Myths About Afghanistan
Victor Davis Hanson on whether Afghanistan is really the "graveyard of empires ..."
Every once in a while, an opportunity comes along that seems like it is made just especially for the present conditions. It isn’t very often that an intractable problem presents itself, and yet the solution to that intractable problem just as readily presents itself, if only you have the courage take it.
Israel has had just this kind of opportunity with Hezbollah starting the recent conflict, Syria and Iran staying out of the war, and Lebanon powerless to do anything about any of it (including not just Israel but Hezbollah as well). This had left Israel completey unshackled to destroy Hezbollah.
It should have been expected that the U.S. diplomatic machinations would have attempted appeasment of the world powers. Condi went it to reform the State Department, and herself was co-opted by the “lifers” at the department who see themselves as neutral brokers between U.S. policy and the rest of the world, rather than an arm of the U.S. government and ultimately, therefore, servants of the people.
So armed with this knowledge, i.e., a once-in-a-nation’s-lifetime opportunity combined with a U.S. State Department that will aim to appease regardless of the circumstances, Israel could have utilized this chance to destroy its enemy — at least, the proxy of its enemy. The Counterterrorism Blog notes that:
“If Israel takes 40 kilometers [into the southern belly of Lebanon] and sits, Hezbollah and its allies will take the rest of the country and eliminate the Cedars Revolution [the Lebanese Democracy movement]. That is a certainty. Then the two camps will clash in a wider war in few more months.”
Haaretz is reporting that Olmert will ask the Security Council to appove the U.N. resolution (until then, the offensive will continue, although one is forced to ask ‘why’?). The same Haaretz is reporting that Lebanon is opposed to a more robust UNIFIL force in Lebanon. It is politics as usual, and Hezbollah (and ultimately Iran) is the winner.
Once again, one if forced to ask why Israel would continue with the offensive at all if the final plan included anything but the destruction of Hezbollah?
It is a bizzare world when a cessation of hostilities is the ultimate aim of war rather than victory over the enemy.
I am forced to conclude that unless Israel (beginning with the electorate who put the current leadership in charge) undergoes a significant paradigm shift in its understanding of the enemy who has vowed to destroy it, it will not long survive.
Similarly, unless the U.S. electorate begins to understand the war and its implications, and until we can get the State Department to help the U.S. in the war rather than broker peace, the U.S. might just not long survive.
Final note: We are away on vacation and blogging is light. Will return to more serious blogging next week.
**** UPDATE ****
Michele Malkin calls this a defeat. Raise the white flag of surrender and the yellow flag of Hezbollah. At the Captain’s Journal we have been saying this for weeks. Hezbollah will be stronger, and Israel weaker for it all. The war will not abate, and the forces of darkness are victorious, at least for the moment.
After all of this, I do not see how Ehud Olmert can stay in office. It seems to me that Parliament should have a vote of no-confidence in his leadership. Olmert’s poll numbers are decreasing; Hezbollah is airing under the banner “We won; we have defeated the invincible army!”; and opinion and analysis pieces are hinting that Israel is not such an important strategic ally if in fact they cannot defeat Hezbollah.
All around a bad, bad deal for Israel. Nothing gained, everything lost.
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