Cerebus is Dead
Growing up in a small town in the 80s, meant I didn't have a real comic book store. I had to rely on newstands which meant my choices were the standard DC and Marvel comics -- with tragically brief spells when Eclipse or Comico tried to do newstand distribution. It wasn't until I went to
college when I first had
a real comic book store to feed my addiction. I'm not saying that I needed an intervention, but 10+ years after I left Pittsburgh, I can still stop by the Phantom and Jeff still knows me on sight by name.
Well, a comic I yearned to collect but there was no way I could afford the numerous collections already assembled was
Cerebus. I remember an interview with the creator, Dave Sim, who said he had always planned to have the last issue of
Cerebus be #300 and it would be the title character's death. Well
Cerebus has ended.
While still on my comic geek run, I note that
Grendel has been optioned for a movie version. It would be the 2nd Grendel, Christine Spar, which was actually my first introduction to the Grendel character. Just because it has been optioned, is no guarantee but it is something to note.
Getting even more bizarre would be
a movie version of the cocaine crazed/induced Bill Sienkiewicz mini series from 1988-89 Stray Toasters. Trust me, the synopsis of the plot in the link doesn't even begin to come close to how bizarre that was.
Good.
That was my reaction when I read that Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas founder and leader was finally taken out by the Israeli military. It wasn't cheering. It wasn't joy, or relief, or a thrill. It was the same feeling I get when I take out a wasp nest around my house -- necessity. Just as
Israel going after more terrorist leaders in the future is a necessity.
Yassin wasn't some moderate. He wasn't someone you could negotiate with. He wanted all of Israel, and the Jews pushed into the sea for an Islamofascist-Taliban-esque state. He even
spelled it out. Meryl Yourish has a collection of some of his
statements on Israel and peace. Tell me where the starting off point for negotiations would be? Don't kill as many Jews?
So you have the usual hand wringing and screaming that this will inflame the Arab Street (
when isn't it inflamed?), that this is a setback to the Middle East peace process (
because so much progress has been made recently), and how this will result in more suicide bombing attempts in Israel/won't stop them (
suicide bombing attempts are sadly made every day, it's unlikely Hamas has the resources or materials to increase by any noticeable amount, and who said this would stop them?).
Anyone who believes that the next suicide bomb in Israel wouldn't have happened if Yassin hadn't been assinated is deluding themselves. The Palestinian Terrorists have no shortage of excuses to try and blow up civilians. It is not like they have a department that tracks and checks things off as they go? (
Hmm. That last one was for Ted, he's covered. Oh, wait, that was for Bill in accounting. Geez, I have to move Yassin up to where. Do they understand the backlog we have here?)
So of course, the local paper, the Cleveland
Plain Dealer Editorial Board (
PDEB) charges forward.
Monday's killing of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin as he left the mosque where he prayed five times daily will do nothing to quell the suicide bombers.
So he liked to pray. As I recall, so did the Rev. Jim Jones.
If anything, the reckless act will broaden the violence by giving new power to younger terrorists who want to increase the scope of battle to worldwide jihad.
Disturbingly, Hamas now threatens to go after Americans, too. Such a possibility must be taken seriously.
Worldwide? You mean there is a risk of Islamic terrorists striking in America? Maybe in Spain? Oh. Wait.
The Palestinian terrorists already have gone after Americans. Have they totally forgotten their own outrage from
last October?
The killing also will accelerate Hamas' bid to supplant Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement as the most powerful political force in the Palestinian territories - without its older, more seasoned leaders. Last August, Israel assassinated Hamas co-founder Ismail Abu Shanab, considered among the group's more moderate voices.
Yes, the older, more seasoned Palestinian leaders who have shown such moderation and restraint over the years. They seemed very restrained with that Passover Massacre a couple years ago. As for the moderate voice, exactly how moderate? He was a leader of an organization that has it in their charter that Israel is to be destroyed. Was he going to let all of the Jews leave, rather than kill them?
Yassin was not the mere preacher he claimed to be. Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's depiction of him as a "mass murderer" seems closer to the mark. Yassin founded Hamas in 1987 to drive Jews into the sea.
"Closer to the mark?"
Yet this hit lacks obvious military payoffs. It's unlikely the isolated, infirm Yassin was a chief cog in the operations arm of Hamas. Rather, at a time when Sharon is trying to muster support for his Gaza pullout plan, killing Yassin appears to be a reckless gamble to shore up Sharon's tottering right-wing coalition.
