I love this whole situation.

Israel will not stop shelling Lebanon until they get their soldiers back and Hezbollah stop firing rockets into Israel.

Lebanon will not sit down for talks until Israel stops shelling Beirut, Tyre, and various other towns.

Hezbollah will no stop firing rockets until Israel is dead, gone, or exiled from the Middle east.

This is your typical war of attrition. Only one can win, and while I back Israel, I think they're moving too slowly. As soon as they show a sign of weakness, the cowards in Hezbollah are going to stage some massive attack, and the whole Arab world will cheer, again (And the West will have to ignore them, then forget it ever happened, because it's not politically correct to call psychotic Muslim barbarians what they are: psychotic Muslim barbarians.), then Israel will respond in full force, and drop a few thousand tons of Semtex on Lebanon. Then, obviously, other powers get involved, then the US gets into it, etc.

We are watching world war start before our very eyes. Neither of the three sides wants to secede defeat or give up their point, and last thing Israel wants to do is leave Hezbollah in Lebanon (Because we all know how awesome Lebanon's govt' is at following through on the whole disarming Hezbollah issue...), and Hezbollah is just like Hamas, and will stop at nothing to destroy the nation-state of Israel, no matter how many ceasefires they sign, or peace accords they agree to.

Milquetoast Government vs. War hardened Israelis vs. Psychotic Muslims barbarians...

I got fifty bucks on Israel, and my life savings once the US gets into the fight.

We have big ships and even bigger guns on said ships, and last I looked, our guns could reach into Syria. Get the charcoal and sparklers out all....world war three is beginning, and thanks to the Internet, we have a front row seat.

Cheers!

Ian

Posted by: Killer Krickit at July 30, 2006 6:45 AM

That pathetic Siniora has the audacity to tell US Secretary of State she is not welcome to visit Lebanon. One would think that her visit is far more important for Lebanon then for the US. Apparently not.
There are two main reasons for it.
1. The lives of Lebanese are not important if their death can serve a political purpose.
2. There is a support for his position and though it comes from more then one direction, EU support is the most important one. There is no way this so called PM who has no power even in his own country could make a decision of such proportion.

Dr. Rice was trying to save the face by telling it was her decision not to go to Lebanon. Even if it is the truth, which is unlikely, it does not diminishe a “slap on the face” of US.

CNN is sinking below the standards of BBC. Richard Quest seems to be the only one who is trying to present a balanced view on the situation. Often he can not hide his disgust when interviewing arab officials.
I am sick and tired to see those little people crawling out of the CNN news room.

Posted by: pong at July 30, 2006 6:59 AM

Killed civilians its a tradegy... for both sides. But one should understand the situation.

We (people of Israel) wish - there wouldnt one Lebanon civilian killed. We may only dream about it, cause if it was true - not only our soldiers shouldnt feel innocent blood on their hands, for the rest of their lives, not only we could prevent the hate of Lebanon people, not only lives of innocent could be speared - but even in the most practical (and maybe cynical) way,
we could fight our cause without this worldwide pressure, and people naming us butchers....

But now, please tell me - what Hizballah would do without civillians killed? Which pictures could they post on their websites? What could they broadcast thru Al-Manar?
So - if there is anyone who NEEDS those victims among Lebanon people - its HEZBOLLAH!

People demand we stop our attacks - but first of all - I want some answers!

1) - How many calls and bombings citizens of Qana need, to pull off their children???
We have documented proof that the boming raid was announced FOR DAYS.
2) - What the hell children were doing in the same building with Hizbollah rocketeers?! And if there were none - I want a proof for that...

3) - If Lebanon prime minister is sooo concerned by his peoples lives - what the hell is he still sitting in Beirut - doing nothing to transfer them to the northen regions, and best of all - stopping Hizbollah? Is he prime minister of his country, or puppet, which can talk only?...

Something is really wrong in Lebanon, so they shouldnt point at us the accusing finger. We do ten times more than any other army would do - by announcing, pointing attacks, ecetera.
Would any fighting Muslim force hold our ability of fire - all villages would be wiped out, and casualties jump to thousands of people...

Posted by: Vladzakr at July 30, 2006 7:00 AM

Don't worry, as if often the case, the truth will come out and the islamic foot and rear-end kissing dhimmi media will quietly put it on page 42, next to the advertisement for bargain shoes. It is our job to make sure that it gets on the front page.

