[tlb]

In the long run this debacle is a painful but good thing for Israel. Weak leadership and poor tactics would be a lot more costly later if the Iranian situation goes critical.

July 30th I posted: "It won't end for a while yet but it looks to me like Hezballah wins this round. The Israelis pulled their punches and even so the world is ready to rein them in. The Israeli PM was sold on an air campaign by his Air Force and that doesn't defeat guerillas."

Don't overfocus on the PM. The high command screwed this up every bit as much as the political leadership did. Fifty years of military institutional memory disregarded.

The silver lining though is Israel will have a thorough shakeout of the high command now. Israel is a state that learns from its mistakes, and perhaps just in time.

[Leisler]

Just some observations.

The infantry troops that I saw rarely if ever had sights on their rifles. I never saw any night vision. Only towards the end did I see troops carrying a 'bunker busters' and other disposable stand off rockets. The floppy helmet covers looks stupid. Hezzbollahs moral and esprit seem very much intact, if not even embolden. Also, where any reporters embedded whith the infantry/troops? Didn't seem so. Why?

[Sarah]

'The Israelis pulled their punches and even so the world is ready to rein them in.'

I don't have a clue to the meaning of:'the world wants to rein them in'

The newscasters kept repeating this like a mantra, but do you have any evidence that anything but Olmert himself wanted a ceasefire.

Why did hezbolla stop with the rockets? Only to bring his soldiers down from the north and wait until he's TOTALLY ready for the big finale. I've heard that he was planning to launch 30,000 at one time. In June 60,000 Iranian 'tourists' entered Lebanon.

I totally agree with you that this was a gift to Israel, to wake up and smell the hoummus.