Breitbart / AP: “Israel Massing Troops on Lebanese Border”:
Israel massed tanks and troops on the border Friday and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone.
An Israeli envoy said it will allow aid supplies into Lebanon, a day after the United Nations warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the country.
Hezbollah militants fired at least 11 rockets at Israel’s port city of Haifa, wounding five people. Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanon’s main road link to Syria, collapsing part of Lebanon’s longest bridge. A U.N.-run observation post near the border was hit, but no one was hurt.
The worry—well, to those of us who believe that a UN peace keeping force would be a joke, and that now is the time for Israel to destroy Hezbollah if ever they were going to do it—has been that Israel might not be willing to take the casualties and do what is necessary to eradicate the threat from southern Lebanon, namely, introduce ground troops into the region and wipe out Hezbollah strongholds and fighters (rather than simply weaken them with aerial strikes).
I suppose it’s possible this massing of troops is a strategic bluff meant to gin up additional pressure on Hezbollah to turn over the kidnapped soldiers, but I’m more inclined to go with my initial inclination that Israel has been prepping the battleground for ground forces—realizing, as it must, that with the US in Iraq, Iran is isolated, and now may be its best chance to undo the years of damage brought about by Iranian and Syrian opportunism, a weak Lebanese government, UN fecklessness, and an international community long working against Israel’s interests (and so lending de facto support to terror groups like Hezbollah).
More: Defense Tech provides a strategic overview, and notes the difficulties Israel faces. (h/t Verc)
Ironically, it will likely be shrieks from the UN and the Europeans that create the biggest potential problems for Israel; but if the US (and the Arab countries) remain resolute in providing Israel cover (and John Bolton’s straight-talking mustache, Regis, seems pretty firm just now), history might again (tacitly) thank Israel for preemptively putting an end to another huge threat to the region—provided Iran doesn’t yet have nuclear weapons, and provided Hezbollah hasn’t gotten its hands on any WMDs (which, where in the hell would they get those from, anyway?)
As Terry Hastings writes me in an email:
Kennedy stood at the Brandenburg gate and urged the free world to unite against the dark forces of tyranny. Radical Islam exhibits all the symptoms of a malignant force that grows systematically, relentlessly, and eventually will threaten the entire free world. But, for some strange reason, much of the free world is more interested in showing its disdain for Amerika/BushHitler than opposing radical Islam. BDS has gone global.
Strange days.
All the more reason to remain resolute, isn’t it?
Crazy Ali’s Discount WMD Warehouse?
“Our prices are INSANE! And so are our customers!”
SB: made
in Iran
I find it ridiculous that Hizballah gets six years to build its terrorist infrastructure and Israel gets, tops, three weeks to tear it down.
Note, however, that this limit is not simply imposed by the UN and the Eurabians. The fact is, if Bush stood with the Israelis they could proceed as necessary. I’m also talking about the Jewish Cindy Sheehans, domestic (Four Mothers et al) and international (Richard Cohen).
If Israel does not march now, Israel will march later. HZB will not stop. There is absolutely no point to resisting a forward drive into Lebanon. If Israel does back down, HZB will have won a propaganda victory and be stronger politically even as the Lebanese government will have been weakened in relation AND due to Israel’s airstrikes.
No sanctions on Syria and Iran will deter HZB from rebuilding again; we know this empirically because no sanctions HAVE detered HZB from rebuilding. If Israel halts their assault, HZB de facto conquers Lebanon as the present hesitation and impotence of the government vis a vis HZB will continue and be exploited. In which case, if Israel invades now, they MAY have to confront the Lebanonese army but if they falter, the next time around, Israel WILL confront the Lebanonese army.
Hmmm. Well, I guess that the Palestinians have their territory, eh? Time for Gerusalemme Reconstruita?
Nah.
There is a time to finish this, and that time is now.
TW: I am become Shiva, destoyer of worlds
QUAGMIRE!!!!!
TW: Speak, truth to…
Can’t email right now – I see you’ve been re-Frisched!! lol Not a bad article at Fox, really. Can’t imagine it pleased a previous commenter.
t/w “fact”
Indeed it is.
T/W: Live free or die.
OK Verc, I’ve reread five of Jeff’s postings’ comment threads to find out when and how you became “Chastened.” Seemed like it would be fun reading. Nothing. Wazzup?
This coming fight is going to be a hard one to get clear of. I suspect we’ll be drawn in, and it will escalate to a regional conflict. Is now the time? Is Lebanon the place?
Time is not on our side on this – the enemy gets stronger and better armed. We in the meantime (greater we, not just US) have stronger voices of appeasement, more encroachment of PC driven “restraints,” and China and Russia stirring the pot.
Place is not too bad, although I wish it were on unqualified enemy soil, not a fledgling democracy. The location has decent logistic possibilities.
God go with Israel on this.
Well, here’s hoping when they take the Bekaa valley they find the WMD Hussein hid there eh?
Military hardware question:
Does Israel have radar-assisted artillery, like we do in Iraq? So that they can detect a rocket firing and lay rounds on the enemy launch site before the incoming rocket even lands?
I sure hope so. That seems like it would speed things up.
Turing = charge
BDS has gone global.
I blame John Lennon’s imagination.
Time is not on our side on this – the enemy gets stronger and better armed. We in the meantime (greater we, not just US) have stronger voices of appeasement, more encroachment of PC driven “restraints,†and China and Russia stirring the pot.
Your right it isn’t, and every hesitation on our(the rational world)only emboldens our enemies desire for our blood.
This is what confounds me about the left.The people we are at war with know no restraint. They don’t respond to PC. They are, for all intents and purposes, irrational. Yet the left act as if there is no threat.
Israel has done the right thing and damn the opinion of the rest of the world. Bomb the barbarians until they fill their pants and run away.