I am 100% that the israelis would not have demolished that building were they not 100% beyond all shadow of a doubt sure that Hizb'allah was operating from there. If children were in that building, then it is the fault of adults who kept them there in spite of warnings days before on the part of the IDF (I personally consider the warnings too kind, but hey).

Just wait, the truth will come out, just as in the kidnappings in 2000 at the onset of the so-called "Intifada".

God bless Israel and God bless the USA.

Posted by: bonncaruso at July 30, 2006 8:45 AM

Sounds like an ideal situation. Lebanon won't talk, so no ceasefire, Rice travels there so that the dhimmiticians worldwide can't say that the US is 'dis-engaged and not playing a leadership role' - something they denounce in cases like Iran and North Korea. In the meantime, Israel should be free to keep bombing.

I don't agree that Israel is losing, although the media aspect of this opens a front where the odds are stacked against it. However, they should consider opening a front against Syria to destroy the Syrian military, as well as Hizbullah's supplies. Once that happens, just continue the bombing, followed by a land invasion. Unfortunately, I doubt that Israel will be able to establish something like the SLA, since the latter's experience with Israel, particularly in a Labor dominated government, was a horrendous betrayal. Let the French foreign legion send their troops there, assuming it hasn't been taken over by Muslims. Or maybe ask China to send troops - we've outsourced so many other things to China, why not this?

Posted by: Infidel Pride at July 30, 2006 9:21 AM

I'm disgusted by Hezullah's use of missles, rockets aimed from the confines of civilian buildings, to extract Israeli attacks, and then to claim the evil Israelis massacared us.

If Hezullah loved children so much would they use them as human bait? inculcate hate? praise them as shaheeds? Didin't the IDF help? After all, the goal is to become a martyr; the Israeli's 'helped,' so what's the big deal?

Sinora praises Hezbulah today, thanking them? What power in the world would send troops into this hell hole? As an american, I want know part of it. If the French are crazy enough to participate, let them.

As for this 'immediate cease fire talk,' the one positive about the deaths(or shaheeds)of these human baits is a war of attrition as one poster above accuratly postulated about.

Rice straight-armed from the Arabs. UN huffs. So, more time is on for this war, but two weeks or years is a waste for the Israelis if they do not finish them off.

Posted by: biorabbi at July 30, 2006 12:41 PM

islam has killed billions of children since it commenced. Human life as we know and respect and understand is completely alien to islam. That is why they won't return the soldiers that Israel asks for. That is all that they ask for their defensive to stop. Their boys returned. But islam forbids this. Forbids the return of captive infidels.

Posted by: arjun.sevak at July 30, 2006 12:53 PM

Alawites abed at nights should worry: they can continue for a while to aid Iran, but what happens when the Sunnis, who constitute almost all of Syria's real Muslims -- those Alawites with their cult of Mary had to try to find a Shi'a imam who would declare them, some thirty years ago, to be real Muslims, but no Sunni Arabs in Syria take that to heart, and even though some must for now endure what the Alawites, and those Alawite generals, dish out, they wait for their chance.

Do the Alawites want Saudi Arabia, want Al-Jazeera, want the full weight of Sunni Islam to focus on them, complete with shots of the Mary-worship that goes on in the Alawite villages? Do they want to be reminded of what happened to those Alawite military cadets murdered in Homs? Do they want the Sunni Arabs to start making a fuss about their attempt to "prove their Islamness" by supporting Iran? It could be very unpleasant.

If you were an Alawite, what would worry you most? Not the Americans. Not the Israelis. No, what would worry you most would be the Sunni Arabs of Syria rising up to attack first this Alawite village, and then that, with Sunni men suddenly turning on their Alawite officers and massacring them, for the clever and ruthless Hafez al-Assad, who knew how to manage his army so that even the Sunni Arab conscripts were forced to participate in the razing of Sunni Arab houses, and in the massacre of Sunni Arabs in Hama, isn't around and his son is not up to the job.

That's what would worry you. Being read formally out of Islam. Saudi Arabia has the power, and the money -- remember how often the Syrians have required Saudi indulgence and approval to give them that "Muslim" legitimacy they crave.

