from comments at Syria Comment blog)

Comments

[Richard Silverstein]

Brava and I agree. Thank you for your humanity which is always bracing & reassuring. And for pointing out Kuntar's status as a child soldier at the tail end of the Lebanese civil war. This puts his crime into a diff. context (while not excusing it).

My only concern is that Hezbollah has gained yet another victory in a string of recent ones. I'd rather see Hezbollah weaker than stronger. Though I realize that the movement will never be wiped out entirely till Lebanon is fully at peace (& perhaps not even then).

[Shirin]

Your so right that evil we see in others often lurks within ourselves and that we need not look to the other side (so often the Middle East) to find examples of horror when we can find such horrors merely be looking around ourselves.

[G Hazeltine]

I generally agree, but there an important issue here, which you refer to only in passing: the assumption that Kuntar is guilty is just that, an assumption. The integrity of his "trial" does not inspire confidence, to say the least

http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2008/07/word-on-samir-kuntar.html

Regarding the context to which you refer, Israel in Lebanon, and the civil wars, I wonder if you have seen _God Cried_, by Catherine Leroy and Tony Clifton. Clifton had been London bureau chief for Newsweek, and Leroy is one of the great war photographers. Long out of print, but available used on Amazon. A powerful book.

[Eran]

>A Semitic prophet once said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Would it kill you to say that Jesus was Jewish? Is it too shameful to admit?

[Abu Sinan]

G Hazeltine has a point. To this day Samir claims he didnt kill the girl, rather she was killed by Israeli gun fire. He claims his admissions were done under torture.

Knowing what we do about the Israelis, what he has said is entirely possible.