"Obvious military payoffs" are the requirement to take out the founder and leader of an organization that has killed hundreds of Israelis over the years? A creature who has encouraged, supported, and developed the glorification of suicide bombers as "martyrs" and the deaths of goal of killing as many Israelis in public, civilian areas as possible.
U.S. officials whose reaction was unaccountably muted should condemn the Yassin killing as unwise and ill-timed. Sharon also should be told to put off his planned April visit to Washington.
The killing of Yassin is yet another indication that Sharon is taking Israel down the wrong path. The hit can only result in wider bloodshed and suffering.
Yes, we have the "cycle of violence" inference.
Dialogue still remains the best answer to breaching the divide of hate and violence. Most Palestinians don't understand how suicide bombings drive Israel's response, dictating military retorts, fence building and targeted assassinations. Most Israelis don't understand how Palestinian attitudes are rooted in the land - and how the squeezing of more Palestinians on to smaller and smaller plots of land is seen as aggression at its most bald.
There is a bridge to be found, but it will not be discovered through further killings.
You know what Israelis have learned, and the PDEB -- which just hates Sharon -- doesn't get.
This.
The overall support for the Yassin assasination, though not always enthusiastic, is nearly unanimous, notably among those centrists to center-lefties like myself, who would have opposed such a move vehemently until a very short time ago.
Obviously, everyone thinks that its morally justified, as he is directly responsible for so many murders.
But what has changed is the calculation as to whether or not it was strategically wise.
Whenever I challenged someone with the old arguments, by saying, "But aren't you worried about the retaliation? Don't you think this is going to provoke some terrible terror attacks? Isn't it just going to make things worse?" the response was the same: "And you think that if we DIDN'T kill Yassin there wouldn't be terror attacks? What exactly has been happening up till now? Every day they are trying to attack us? How exactly could it GET any worse?"
That is what these three-plus years of Intifada have done to the Israeli public.
They see that when we try to make nice and compromise we get terror attacks. And when we're tough and aggressive we get terror attacks. Nothing we do seems to lower the motivation to slaughter Israeli civilians -- men, women, or children -- and in the case of Hamas, to see the state of Israel destroyed. So since there's absolutely nothing to lose by getting Yassin, and something to possibly gain -- at least temporarily derailing the Hamas leadership structure, and hopefully weakening it long-term -- so why not go ahead and do it?
It's a similar equation as the fence. Yes, building this fence is pissing off the Palestinians big-time. But does anyone think that if we stopped building it, they would be so happy and grateful, terror attacks would stop? No. No fence equals attempts at terror attacks, and a fence equals attempts at terror attacks. So why in the world shouldn't we support building a fence in the hopes of foiling a number of these attacks?
With nothing left to lose, let's try to do what we can to protect ourselves. That's the sentiment of the man on the street.
Thankfully, some editorial boards get it. Like
in Ottawa
Whether yesterday's assassination of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin was a good thing depends on the answer to two questions: 1) Is the world better off without Sheik Yassin? and 2) Was it in Israel's strategic interest to kill him? In both cases, the answer is yes.
...
Clearly, the world is better off without Mr. Yassin. But should Israel have been the one to provide that service? The usual suspects, from Amnesty International to Canada's Foreign Minister Bill Graham, have condemned Israel for carrying out an "extra-judicial killing." Meanwhile, the Arab street is inflamed. In the best of times it's easy to find crowds chanting "Death to the Jews," but in Gaza some 200,000 took to the street. Could it be that the benefits of eliminating Mr. Yassin are outweighed by the costs, such as renewed terrorism and international criticism?
We don't think so. Killing Mr. Yassin hasn't made Israel more vulnerable to attack. For Hamas, the fact of Israel's existence was always sufficient motive. When Israel elects left-wing governments, Hamas sees it as a sign of weakness and calls for more martyrs. When Israel elects hawkish governments, Hamas sees it as provocation and calls for more martyrs.
The same applies to international opinion. In many quarters, dislike of Israel seems unconnected to any particular policy the Jewish state undertakes. In the 1980s, Israel was condemned for refusing to accept a two-state solution. In the 1990s, after accepting in principle a two-state solution, Israel was condemned for not acquiescing to national suicide and allowing Palestinian refugees to flood Israel proper. Israelis learned long ago that showing restraint in the face of terrorism earns them no favour, either with the United Nations or with the terrorists.
Still Just Basketball
Recapping
Day 2 of Round 2. Along with Conference and bracket comments.
Specifically focused on the
Wisconsin-Pitt game.
