"Somehow a few hundred rocket salvos from Hezbollah is seen to be an equal contest against 6,800 fighter aircraft attacks - and all of this repeatedly not against Hezbollah fighters but straight out civilians and infrastructure. It's pure propaganda. What I find most offensive is that the Australian media actually believes this tripe to be some sort of 'balanced' journalism. I don't know why they just don't call them all 'ragheads' and have done with it.and none of it is promising. i think that this has larger
Juan Cole's remarks (cited by Miguel) were very close to the mark. It's becoming altogether clear that these Israeli attacks can only have meaning in terms of a long-planned broader strategy. Pierre Tristam quotes from an article in the WSJ “[W]orried that Hezbollah’s armed wing might attack too, the Israeli military has issued a high-level alert along its northern border with Lebanon.” This was reported on July 10, two days before the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers.
So, there was a 'high level alert' in place?
The whole story stinks. Juan Cole got it right: this has larger strategic aims written all over it."
richard perle is one-hand-typing out his next piece at this very moment.
5 comments:
Damien/Luke,
I'm actually torn between 2 visions of the Israeli assault. One is that Israel overreacted to a daring act by Hezbollah, and didn't think this campaign through. The other is the one suggested by Juan Cole, and perhaps by Larisa too, that this military act is part of a larger strategy to widen the war.
I think it's too early to tell for sure. The only thing I can say for sure is that if it IS part of a larger, strategic war, it does not seem to be working. The IDF is looking pretty bad, and Hezbollah will probably end up being far more popular in Lebanon then they deserve to be.
It's really hard to figure out what's really going on here: I am keeping an open mind.
miguel - israel appears to have stuffed it up, regardless of which version is in play - although they keep seem to escalating, which doesnt make much sense (altho these things often dont)
my biggest concern is that the much-repeated 'syria and iran enabler' rhetoric appears intended to be laying the ground-work for further escalation. and as i mentioned the other day, it seems that there are a lot of people dusting off their copies of Clean Break.
Peace in the ME by Xmas - who's taking bets?
trick qn.
which xmas?
The Dark Wraith, always an interesting read, discusses another possible dimension to what's happening in Lebanon, hinting at dark portents for Syria. It's one we've seen before.
Post a Comment