Israel/Palestine

It is hard to determine the degree to which the Butcher of Beirut (1982, for those who have forgotten) made U.S. foreign policy vs. Washington making Sharon, but the evolution of U.S./Israeli policies toward Islam from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 through the U.S. invasion of Iraq and today's endless Presidential war by drone against whatever Muslim he is pleased to attack is one of mutual support, mutual inspiration, and group think in a vicious cycle of self-defeating violence.

One of many sources noting the linkages between current U.S. and Israeli tactics is the Christian Science Monitor (4-20-04 - http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0420/p05s01-woiq.html) following the U.S.attack on Fallujah: "Even if we crush the resistance, it is only temporary," warns Charles Smith, head of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona. "There are too many cases, like in Israel, of [US forces] doing target practice on anything that moves. What you are doing is creating more terrorism against yourself."

The "endless war" against radical Islam that U.S. empire-builders so much like to rave about and the trap that the U.S. has created for itself in the Muslim world (defeats or costly yet only temporary military "victories" in Somalia, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan) are very much Sharon's legacy.