I have to wonder if they can be, they are not a conventional Army like the German Army or the Japanese Army or the Egyptian Army. With a command structure that is manned by traditional generals and admirals, who eventually see they are losing or have lost and will surrender or seak an armistice. These guys are religous fanatics, you can blow them up, shoot them, destroy their weapons and ammo dumps. But they can just fade into the population and wait out the Israelies and reload with new weapons and ammo from Syria and Iran (Russia probably uses Syria and Iran as middle men). Maybe if they can beat them down far enough and there is the political will and fiscal means the Lebanese could then control them, but I doubt it. I have no doubt that the Israelies could defeat the Syrian Army and the Iranian Army. Just not these gurellia groups. It seems like the best they can do is clean them out and force them to lay low for awhile. Terry
The Taliban come immediately to mind. We kicked their butts in Afghanistan, and got a new goverment off the ground. Yet we are still fighting the Taliban. and they are a threat to the new goverment, if we picked up and left. You have to wonder how long it would be before the Taliban was back in power. Between physical intimidation and using the Koran to threaten eternal damnation if they don't evict those who sleep with western pigs they would be back in power at some point.
It will be done T... Might take time and intelligence. Israel has a plan in place. Phase one is complete. (Airport, seaport, highways, supply points). Granted the flushing out will be tough and long. jif
Bring destruction to the legitimate sponsor nations and the terrorists will cease. You have to go after those who have something to lose.
You think after reading how rebuilt Lebanon was and flourishing with tourism, how the people can think this is ok? These terrorists are just setting the people back to ruin. I think they may turn on these guys so they don't have to keep rebuilding. Article in NY Post talked about the ocean front hotels and how much money they were finally making and now back to ruins. It's a shame.
The terrorists/insurgent plan is much more thought out than some give them credit for. In Iraq a large part of Saddam's army took off their uniforms and went home so they could be ready to carry on the fight later instead of getting their a** blown up now. This is how these guys operate...all the while recruiting new blood through the guise of extreme islam. When you consider these facts who knows if ever the time will come that the U.S. can leave Afghanistan and Iraq.
Interesting comments about Bush by a man who provided the intellectual fundations that rebuidlt the American Conservative movement following its collapse after Hoover and Roosevelt and a leading figure in making Ronald Reagan a household name: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/22/eveningnews/main1826838.shtml
Good article on WFB. The conservative movement has to be very careful here, and in 2008. We're unhappy, but everytime we fracture, we end up with some stooge like Bubba Clinton or Woodrow Wilson. I hope we can find some way to wangle a real conservative onto the ballot without splitting the party...
I like WFB a lot <t>and to me, the real irony here isn't that he disagrees with what W is doing. Anyone who has been reading his work prior to today would know that this was a long time coming.<br/> <br/> The irony, to me, is that there are a good many people who have loathed damn near every word to come out of Buckley's mouth for a good many decades who have suddenly taken to him like the Pied Piper.<br/> <br/> So, was he right all along? Or just now that he has taken up a position against W?</t>
There seems to be more than a few Conservatives who have grown disillusioned with Bush. Following 9/11 and at the onset of the Iraq invasion, there was near unanimity in the conservative ranks about supporting Bush's actions. I think the split developed when the articulated justification for the war on Iraq seemingly shifted from overthrowing a terror state that posed a direct risk to our security to replacing dictatorships and building democracy throughout the Middle East. I don't think people who supported Bush did so because they wanted administration whose goals read like an old Woodrow Wilson speech. I am not sure that the assumption that democratic governments would, by their nature, be automatically more friendly to the United States is correct. Elections on the West Bank resulted in Hamas being elected. My guess is that if free elections were held in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and a host of other Muslim countries, radical Islamic parties would prevail, a nightmare result for us. The idea that our relations with other nations should be based upon whether our interests conflict with their actions and goals and not if their form of government follows the dual social contracts idealized by John Locke might seem antiquated but, in the long run, would be of greater benefit to us.
Back to the original topic. Israel is now calling up reserves, so the question still remains, can they actually defeat Hezbollah? It's begining to look like the best they can do is to fight them to a standoff. They have had years to dig in to the villages and countryside in Southern Lebanon and apparently have done a good job. The Israelies will have to basically destroy entire villages inorder to get at the weapons storage sites. Terry
Israel just called up 30,000 more reserve troops today. ( In Israel everyone under the age of 50 can re recalled to active duty). According to one of the cable stations, and also one of the Israeli on line daily newspapers, they have warned Lebanon citizens to evacuate the entire southern part of the country. I think they set a time frame. It appears that they will have to really go in and flush them out ( Hezbullah). jif
It will be interesting to see what happens as the IDF puts more men into action. Hezbollah like the Iraqui insurgents don't wear uniforms, have support of the locals (or locals fear them too much not to support) and they can just fade back into the wood work when things get hot.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14110834/ This article voices the concern that our backing of Israel on this one will serve to further inflame the hatred for the U.S. in the region. I agree and I disagree that crippling Hezbollah now will be effective longterm. These idiots have an unending resource of extremists who grow up to join the ranks and live to loathe. Fueling the hatred is going to cause this thing to boil over one day into an all out nuclear holocaust. I see some terrorist organization finally getting the means to light one up in Israel and then the whole region goes up in a nuclear fireball because that seems to be the way Israel deals with those matters and if the attack were serious enough who would blame them. Fighting this hatred with violence and heavy handedness can only work short-term if complete suppression were used effectively but then that would inevitably fail as all oppressive campaigns have done throughout history 100% of the time. It may seem like we are liberators to us but to this region we seem more and more like the oppressors and the images of these 3 dozen dead children will be used against us to a large degree by the extremists you can be sure.
It seems to me that pretty much anything we do fuels the hatred of the US in this region. The way that Hezbollah and the rest of the terrorist operate leads to civillian casualties. They hide their weapons and fire rockets from homes, schools, mosques so that women and children are bound to be killed in the battles. They think nothing of strapping a bunch of dyanmite to teenagers and sending them out as suicide bombers. I don't have the answer that's for sure, but it seems to me that the only way it will change is for the moderate Islamists to take out the radicals, but they don't seem to have the guts to do that.
News flash: There is nothing we can do to increase or decrease their hatred for us. We are not Muslim. Therefore, they hate us. ... not because of who we support. ... not because of who we fight against. ... simply because we are only pests to be exterminated from the face of the earth.
I'm begining to fear that world pressure that somehow puts a greater price on the value of Lebanese citizens over Israeli citizens is going to save Hezbollah. Hopefully Israel will ignore the Eurowimps and forge ahead and root out those bastards.