WaPo's Shadid Goes Native: Hezbo Threatens USA

A careful reading of the Hezbo-adulation written by Anthony Shadid reveals three sub-texts. First, the Hezbo-militia, described in the fawning headline as having "patient loyalists, confident in victory are described as brave and fearless, as well as elusive and clever. Okay, that's the necessary foundation of the classic guerrila warfare manual.

Before I was in Vietnam, we students at the Vietnam Training Center in Arlington studied Vietnamese by day and were asked to read descriptions of low-intensity warfare in the Filipino Huk insurgency after indepencence in 1946 and the Malaya uprising of the fifties. Careless layabouts don't volunteer for guerrila warfare. Shadid mentions the many separate arms caches the Hezbo-wraiths have access to, without noting that the armaments they have are gratis from Iran, with expedited transit via Syria a necessity.

Subtext two: Shadid and his WaPo minders allow Anthony's slavish encomiums to the doughty Hezbo "resistance" to go unchecked for several paragraphs, then reveal their obvious bias with a slight oversight in the sum-up:

The ideological discipline of Hezbollah is often evident in interviews: The outlines of positions come in the speeches of Hezbollah's leader, Hasan Nasrallah, and they are often repeated verbatim by the rank and file. The men here said Hezbollah would keep its arms, whatever the sacrifices, until Israel frees Lebanese prisoners it holds and relinquishes Shebaa Farms, Israeli-occupied territory that Hezbollah claims is Lebanese and Israel views as Syrian.

The Hezbo-megaphone holders at the post allow Shadid to get away with the last tidbit of Hezbo-agitprop with the following disinformation:

"Israeli-occupied territory that Hezbollah claims is Lebanese and Israel views as Syrian."

As Nancy Soderberg, a Clinton-NSC member noted in the Financial Times on Monday, Shebaa Farms is recognized by the US and the UN as Syrian territory, not just by Israel. As even the anti-Israeli Kofi Annan noted in Jan 20, 2005:

"The continually asserted position of the Government of Lebanon that the Blue Line is not valid in the Shab'a farms area is not compatible with Security Council resolutions [242 & 425]."

Which translates into US-speak as, Shebaa Farms are Syrian, and the Lebanese/Syrian cabal to portray it as Lebanese is fraudulent.

Just like the WaPo's journalistic standards and Anthony Shadid's reportage.

Finally, to make a trifecta of Hezbo-tilting subtexts: the trumped-up little local warlord ["Abu Ali"]interviewed by Shadid noted:

"We're now fighting a war against America, not just Israel," he said. "We see these are American decisions being carried out." Asked what that meant, he paused, then answered: "There are no borders to our self-defense."

Shadid quotes a Hezbo-terrorist parroting Nasrullah as threatening America because, just as Hamas early this year justified a suicide-bomber who killed nine people [plus itself] in a Jerusalem marketplace, aggressive terrorism across borders is an act of "self-defense."

Will Detroit will be the next frontline after Shebaa Farms falls to the Hezbo-mullahs?