Good for LaHood

It's amazing what a little personal experience and perspective can do for your outlook. Like Nancy Reagan with stem cell research. Like Chuck Hagel and other veterans with Iraq. And here's another example.

Ray LaHood is a Lebanese-American, a Republican, whose district (the Peoria, Illinois area) is also home to a share of Lebanese-Americans. And he's committed the heresy of calling for restraint and questioning the efficacy of attacking civilians.

LaHood, whose Peoria constituency includes a significant Lebanese-American community, expressed "grave concern" over the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon in a meeting with a senior State Department official Tuesday, he said.

The congressman said he recognized some parts of Beirut that Israeli warplanes have bombed in the past few days.

"I've been in a lot of these neighborhoods. And these are just common, ordinary, decent people who have [no part] in this fight at all. And I think it's wrong of them to do that," LaHood said. "Fair-minded Americans, when they think about what's going on there, I can't believe they agree with that."

LaHood was even stronger on NPR's Morning Edition, providing something we rarely see in American politics: some balanced opinion which doesn't take sides. There's no transcript, but I wrote one out. The first line is interesting:

I think that our government needs to use some restraint. (what does he know that we don't? -ed.) I'm very concerned about the innocent people that have been killed in Lebanon. I'm concerned about the fact that all roads leading out of Lebanon except to Syria have been closed up, and the airport has been closed. You know, I don't fault Israel for going into the southern part of the country and trying to find the soldiers and really trying to bring down Hezbollah. I don't see what good it does, though, to completely shut down the economy and shut down the country by closing the airport and closing all passage out. I don't know what value there is in that. I don't know what value there is in bombing innocent Lebanese people in areas where Hezbollah does not exist.

LaHood also criticized Lebanon for allowing President Lahoud to serve an additional term, in violation of the Constitution. Lahoud is a weak President, he said, and under his stewardship, Hezbollah has been allowed to take root in the southern part of the country.

Now, mind you, this is a Republican talking, someone who supports the war in Iraq, and generally supports the Bush foreign policy. But when you have visited your ancestral homeland multiple times, and your constituents traditionally visit over the summer, and you see them getting blasted and potentially maimed over something in which they have no part, it changes your mind. You tend to see the world in ways that aren't so black and white.

And I fully support this. Yes, it's kind of blind to see the bombing of innocents as wrong in one sphere and not wrong in another. But the personal touch can be the crowbar that progressives can use to force their way into the minds of ideological conservatives.

It's also good that Nancy Pelosi shamed the White House into waiving the fee requirement for civilians to get evacuated from Lebanon. But with attacks escalating and Israeli ground troops entering the country, the Democrats cannot sit by idly as chaos reigns. All Democrats in Congress have is their ability to speak up, the way Ray LaHood did. With the neocons hungry for widening the war, with some calling it a gift to the world, Democrats have a responsibility to push back. Let's help them by doing it ourselves and encouraging them to get in the arena.