Does it matter?

WARNING: Poorly written unedited rant.

Reading the news the last week or so has been very sad. I'm not sad, I'm pissed. The NEWS is sad. Yes, I'm talking about Israel. The biggest thing that makes me mad is that it seems so many otherwise smart people are being played like a well tuned violin.

I may have said this before, but when the fur (and bombs) started flying I tried to find out WHY Israel was lobbing missiles. I mean, I knew that people had been shooting, bombing, and otherwise blowing up Israelis but in today's international environment I couldn't imagine that this would cause a country to FIGHT. I mean, WE sucked it up when someone tried to blow up the World Trade Center (1990's remember? It was a law enforcement issue.). We didn't mind so much when someone tried to kill off a former president. A Navy ship here, a few potshots at our aircraft there. In modern times these are no longer incidents that are bad enough to go to war over. Unless, of course you are Israel and your lives depend on it.

Now we get into the angry. I've read much about the death and loss of life in Lebanon. These stories are always told with the greatest sympathy. It's tragic. The innocents. And it's all true. But there are two things missing from this. 1) You never hear about these same kind of stories in Israel. 2) They never mention that the reason the orphanage got hit was because Hezbollah put a MISSILE INSTALATION next to or INSIDE it!

The great crime is that we are being told that they are "ALL messed up". Everybody's bad. War is tragic for all sides. If only we could get along. And I think this is grossly dishonest. If I blow up you house, your mom's house, your brother's house, and make announcements on the news that I will not rest until your whole family is dead and then you KILL me, that is not revenge. It's preventing me from doing more of the harm that I have promised to do and have demonstrated that I will do. And if I say "Ok, stop shooting, let's get along" and then blow up another house after you quit, maybe you might not take my word so much the next time.

I'm not always very coherent on this subject. Star Wars DVDs, I've got the moral high ground there. This, maybe not so much. Which leads me to my main question:

Does this matter? Does my consciousness and righteous rage mean anything here? Even if I'm 100% right (and I'm sure I'm not, but I'll bet I'm in the 80s) does it DO anything? Is anything going to change? No-one else seems to care, why should I? We'll negotiate with Iran, the leadership of Palestine will get everything they want and still say that Israel must not exist. Man, our president refers to an Axis of Evil and it is the WORST thing, well, since our president called the U.S.S.R. (murdering millions of it's own) an Evil Empire. But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that a neighboring country must be DESTROYED and it's rhetoric. Don't take it seriously. (Why is it ok for us to have nukes, but not for North Korea or Iran to have them? Because they're going to USE them on someone!)

So MY blood pressure is up, but should it be? Why do I worry? I have a wife and a mortgage to worry about. There's nothing I can do about it now. And it's all such a long way from here.