A "full-fledged war." God help us.
From Fox:
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israeli warplanes struck the highway linking Beirut to the Syrian capital of Damascus early Friday, closing the country's main artery and further isolating Lebanon from the outside world, Lebanese security officials said.Fighter jets attacked a highway section high in the mountains of central Lebanon, in Mdeirej. But the targeted area was an old road extension, and the bridge on the nearby main highway remained intact, the officials said.
Another airstrike apparently targeted the main bridge's exit. Authorities turned back motorists, who will have to take long detours through other winding mountain roads....
The highway, which climbs up from Beirut, winds through the mountains before descending into the Bekaa Valley and into Syria, is one of Lebanon's only links with the outside world since Israeli forces imposed a sea, air and land blockade of Lebanon on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, Israel blasted the runways and fuel tanks of Beirut's only international airport for a second time, Lebanese security officials said, while Israel's third-largest city Haifa was hit by two Hezbollah long-range missiles in what officials are now calling a full-fledged war.
Whats up with the IAF, dont bomb the roads to Damascus, bomb the city of Damascus instead.
Here's a backgrounder on what may be ahead:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1665285/posts
Question - Will Israel gof after Syrian air assets and if they do, what will Iran do?
km - I'd suspect there's a bit of symbolism involved in hitting the highway, along the lines of "Make a wrong move, and we're on our way."
What I said. Sooner or later, rogue nations must be held to account for the actions of groups they tolerate. In addition to Lebanon, other candidates for such treatment include:
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Egypt
Pakistan
Chechnya
Abyssinia
Afghanistan
Iraq
Iran
Syria
Sudan
610 * 623 * 732* 1066* 1215 * 1453 * 1492 * 1683 * 1928 * 1938 * 1948 * 1996 * 2001
The fiction that these are innocent countries who cannot control "a tiny minority highjacking one of the world's great religions" is no longer a responsible position for leaders of civilized natoins to take.
Kabuki is over; it's cinema verite from here on out.
NATIVESON-
Thanks for connecting me to that outstanding and soberly accurate assessment!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1665285/posts
Only a little sketchy on what Hamas will do. Israel fighting Iranian proxies is a nice hot poultice on an angry boil - it should raw a lot of pus out.
poetcomic1 --
YVW
Very complicated situation and I'm sure the best of the experts are perplexed. Always nice to find good info like this.
Israel has also taken out Lebanon's travel industry for this year. YAY! They've hit them on the ground and in their pocketbook.
What we need in the region is a super-strong, semi-sectarian leader who can keep the Shi'ites in check and therefore block Iranian aspirations. Gee, I wonder what happened to that guy?
Sounds much more like locking and bolting the emergency exit doors to the auditorium (airport and road out) in preparation for the show.
Fascinating article Nativeson! Thanks for sharing it with us. I've forwarded the link to my friends for their perusal. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days. I have faith in the Israeli's.
Re:
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Egypt
Pakistan
Chechnya
Abyssinia
Afghanistan
Iraq
Iran
Syria
Sudan
-Above
What about the REAL powerful rogue nations like Russia (reemerging as a super power, and of course, who can forget that monster of China). What would you do to your real enemies, Russia and China, who are arming the likes of Iran, Syria and North Korea. They are doing it to weaken the West. Do you want to fall into the trap of attacking those too? There is no victory possible in attacking every Moslem nation. The only solution is ending immigration from those nations and isolating them, while investing in new offensive and defensive weapons.
What about the REAL powerful rogue nations like Russia (reemerging as a super power, and of course, who can forget that monster of China)
1) I would restrict trade with China in a manner severe enough to remind them of their real position... Larry Kudlow notwithstanding.
2) As for Russia, well, all they have going is natural gas and a burgeoning Moslem population. I say withdraw all relations of all types with Russia.
Net net, in both the above policies there is little to lose, and much to gain.
.
Kafir;
Concur with most of your thoughts. One addition, one question, and one comment:
Addition:
It sure seems like there may be as much internal hate as external in Islam. Maybe we should stop spilling our blood trying to make them all to get along. A lot of young men's energies went into the Iran-Iraq war and never came out.
Question:
How does one allow selective immigration? Remove Islam from the class of 'religions' and classify it as an 'illegal group'? I think we're five years or one successful hit away from that.
Comment:
I think that your premise that this spat is supported by China and Russia is correct. I also belive that these tensions will weaken with time as Islam gains strength by WMD.
"Whats up with the IAF, don't bomb the roads to Damascus, bomb the city of Damascus instead"
km-
The plan should be to isolate Lebanon via air, sea and now land, and thus leave it cut off from outside help and behind on Israel's left flank.
