Posted on 08/14/2006 4:49:56 AM PDT by unionblue83
This morning, Israeli forces will have ceased fire in Lebanon, forced by their government to accept a strategic defeat in the month-long war against Hizballah. Almost any military can recover from tactical losses, but nations are usually powerless to avoid defeat after losing a strategic battle. For World War II Japan, defeat was still three years away when the last of four aircraft carriers was sunk by Adm. Ray Spruance's dive bombers and torpedo planes in the battle of Midway. For Israel, defeat may come much sooner if it doesn't mend its prime minister's ways. Yamamoto had to explain his defeat to Emperor Hirohito, who left him in command. Olmert has to explain his to the Israeli electorate. They must be less forgiving because their time is measured not in years but in weeks or months.
Since July 12, when Hizballah raided into northern Israel and kidnapped two soldiers, Hassan Nasrallah's terrorist brigades have fired hundreds of rockets each day into Israel, killing civilians and driving about one million Israelis into bomb shelters. In answer to that, the Olmert government sent Israeli aircraft and commandos into Lebanon to strike at Hizballah's well-dug-in command centers, arms caches, and armed units. Though it has suffered enormous damage, Hizballah continues its rocket attacks. Yesterday, more than 200 rockets struck, some as far south as Haifa.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
ping.
he's right. the Israeli PM must go asap to be replaced by military-savvy, strong leadership.
Bibi Netanyahu.
I have been disappointed in Olmert's leadership. Ambiguity has rarely worked for Israel. Israel misses Sharon's experienced leadership. Compromise does not work with terrorists. You have to kill them. Israel accomplished some destruction of Hezbollah's infrastructure, but allowing them to stay in Southern Lebanon was a huge mistake. If the cease fire fails, and it probably will, rooting out Hezbollah will be harder with all the useless UN troops that will be there.
Oh, how horribly true. Olmert's a t**d that's got to be flushed.
Olmert=Jimmy Carter+Lyndon Johnson+BJ Clinton.
Great equation; wish I'd come up with it myself. Israel's problem is they have a host of libs, just like ours, who think exactly that way and are gradually killing the country.
"Bibi..."--- hopefully.
Like my granddaddy used to say, "Do you know what that white stuff is that you find on the top of chicken manure? Well, that's chickenshit, too."
Incompetent leadership is certainly magnified when a heavy dose of cowardice is put right on top of it.
Nasrallah's victory says that democracies can be counted on to fight on the enemy's terms, disdaining the capability they have to win.
Important point. Much has been said about proportionalism, as if the West has to keep one hand tied behind its back in the fight this bizarre enemy, simply because we are more technologically advanced and therefore it wouldn't be a "fair" or proportional response to them if we used our full forces. The problem is that they have a different type of advantage: not technological, but the very fact of their dispersed, non-military, civilian based warfare, which actually gives them an advantage over us because we abide by the rules and they don't. I'm not sure how this can be dealt with; perhaps, as the author implies, what we really have to do is sit down and decide that we want to win, that we need to win, that we must win - and then do it.
Tough talking candidate with the right answers wimped out bigtime last time he held that post.
"Bibi Netanyahu."
Never crazy about Bibi. I think they need a more active personality.
"Bibi Netanyahu.
Tough talking candidate with the right answers wimped out bigtime last time he held that post."
Agreed. Too much of a "fact finder".
'til the West stops bein anxious 'bout killin civilian shields, all military/war talk is blather.
Incredibly, this does seem to be the case. It's like worrying about what the enemy thinks of your uniform while you're being shot at. We've got to get over this irrational and pernicious fear and accept the fact that there are vicious people in the world who would do us harm. They are going to hate us no matter what we say or do. But they can be made to respect us.
If that's original, you just coined a great term.
If Israel does not make the appropriate changes, the US needs to be prepared to accept millions of Israeli refugees as Israel depopulates over the next ten years.
Babbin is dead right. Hitler has once again humiliated Chamberlain, though Olmert is too delusional to realize it. It is time for Isreal to pull its Churchill off the bench. Before it is too late.
Think about when Sherman marched across Georgia. Civilian based warefare would have made absolutely no impact on his mission.
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