[goldstategop]

The Summer War may well be remembered as one of those events in which the pusillianimity of Israel's branja - the elite - was on full display. Their cowardice, hesitancy, indecisiveness, reliance on wishful thinking, and a capitulationist mindset that has become second nature - all resulted in Israel's first calculated defeat. It might be too harsh a word to say this war was actually Israel's first self-imposed defeat, since it was not the IDF or the people of Israel who lost the stomach to win, it was the elite who did. The strategy followed in Lebanon was a larger theatrical replay of the ineffectual Really Really Hard strategy the branja used before vis a vis the Palestinians. Bomb a lot of empty buildings and try to avoid killing too many terrorists. If those were the true goals Israel set for itself in this parody of a war, it achieved them. Ehud Olmert lacks the starch to secure Israel's safety and has to go along with the rest of the current leadership. Otherwise Israel's next war may well be her last one.

( No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)

[Mark Felton]

Modern emasculated males dominate the ruling elites of the world. The leftist hippies have taken control.

"Brutality" is a word that has accrued the same taboo overtones as "holocuast" and "racism".

We have been at peace for so long (a peace won by brutality) that we have completely forgotten how to win a war. We have taken the toy guns away from the boys, and told over and over again that violence never solves anything. sheer utter suicidal nonsense.

Wars are won by the most brutal. Victory always belongs to the force that is able to terrorize its enemy into submission, or destroy the enemy.

In the case of the Islamofascists they cannot all be destroyed since we are unwilling to destroy their supportive cifvilian populations withion whom they hide.

That leaves only the other option, terrorize them. Make thwem so fearful of attacking that they will not attempt it. They are no afraid of death so the only option appears to be to deny their goal of reaching heaven.

It sounds like the answer a "bubba" would shout at his TV set, but it may be the only answer available: Bury the terrorists with pig entrails...and deny them their prize, a trip to heaven on martyr wings.

Deny them heaven, or decimate their citizens. There are no other choices.

[CPOSharky]

Liberal lawyer with no military experience telling an air force general how to run a ground war. Yeah, right.

[Truth29]

Israel also squandered US support for a military decision will not likely come again. The mud from Olmert's pusillanimous leadership will also splash on to the US. Condi Rice's backpedaling on even the weakened UN resolution language is only the first result. Iran is emboldened and our return to the UN for further resolutions in the Middle East make us appear ever weaker and ineffective.

[Mark Felton]

Our "greatest generation" of WWII absolutely targeted enemy civilian populations. We massacred them by the 10's of thousands. Why? So that we would wear them down and create unfathomable levels of fear and despair that they would then be forced to recall their armies and demand that they stop the fighting. (when we finally achieved victory in Germany and japan their civilians were so war weary and devasted that they could not muster a resistance from their ranks. They just wanted it all to stop.)

Wars are not fought by armies, they are fought by nations. Essentially every civilian becomes a member of the forces fighting the war.

I have never yet heard the one statement that puts all of this into proper perspective. Olmert should have said

"Hizbollah, and Hizbollah alone, as the ruling force in South Lebanon, is responsible for the lives of its civilian population. Israel does not take responsibility for any civilian deaths. If Hizbollah does not wish their families killed then they must not incite a war with Israel, that can not be won. If Hisbollah makes the slightest provocation against Israel then we have no choice. The men, women, and children of Lebanon will die by the thousands, and their blood will be on the hands of Hisbollah only. So I tell the world today, Hizbollah you make the choice. Do you care enough for your civilian population that would allow them to live in peace and prosperity? or would you cause them to be decimated in a war that is doomed to failure before it begins? You decide. The world is on notice. Hisbollah, what is your decision?"

[libstripper]

The Israeli Literary Left and much of the chattering classes had backed the war at first, but toward its end they reverted to their gut instincts, with many denouncing Israel for “war crimes” and calling for “talks” with Hizbullah. (Olmert’s own daughter was among those denouncing Israel’s actions as criminal.)

All you need to do is change a few of the nouns in this quote and it accurately describes the Hezbocrats' reaction to 9/11 and the WOT.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. also

2006israelwar or WOT

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[Convert from ECUSA]

Ping!

[MainFrame65]

"never again" on the Web:

* nevermore: at no time hereafter.

And I must add: "Never again" has meaning only while the referenced event remains in memory. These people forgot the most important lesson of their lives.

Israel needs a new oath of office and a new national flag, with "Never Again!" the central message of each.

[itsahoot]

For the first 32 days of the war Israel tried to defeat Hizbullah by bombing empty buildings, empty bunkers and “infrastructure” across Lebanon

Robert McNamara lives even today...............

[El Gato]

But this war was fought after many years of massive budget cuts for the military. Convinced that the era of peace was anon, the politicians had conducted a sort of fiscal hari-kari on the army in order to allocate far more funding for nice things like social spending and pork projects.

Should sound very familiar to Americans as well as Israelis.