How Israel's gung-ho leaders turned victory into calamity

[bemildred]

There was one moment during the war when we had the upper hand. It was the moment when Israel had succeeded in striking Hizbullah with strong and surprising force, Haifa was peaceful and the number of casualties was small. That was the right moment to stop the war, declare victory and move on to the diplomatic track.

This opportunity came when the G8 convened in St Petersburg on July 14, two days after the fighting broke out. The G8 formulated a four-point plan, and nothing could have been better for Israel. According to that plan, the three Israeli soldiers abducted to Gaza and Lebanon would be returned unharmed, the Katyusha rocket fire against Israel would stop, Israel would halt its military operations and pull back its forces, and it would also release the Hamas ministers and MPs.\

The G8 statement declared that the full responsibility for the crisis fell on Hamas and Hizbullah and asked the United Nations security council immediately to formulate a programme for the full implementation of resolution 1559. The statement called for the deployment of the Lebanese army in south Lebanon and suggested looking into the possibility of bringing an international force into the region. Israel and Lebanon were also asked to launch diplomatic talks.

The international atmosphere was also pro-Israel, even among the hostile media. Israel received international legitimacy for its response to the killing and abduction of its soldiers inside its sovereign territory, and all the politicians, especially Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, were amazed at how much the world loved us.

Guardian

[MadMaddie]

1. How America's gung-ho leaders turned victory into "Fiasco"

same mentality....

[ladjf]

2. I have always considered the Jews to be exceptionally intelligent.

This Lebanese campaign is causing to to doubt that view.

[ladjf]

3. A political movement cannot be stopped by assassinating the

warrior membership. All of those will easily be replaced by even more believers. Israel, of all countries, should know this very well.

[neoblues]

4. If they're going to persist with this approach...

they're going to have to literally conquer most of the middle east, or a big chuck of it--and expel the population as "occupations" just aren't workable (something that has ominous ramifications for us in IRAQ as well; and if we just leave, IRAQ instantly becomes part of 'Greater IRAN' which already has much of the world's remaining oil reserves and hates us... the future looks just filled with troubles). Of course, any such major conquest would probably start world war III.

Then again, considering the harm the vast overpopulation of humanity is causing, as painful and tragic as war is, perhaps in some strange way peace is unnatural or maybe as a species we're just not ready for peace yet (we'd need to be at a point at which we could live in harmony with our environment and control our population at stable levels; ideally at around no more than 1.5 billion rather than today's 6.5 billion and growing). What a strange thought. To think that war might be the best thing to happen to the planet; the fastest path (after a brief peak in harmful output) to stopping global warming; the only conceivable way to restore habitat to animals, plants, forests, wetland, etc.; promptly reducing human pollution, consumption and abuse of the environment (and, again after a brief peak, each other). Maybe war is the solution (said only half-sarcastically), but it would have to be a big one--no half-assed ones that affect only the poor and unfortunate, but one that's an equal opportunity affair. I wonder if we could require environmental laws/guidelines be considered? Ah, well... this has certainly transcended the absurd. cheers.

[bemildred]

5. They can't.

While Israel has formidable weapons, it is a small country, and it's ability to sustain war limited. It is no accident that all it's wars have been short. Even with the support of Uncle Sugar, there are limits to how long this can go on; and the longer it goes on, the worse Israel's logistic situation will become. It was no accident that there were immediate requests for expedited shipments of fuel and bombs. Haaretz had a story today to the effect that the war is costing $1 billion a week. That is a very expensive dog-and-pony show. On the other hand, Hizbullah can only resist, it cannot conquer Israel.