Unexamined Assumptions

Everybody knows that Hamas and Hezbollah are puppets of Iran and Syria. How do we know these things? Because we are told constantly that everybody knows these things.

Of course everybody knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Eric Margolis is one of the most respected foreign correspondents in journalism and one of the few reasons to read the Sun chain. He's been on the ground in the Middle East and specifically in Lebanon for much of their most tragic recent history. He is by no means a blinkered idealist or an activist for any side in the current hostilities. He challenges what everybody knows:

Hezbollah, from my experience, is no mere cat's paw of Syria and Iran, but a fiercely independent-minded movement that is Lebanon's dominant political and military force. Though backed by Tehran and Damascus, Hezbollah pursues its own local interests, sometimes in opposition to its allies.

What 'everybody knows' just happens to support rhetoric about an 'axis of evil' and the drumbeats for regime change in Syria and Iran. What 'everybody knows' makes it easier to turn a blind eye to mass civilian deaths in retaliation for the capture of a handful of soldiers.

The occupied territories and Lebanon are two of the few democratic states in the Moslem world - what we say we want to happen. Now the Palestinians are being punished for voting the wrong way and Lebanon, an urbane secular democracy is being pounded into gravel.

Coincidently just as it's economy was starting to recover enough to make it a competitor to Israel.

But everybody knows that this whole mess is all Iran and Syria's fault, so not to worry.