USC grad caught in Lebanon

The situation in Lebanon is deteriorating by the day, particularly on the civilian population. The scale of destruction is far worse than all previous wars.

Israeli bombardment is massive, mostly on civilians and infrastructure. More than 145 bridges have been destroyed, and thousands upon thousands of homes and businesses have been turned into rubble. About one million people or more than one-quarter of the population have been made refugees. The various provinces and districts of the country have been cut one from the other.

The aim is primarily to destroy Lebanon - more than targeting Hizballah as a fighting force. Hizballah's strength has not been much affected. Hizballah captured two Israeli soldiers in order to swap them for its own POWs held by Israel since the 1990s, but Israel did not return the POWs.

For the past three weeks Hizballah has been retaliating against Israel's aerial bombardment by targeting Israel with more than 100 or 200 missiles daily. Today (August 7), for instance, those missiles killed and injured more than 25 Israeli soldiers. However, in Lebanon the losses are much higher, mostly on innocent civilians.

This is the first war in which the U.S. administration is pushing and encouraging Israel to escalate more than Israel would want to. We are being made the victims of George W Bush and the neo-conservatives' Middle East schemes, pushed by the Jewish lobby. Our small country has been turned again into an ideological testing battleground by the conservative Republicans.

As to daily living - fuel, electricity, and various goods are increasingly in short supply, and the situation is getting worse by the day due to the sea, land, and air embargoes. Reports indicate that fuel can last for one more week, after which gasoline, gas, and electricity will be out and therefore water in urban areas such as where I live will be scarce or unavailable when pumps stop.

Roads are increasingly empty due to the scarcity of fuel and to the dangers of traveling on the roads because of Israeli air or naval bombardment. Israeli targeting of the civilian infrastructure and the population are clearly war crimes.

At any rate, these acts do not hurt Hizballah much since they are well-stocked underground. These punishments by Israel against civilians are not going to turn a tortured Lebanese population against Hizballah.

Israeli leaders and the Bush policy makers are short-sighted. Israel is stupidly and arrogantly victimizing the ordinary decent and friendly civilian people of Lebanon as guinea pigs, and repeatedly massacring them day after day.

For the past three weeks my wife, Rosine, and our children have rarely left the apartment where we live, and I travel by myself to get things done or get some necessities. Life under such circumstances degenerates into mere existence or basic survival. We had seen wars in Lebanon, but not as rancorous as this latest one by Israel, which is additionally encouraged by Bush and Blair.

The university where I teach has been closed and the summer teaching semester has been cancelled with losses to students, teachers, and the institution.

Peace for all,

Dr. Joseph Naim Salem

nsalem@ndu.edu.lb

Dr. Salem received his Ph.D. in government and international relations from the University of South Carolina. He is Catholic and holds a professorship at Notre Dame College in Beirut.