We beat you!

When I pulled over to the curb to let his father’s car into the driveway first, my three year old Grandson was gleeful.  “We beat you!” he said.  What’s funny for a small child is less funny for an adult, yet if you ask anyone with an obviously fast car how many times a day someone pulls a dumb and dangerous stunt so he can claim the same kind of victory, I’m sure you’ll hear plenty of examples.  From Bentleys to econo-boxes, the guy you left a quarter mile behind at the last stop light or toll booth will come booming past you a minute later so he can say “I beat you!”  Unless his car can top 190 Mph, his victory mostly illustrates my restraint and of course, my small portion of sanity.

A CNN poll today asks us who will receive the greater perception of Victory because of the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.  So far, 60% say it won’t be Israel.  That Israel could vaporize Lebanon, Tehran and Damascus and did not, serves to qualify Hezbollah’s inevitable claim to glory and the inevitable perception that they won something noble by demolishing their host country in the name of whatever it is they seek.  

Both sides can claim victory if Victory is only survival. Israel will recover from the damage and expense much faster than Lebanon, yet it’s the guy who, breaking all the rules of law and decency passes you and gives you the finger, feels better about it.  There is no prize for real victory in traffic or in the Middle East.  The prize goes to the loser who gets the respect of all the other losers who resent anyone who has more.  

If the “peace” holds, Israel will bury the dead, clean up the streets, rebuild the buildings and go back to work.  If the “Peace” holds, men with guns will whoop it up in the streets of Beirut and dance in the smoking ruins of what was a beautiful city and was almost a place of prosperity, learning and culture.  “We beat you!”