My... what a collection of racist vituperation I've stumbled on here. For the information of bigots on both sides of the question no one won. Certainly not Israel, now held up to the whole of the Muslim Umma as an utter laughing-stock. The 'restraint' of the IDF demonstrates nothing other than the lack of any kind of will to win on the part of Olmert and his cronies (you can be sure that Sharon, when that vile racist is finally laid in the ground, will start spinning like a top in disgust at the current performance of his beloved military); as well as its utter inability to deal with a guerilla war.
They're already screaming back in Haifa and Tel Aviv at the numbers of dead Israeli soldiers - how if, instead of a hundred dead Israelis there were a thousand? Or ten thousand? Because it's only by being willing to incur far greater casualty levels than those yet seen that the IDF will clear Hezbollah from the ground of Southern Lebanon - something that the much vaunted courage of the IDF is presently not able to stomach.
I was watching Fox News earlier. A resident of Beirut drew up to the apartment block he'd recently fled from with his family: this was the first they'd seen of their former home. Who was held rsponsible for the fact that their home was now a heap of rubble? Hezbollah? The corrupt incompetents of Lebanon's political classes?
No. Israel. "All our blood for Hezbollah" the man's teenage son said. "All our blood for Hezbollah."
Olmert is to be congratulated for running such an effective recruitment campaign on Hezbollah's behalf.
Olmert, there's a man who ought to be pleased with his most recent political successes. The incompetence of the IDF revealed; the political cowardice and military ineptitude of his party revealed; an entire new generation of resistance fighters recruited; 150 Israeli civilians dead as a direct consequence of his decision to exploit the kidnappings as a cause for war; over a thousand Lebanese dead, killed by Israelis while even Americans got to watch (even Americans have had a hard time not noticing the immense superiority of arms available to the Israelis - as well as how little avail that superiority has been). And one more spectacular success: Hezbollah still has the two fools they captured back at the beginning of this - and Israel will be forced to negotiate for their return with the only bargaining chip they have - the Lebanese prisoners they hold illegally. Yes indeedly, Olmert, you've certainly testified as to your fitness to receive the mantle of Sharon, Irael's Defender.
Oh, and speaking of Sharon, that bloated pig and orchestrator of murder by proxy, he seems, finally, about to die and go before his God for judgment. I can already see the devils in hell sharpening the pitchforks, ready to tenderize his flabby ass for eternity - oh my! horror of horrors, Israel's 'warrior' dead!!! What an omen for the superstitious Ashkenazis bopping up and down in front of their Wall! A more timely and serendipitous comment on the last days of Israel's political competence and military capability I couldn't have hoped for.
So now, let's see... What exactly is it that Hezbollah has lost? An indeterminate number of fighters... with an entire ocean of willing recruits waiting to take their place. An indeterminate number of missiles... with Iran and Syria only too willing to replace them, and more. Oh, and let's not forget the spectacular 'defeat' of going head to head with the IDF and making them look like clowns governed by jesters. Yes indeedly, a catastrophic defeat there.
And what has America gained from this propaganda/PR 'victory' for Israel? Conclusive proof that the most technologically advanced weaponry in the world is practically useless (except for destroying apartment buildings occupied by civilians) in the context of guerilla war, and the privilege of once more seeing Bush put his foot as deeply in his mouth as it will go. Oh yes, and the warm patriotic glow that follows from the realization that our political elites are now so sophisticated that they can lie and smile at the same time.
As I have said many times, the only way for America to gain anything in that region is to turn the whole of it, including Israel, into a sea of shining black glass, from Tehran to Damascus and not excepting Jerusalem. Kill Them All, along with anyone unfortunate enough to be in the region at the time.
The great drawback to my plan, other than the fact that there isn't an American politician now living with balls enough to carry it out, is that rabid racist weenies and armchair warriors such as those posting here (who, at least on the face of things, wouldn't know whether to shit themselves or go blind if confronted with an actual terrorist) will have no convenient scapegoat for the racism that's inherent in their support for Israel - other than Blacks of course, but we all know that they've been off-limits since Lyndon Johnson was President.
Personally, I still have hope that August 22nd is actually Doomsday, and I can be done once and for all with effusions of nonsense such as that set on display here.
