Posted on 07/16/2006 1:40:23 PM PDT by HAL9000
They're a fringe party. They have only 11 seats in a 128 seat parliament. They were allowed into the government uder duress (Hezbollah threatened civil war otherwise).
Israel learned some good lessons in 1982 when they invaded Lebanon. Do not send in ground troops and spread out in occupation because they would be vulnerable to suicide attacks. Israel cannot sustain high casualties. This time Israel is using their main advantage, airpower and precision weapons, and will resort to using ground forces in precision raids and Special Ops. I liken Hamas and Hezbollah to the Middle Age armies facing the Mongol (Israeli) invaders who first wear and destroyed their opponents by raining arrows on them via horse archers until they are severely weakened before the Mongols charged. The last five years, Israel has developed small precision guided and wire guided weapons that can be used on enemy targets in civilian populations. The day of hiding weapons and stockpiles amongst civilians is slowly ebbing away. The deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians and the US who have tasted death of civilians from Arab treachery, has also changed the domestic political sympathy for Arab civilians. This time the victims of Arab cruelty is no longer hesitant as in the past. This time the Arab civilians will be killed along with the Hamas and Hezbollah troops.
Good post.
I don't see how Israel can take out hizbollah without first taking out syria and iran. Otherwise, they'll just get bogged down occupying lebanon and spending the next 1000 years hunting down every Tom, Dick and Terrorist supplied by iran and syria.
It's as likely to start a civil war between the muzzies and Christians in Lebanon, too.
It's the AP, so it's probably not correct. My own opinion is that Hezbollah is not getting the battle they hoped for, are alienating a lot of people in Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East, and can't win.
Well, a good start would be for the legitimate government of Lebanon to declare war with Israel and about 3 seconds later surrender, inviting Israeli troups to occupy the country.
This would allow the Israelis to deal with Hezbollah on the ground and save the remaining infrastructure.
No one is in "control" of Lebanon. Lebanon is not a nation or a country, it is a place. Right now it is a convenient base of operations for the terrorist gang known as Hisballah.
Well that would start a real bloody civil war if the Government did that. Plus I ma not sure if Israel would want them to go about it that way. A Lebanon of the 80's is the lat thing Israel wants on its border
Me either, and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people see the same thing, notably the leaders of Israel, Syria and Iran.
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