The Nation Magazine and Human Rights Watch are both pleased that the Israeli war is over. They just didn’t want to take a stand.

Which is precisely what many liberals and progressives have done - tried to ignore and evade having to deal with the Lebanon invasion, except for the cynical ploy of using it to make Republicans look bad. I’m sure Lebanese returning to their bombed-out villages will feel buoyed by this progressive show of support and understanding.

This echoes quite precisely the reaction of many liberals and progressives at the start of the Iraq invasion. Their reaction was tepid at best. “Let the sanctions work”, they squealed, even while those same sanctions had caused the deaths of thousands of Iraqis. In the early days of that war, saying you were anti-war and that the invasion was based on lies got you incredulous stares. Now it’s a commonplace belief.

It wasn’t the “moderates” who organized the anti-war movement, it was the hard left, like the ANSWER Coalition who mobilized while too many liberals and progressives were silent and did little or nothing.

Now liberals and progressives are snoozing again. Ignoring the Lebanon war. Hoping they won’t have to deal with it. Well, it won’t go away and they will have to deal it. Whether they want to or not.

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