What happens if the Al-Saud, who want Lebanon to be a nearby pleasure palace, where Saudis can have fun in an Arabic-speaking, not inhospitable environment (as parts of the Bilad al-kufr are becoming), decide to really cause the Alawties worry for their backing of Hezbollah, which merely invites Israeli intervention, not only now, but repeatedly in the future (thus putting off forever those Harirish plans for Lebanon), get fed up? And furthermore wishes to break the Syria-Iran axis. It can deny money to the Syrians. But that is only a start. The real pain to be inflicted is otherwise. Let that Saudi-funded press in London, let those Qatari or Kuwaiti or U.A.E. funded satellite television stations, start having program after program on how the Alawites got started, as did other minorities (Turcomans, Christians) as the military forces, known as the Troupes Speciales, on which the French relied, and then later managed to become primus inter pares, and when that Alawite Air Force pilot Hafez al-Assad took control, there was no longer hiding from view that the Alawites, who make up only 12% of the population, were going to run Syria for their own benefit.

Lebanon as a money-making proposition for Syria's Alawites is now gone, whatever happens to Hezbollah. Saudi subsidies are gone. The Kurds who are in two distinct parts of Syria, east and west, are enthusiastic about Kurdish autonomy, possibly to become full independence, in Iraq. The Syrian economy is in a permanent mess.

If the Saudis, possibly on their own, possibly prompted by the Americans, who could say something to the Saudi rulers that "ifyou want us to protect you from Iran and its claims, you must do something first. We want you to explain to the Alawites that their "Muslimness" can be made an issue, a big issue, an issue that will be beamed everywhere, in and out of the Muslim world, in and outside Syria. They can either drop their alliance with Iran, and concentrate only on staying in power and milking Syria itself for what it's worth, or the Alawite Defense -- sounds like something by Philidor or Morphy or Capablanca -- will be employed to justify the checkmating of the Syrian regime. And once the Alawites have had their minds concentrated with the prospect of articles in the London Arab press, funded by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and the U.A.E., and of broadcasts on Arab satellite television channels, all devoted to the theme of "Are the Alawites real Muslims?" (shots of those paintings of Mary in Alawite homes --shirk, shirk, shirk; shots of closed Syrian government offices on Christmas Day, shots of... well, you get the picture).

Syria's Alawites should not tempt fate. They know, they know far better than the innocent Infidels abroad, what would happen to them if the Sunni Arabs in Syria ever managed to overthrow them, they know what would happen to them, their wives, their children, their worldll goods. They know they would not be able to hide in France, or anywhere else, to take their loot and escape. Best to be satisfied with what they have. Best not to hook their Alawite star to the careening wagon of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and its maddened Shi'a. Mr. Big -- Saudi Arabia -- has ways.

And when the Saudis have made that case to the Alawites, and made them much more hesitant to support Iran, to transfer weapons, and Iranian agents, into Lebanon or for that matter into Iraq, then the government of Iran itself may realize that it should think again about that nuclear project, should think again about the Arabs of Khuzistan, the Kurds in the north, the Baluchis and Azeris in many places, and wonder if the possiblilty of losing Iran altogether, of it being reduced in size and deprived of its oil wealth, is worth the nuclear-bomb project.

But all of this requires that the full significance of the Alawite nature of the dictatorship in Syria first be recognized, that quasi-Muslim or nont-quite-orthodox Muslim status that explains the eagerness of those Alawites do favors for Sunnis (letting them pass unhindered into Iraq to fight Shi'a) and Shi'a (letting them send weapons, and adding to those weapons, that are sent through Syria to Hezbollah) alike.

That should be the focus of efforts to win, not minds and hearts, but merely cooperation, from the Alawite rulers of Syria. They want to live. They are risking everything.

Posted by: Hugh at July 30, 2006 1:39 PM

J-P Peroncel Hugoz, the French journalist, formerly of LeMonde, reports a conversation that he had with a Sunni businessman in Damascus about the Alawites [in Une Croix sur le Liban]. If an Alawite wants to become a Sunni Muslim, he has to convert to Christianity first. Only then can we accept him as a Sunni.
This illustrates the depth of Sunni contempt for the Alawites.

Posted by: Eliyahu at July 30, 2006 2:09 PM

Double good news here. Israel is standing her ground and Sioniora threw away a golden photo-op to pander for yet another phoney cease fire leading to another phoney peace. Taking his pretend grief and outrage this far may land him in a "dunce" room next to Nasrallah at the Iranian Embassy.

Posted by: OLDPUPPYMAX at July 30, 2006 2:56 PM