A dummy run against Hezbollah...

[bridgit]

'"The Bush administration...was closely involved in the planning of Israel's retaliatory attacks" against Hezbollah. That is the conclusion of American journalist Seymour Hersh in his latest essay in The New Yorker.

If that, indeed, is true, then America's image as a military power, along with the image of the Israeli military, has been severely tarnished. This is not the end of the negative spillover effect from Israel's palpable failure to damage severely the fighting capabilities of Hezbollah. The United States might be in for more damaging fallout emanating from this fiasco.' http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH16Ak02.html

[tocqueville]

1. a "dry run" against Iran

The second major winner is Iran and its low-tech missiles and training of Hezbollah. It is worth noting, however, that Iran still faces the long shot of becoming a target of the Bush doctrine of regime change that continues to lurk in the background.

The most troublesome aspect of the general foreign-policy approach of the current US administration is that it refuses to learn from its past failures and almost seems eager to repeat them, regardless of the ensuing catastrophic consequences. Hersh discusses how "intelligence about Hezbollah and Iran is being mishandled by the White House the same way intelligence had been ... the administration was making the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction".

The three major losers of this war are Israel, the United States and Lebanese democracy. When the ceasefire was implemented, Hezbollah, though it was bruised as a fighting force, was still defiant and full of its combat spirit. The Israeli government, on the contrary, is already undergoing the post-conflict acrimonious blame game that might end up costing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert his job.

The Bush administration, if it was really using Israel's air-attack plan as a "dry run" against Iran, will have to think long and hard about its next approach toward the Islamic Republic. The very future of democracy in Lebanon is in jeopardy for now.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH16Ak02.html

[bridgit]

3. yes, very 'dry' indeed as it turned out...

[Swamp Rat]

5. "Long shot?"

Iran is a major component of the PNAC plan. They ARE going to do it. It's only a matter of when.

Lebanon was a test of ISRAEL's capabilities to fight a ground war.

Now, the U.S. and Israel will begin to employ much larger weapons of mass destruction from the air because that is the only way to "win" - complete annihilation of all oil producing nations.

Look out Syria! You maybe next!

[elliswyatt]

2. not to mention

that our "cooperation" ruined anything we had going in Lebanon. America supports democracy, when and if it doesnt clash with Israel.

[bridgit]

4. welcome to du, elliswyatt...

agreed :hi: but then it's all like x(

[elliswyatt]

6. thank ya

when I was over there I was absolutely amazed to see my Christian friends cheering and praying for Hizbollah. Americans don't believe me when I say that because they think every Arab is a radical terrorist Muslim.

[bridgit]

7. again yer welcome, and i do...i think i'd be provoked if someone...

kept poking their finger in my chest as well