This is assuming of course that Damascus is the next logical target. Hopefully, if it does happen, some hardware from the Saddam days might be located.
Omar Sharif: "Damascus, Lawrence, go around, Damascus!
Peter O'Toole: No Prisoners!
G.C.
Tasteful.
Is it likely that some of the 'hardware' may be used in Lebanon in the next few days? I'm confident that the Israeli's are preprared. The big problem may be to the Syrian civilians (winds tomorrow at to the SW at 18MPH).
As the US has crack HAZMAT response crews, might it not be 'compassionate' for them to help out and make sure the problem does not happen again?
limes,
Quite true, everything will hinge on the scope of any potential Syrian offensive. The next few days will be the critical as to what capabilities are faced. Here's hoping HAZMAT crews remain observers.
Abyssinia - from APF's posting above
APF
Ethiopia (which was Abyssinia) is a Christian ally of the US. Why target them, when all the other targets are there? I do think that another ally - semi-Islamic Eritrea - might be worth looking at, although I suspect even they are okay; they aren't even a member of the OIC.
I disagree with the first part of your argument. Both Russia and China are being difficult, but do you really think that if Iran were attacked, they'd go to war with the US? Hell, the Russkies didn't even do that in Kosovo in 1998, where one would have thought that they were more likely to intervene. They have moved on beyond Iraq, which they fought tooth and nail for in the run-up to the war. What makes you think that if Iran and Syria were taken out, either Moscow or Beijing would intervene? All that said, the US should threaten to impose tariffs on all products made in China, so that Beijing is forced to choose between the US and its enemies.
I agree with you on immigration, but strongly believe that should be taken to the next level - one can either be a Muslim, or an US resident/citizen, but not both. Give Muslims here the chance to bail out of Islam, but expel those who refuse. This can be done by declaring Islam a hostile political ideology, akin to Communism or Nazism, as limes suggested above.
Infidel Pride,
Agree with you. Neither Moscow nor Beijing are going to go to war over islamic states. Both are sick of the islamic uprising in their countries as well.
Since our governments won't stop the Chinese goods, we can help by boycotting them. Most of the cheap electronic stuff coming out of China is made in gulags, with prisoners (lifers) making them for a little food each day. Buying these goods is supporting the communists. Over here, the electronic cos. were worried that the cheap batteries and torches and toys will ruin the Indian companies, but the quality of these goods was so inferior that stores no longer keep them. Since the market is huge, they are bought by the unaware or the first timers, but the mainstream stores don't keep Chinese stuff. And I don't buy anything of Haier or bank with HSBC.
Arjun
What comes out of China is a product of bonded labor. Some years ago, in my last job, I heard the story of how Lite-On, a Taiwanese company and a customer of ours, had such bonded laborers in its China factories - and it's obvious that's typical of how foreign companies do business in China. (Lite-On incidentally had a windfall in their first year of business; they make PC peripherals, like CD drives, etc.) The way it works is that a foreign company has to pay the Chinese government a lumpsome amount to operate, and it can then pay its Chinese workers $0.50/hr. That beats almost every country, although in India, you can get unskilled labor that matches that, due to currency conversions (Part of the problem is that China has tied the RMB to the US$, so that the latter cannot rise or fall against the RMB depending on the world market).
Almost all consumer goods here in the US are Made in China. Its tough to buy other things, unless one is willing to pay much much more - orders of magnitude more - to keep cash out of the Chicoms.
Arjun
Only thing I disagree with you - reason China or Russia won't go to war over Iran is that they won't go to war, period, nothing to do with Uygars or Chechens (if yes, they should be supporting Israel, since al Qaeda supports both Uygars and Chechens). Russia didn't do it in support of their slavic brothers Serbia, so they aren't going to do it in Iran. China only goes to war when they want to conquer territory, and Iran doesn't share a border with them - there is too much territory and too many countries to conquer between China and Iran. They are just being anti-US pricks, but if the US has the balls to launch a major attack on Iran and take out their nuke facilities, triggering a collapse of the regime, the Russian and Chinese will be checkmated, just as they were in Iraq.
Infidel Pride,
Almost ALL the consumer goods are made in China ? I don't believe this. Maybe some enterprising guy might start importing from India. Our stuff is WAY higher in quality over China, and no bonded labour either.
I left a comment for you near the bottom. Mr. Fitzgerald's "Bleeding America" post.
Arjun
I just saw it a few minutes ago, and responded to it.
As for the 'Made in China', you'd have to see it to believe it. For clothing, you get 'Made in ___' from a variety of countries.
Go Israel!!
Bomb every road, make em walk.