You know it never ceases to amaze me how the rest of the world can bury their collective heads in the sand when it comes to global islamification. Worse, is the constant appeasement to the Muslim world’s feelings. Israel should make this the final solution to HBZ. And by doing so, they will send a clear message to rest of the islamofascists.
God bless the IDF
John Lynch, my everlasting shame hath come upon mine shoulders here on 07/21, at 01:49 PM.
I forswear ALL rhetorical violence of the kind I used to indulge in at the drop of a hat, because I have since attained the rank of Zen Master, and so spiritual bliss. BUT NO FREAKIN’ PIE FOR ULTRALOSER!!!
Israel has a more interconnected armed force than the US does (for the same reason that Korea has a more broadband networks; it is smaller, mostly homogenous and urban). That said, rockets tend to be single-shot weapons unlike cannons and so counterbattery fire, if used, will only defeat small assets (a disposable rocket stand). Worse, the care that the Israelis are levying on the battlefield to avoid casualties require some forebearance; the Israelis are likely to pass on immediate retaliation until they figure that the firing site isn’t smack in the middle of a school or hospital area.
Verc doesn’t need chastening. I actually think that we need more like him.
No, I’m not a damn sock puppet. Verc is much better with a flame thrower than I am, and I willfully acknowledge that fact.
TW: Building. Verc and I aren’t in the same
Hell, may not even be the same time zone.
All I know is that when I have to spray for roaches, I don’t stop and negotiate their terms of surrender.
I just keep that button pressed down until they are all dead.
RAID! Kills bugs dead.
Ehh, here’s the link to my above comment…
Whoa, don’t blow it between me and school marm!
Ya know, fortunately for the Israelis, most of their opponents in Europe are cowards.
   -   Mark Steyn
TODD: I think it is, in large measure, fear. A great portion of humanity is naturally fearful. You can see this in action throughout history whenever similar watersheds are reached. For example, Churchill lists 13–or was it 17?–mistakes the allies made that precipitated WWII. Given 13 opportunities to avoid a world war, the Allies blew every single one of them.
Fortunately, some among us have an innate disposition to face down danger.
The sad thing is that we never learn from our collective experience; each new soul has to learn everything anew. In the sense that humanity keeps repeating its mistakes and expecting different results, there’s something kind of insane about it.
The IDF is suppose to be a pretty good outfit. They’d better be and it wouldn’t hurt for them to have studied Bing West’s book NO TRUE GLORY about the Marine’s fight for Fallujah. When the balloon goes up and they cross into south Lebanon, they’re gonna be walking into a snake pit.
The IDF bought plenty of JDAMs in 2004 and 100 GBU-28’s last year, so one could suppose that they have a good idea how to use same and position the latter for use against such things as tunnel networks. This is, indeed, Act II and Act I is closing up after a good long run from 1979 with all sorts of fun things going on in its aftermath. But I never expected to see the actual keys to unlock the Middle East get exposed by a few measly invasions.
A little change of scenery making Lebanon an independently operating State and giving Palestinians verifiable elections and suddenly terror attacks become attacks eminating from Sovereign National Territory. Casus Belli. Acts of War. And then, Hezbollah, with the cheering and support of Iran and Syria, sinks an Egyptian unarmed merchant freighter, thus handing THEM a Casus Belli! Such lovely people. I do believe that they are trying to do the old ‘We are against the World and intend to win’ sort of deal.
I bet on the World in this one, but I am sure others will think otherwise.
Keep going, Hezbollah! Get more Nations mad at your backers! I am sure you can bomb a few Embassies as you did OURS in the 1980’s… easiest thing to do, handing out this Casus Belli material.
Faster, please!
Remember, the entropy arrow always points down.
It’s always easier to destroy than to build.
What a wonderful new meme/adjective – collective. We have collective punishment and collective heads, etc let’s add collective (pick one or all): 1) appeasers, 2)cowards, 3) opportunists (Oil for Food as an example), 4) useful idiots, 5) disgruntled Leftist, ad nauseum.
Simpler: The LeftBorg Collective.
I don’t take any pleasure in being proved right about this, but some of us have been screaming about it for five years now, and a lot smarter guys than me have been trying to warn the world for a lot longer. We have a foe that is bent on world domination, and if I could borrow your analogy, Kevin, it’s they who are the Borg, not the feckless libtards. They are relentless. They move ever forward. They don’t have human emotions. They aren’t just amoral, they actually take pleasure in butchering the infidels.
Unfortunately, I have no faith that the West and its leaders, including and especially Bush, will wake up and realize that the only option is the utter destruction of a great part of the moslem world.
Verc,
Sorry to take so long in getting to this, but I see you had a brief case of luna chiroptera respondus. It’s OK, it passes.
Israel needs to send Netanyahu, or someone else who isn’t particularly busy at the moment, to that Hudson River enclave to get up, wave his hands for attention, then point some direction not aimed at Israel, and holler (to be translated into 9,345 languages simultaneously):
“Look! Ponies!”
Hell of a great idea…
PS.
Ponies idea stolen from John Scalzi.
Yeah those ponies; well the south ends of same, anyway…
Crap–Condi’s going to Israel and then to Rome find a way to “end the conflict.” How about victory, total and complete victory?
She says a cease fire is off the table. Yeah, right. Please, Condi, be strong.
Steve be strangely missing on the eve of the proof that his “Mona-like” certainty of the extreme improbability of an Israeli invasion.
But then I always suspected he was a pretend Republican anyway.
I have a hard time believing that Condi would be bringing a message to stop the Israelis considering that the destruction of Hezbollah and the freeing of the Lebanese people is in Americas interest.
I see it as a return favor for the recent visit from their PM. A ