Posted on 08/01/2006 5:02:28 PM PDT by danno3150
The war in Lebanon must not end short of its logical conclusion. Its logical conclusion is not the successful use of human shields by Hezbollah to hamstring the Israeli Defense Forces. Its logical conclusion is the destruction of Hezbollah as a military and political force that will always remain a threat to peace and stability of the region.
Hezbollah has gotten a pass from the international community at Qana, as it did when it targeted UN peacekeepers for death by placing Hezbollah fighting positions within meters of the doomed UN observation post, as it has in numerous other tragedies in recent weeks. Israel has received widespread condemnation for firing on a town that Hezbollah cynically used as a base to launch missiles. Further questions of what actually happened in Qana are raised by the Israeli report that the building in which as many as 60 men, women and children were killed did not collapse for up to eight hours after the IDF attack, possibly in a secondary explosion. The IDF’s goodwill gesture of a 48-hour suspension of air attacks was answered by a volley of Hezbollah rockets into Israel.
The apparent civilian death toll in the Lebanon campaign in excess of 500 -- "apparent" because it is impossible to determine how many of them are in fact Hezbollah combatants, and beyond that, how many were purposefully placed in harm’s way by Hezbollah -- has weakened the international community’s willingness to let Israel defend itself unhindered and led to more calls for a ceasefire.
As some observers have noted, Hezbollah’s ability so far to hang on and continue to inflict Israeli casualties is seen as a victory in Arab eyes. Merely failing to be routed by the Israeli onslaught is triumph.
This shows that Israel, and by extension the free world, is facing an enemy on a spiritual par with the Japanese in the Pacfic in World War II, though not nearly as capable as that enemy was, even when that enemy had similarly overplayed its hand.But equally tenacious and delusional, seeing futile acts of suicide and homicide as tactical and strategic coups.
Lebanon is not war-era Japan.Its people will not throw their babies off cliffs as the Israelis approach, and peasants armed with sharpened sticks will not launch Banzai charges against them.Israel need not fear the kinds of losses that the United States faced in the invasion of Japan.To prevail in Lebanon, Israel will not have to use nuclear weapons to obliterate Beirut, Damascus or Teheran the way the United States had to obliterate Nagasaki and Hiroshima in order to neutralize Japan’s will to resist. Israel will, however, have to push on with ground and air strikes, at great cost and in the face of internatinlal condemnation, until Hezbollah is done. Israel has no more choice in the matter than the United States had in the Pacific.The threat cannot be allowed to remain, when its mere survival emboldens it and ensures it will be able to rebuild.
The twisted perception of Hezbollah as David to the Israeli Goliath -- a perversion of the reality in which Israel is vastly outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded, but more adept and capable that its foe-- positions Hezbollah as a winner in any conclusion short of its utter destruction.It offers a major symbolic victory to Iran and Syria, and will allow them to maintain a militarized proxy front in their war on Israel.It will embolden their actions in Iraq against the efforts of the United States and the Iraqi people to build a stable and sane democracy there.It will embolden Iran to continue to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international pressure.It will create a threat of war in the Middle East on a scale that would make the current troubles look like a picnic.
The pressures of European leaders and the United Nations for a quick fix -- an accommodation of evil of the sort they historically have prefered to acting with determination against a nascent threat -- must not be allowed to stop Israel, with our support, from completing this dirty job.
To end the present suffering of its people , Lebanon cannot be allowed to remain a defacto Shiite-extremist state, dominated by Syria and Iran. An international peacekeeping force cannot be brought in until the root of war is dug out, and Hezbollah is destroyed or effectively removed from Lebanon. That means that for now, as terrible as the toll has been, the use of human shields by Hezbollah cannot be a deterent to utterly exterminating Hezbollah as a political and miltary threat and just as significantly, as a symbol of resistance.
This war, like all just wars against aggression, must not end short of its logical conclusion. Its logical conclusion is the extermination of Hezbollah.
Wanna bet?
Prevaling winds makes nuking Beruit just as hazardous to Israel as it is to Lebanon. nuking beruit makes sense only if the israelis are doing it becasue tel aviv has already been hit by the moslems. Good old Army Nuke weapons 101 course.
Incomplete. The blockhead in Syria has to go.
Excellent, Jules. I couldn't agree more.
I agree with your analysis. This article's author fails to understand the persistence of arabs / mooselimbs. Even when beaten the moose returns. There is only one way to keep the moose from coming back and that is to destroy the moose, so in that regard the article's author is on the proper track. To keep moose away for a long period of time, a mushroom, two, or three may be necessary.
"Nothing earth shattering here, but it is nice to see it all in one place."
Earth shattering due to the fact it's coming from the Boston Herald maybe.
Some clarity, that will continue to be ignored by the majority of the worlds "media elitists".
I pray this time is the last time Israel is forced to use war to defend itself.
I also expect we will be directly involved in open war against both Syria and Iran as a minimum,and possibly more countries, as there is no other choice if we wish to survive.
Nope. The Herald leans to the conservative side of the street with a realtive few exceptions.
I believe that there was a period of time when the IDF would have been willing to back out of this situation (unlike the French, the IDF would have to look up “reverse gear” in their tank service manuals to see how). However, I think that that time frame has passed. All the Israils asked was the return of their kidnaped solders and freedom form inbound rockets.
"Earth shattering due to the fact it's coming from the Boston Herald maybe."
You may be thinking of the Globe.
I stand corrected. Sorry!
This is a world war on terror,it won't ever end,I think we all must realize that.
There will be no V-J Day Celebrations
The terrorists want to kill us,we must kill them first,and we will.
Why bother with Lebanon? Why not go to the source and hit Iran's nuclear sites? We're approaching Armageddon and we might as well pick the time and place.
The fact that it'ss an article in a Boston paper is pretty amazing.
Free the Israeli soldiers and the fighting will end.
Why does the United nations not take this stand?
Because this will put the blame on Hezbollah and cause Hezbollah to lose face. What crap and the Liberal in this country go along with it.
Amen, brother.
See #18. It's perfectly in keeping with the tone of the Herald. Of course, the Herald is going bankrupt.
"Why does the United nations not take this stand?"
Because the whole world is up for sale.
UN to benefit most.
The more corrupt the nation, the better for the UN.
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