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The more I read about this debacle the more I conclude Olmert never wanted to engage in any military operation against Hezbollah. Instead, he was politically forced to take action he desperately didn't want to take by an Israeli public opinion that was outraged by Hamas' kidnapping one of its soldiers and Hezbollah killing eight and kidnapping two. However, when he first acted, it looked to the Bush administration and much of the rest of the world that he actually intended to do what needed to be done. Instead, he and his cabinet, clinging to their idea of appeasement and "disengagement" like a drowning man clinging to an anchor, determined to do as little as they could get away with politically and quietly urge the US to obtain a UN brokered cease fire. Unfortunately, the Bush administration, seeing Olmert's actual desire to appease the Islamofascists while still appearing to be a loyal and patriotic Israeli, made the terrible mistake of acceding to that corrupt desire.

The upshot of all this is that we're in a horrible, dangerous international situation that's far worse than than the day before Olmert initiated his non-war.

Before then Iran and North Korea had to guess about whether we and Israel had the courage to take them on and destroy their nuclear weapons programs. Indeed, had Israel taken our green light, decapitated Hezbollah, cleaned them out of southern Lebanon, and gone all the way to the Syrian border, we'd have sent the entire Axis of Evil an unmistakable message that we had the will and ability to take them on militarily and defeat them if they continued to pursue their nuclear programs. Paradoxically, by giving this demonstration of determination, we'd have gone a long ways toward terrorizing Iran, Syria, and North Korea into backing down on their nuclear programs and support of terrorists, thereby enhancing the prospects of having a real Mideast peace.

Now, due to what the Olmert government actually did and our acquiescence in it by going to the UN, we're faced with the opposite situation. Almost all of the fears Iran and North Korea may have had about what we'd ultimately do regarding their nuclear programs have been dispelled, giving them a green light to go full speed ahead. They have no reason to fear any threats from either the US or Israel. Thus, the chance that we may have to take serious military action against Iran and North Korea, up to and including using nuclear weapons, is greatly increased. If we don't take such action, we're doomed to have one or more American cities nuked by terrorists in the next few years. Olmert has, of course, painted a giant nuclear target on Israel's back, a target the Iranians aren't likely to ignore.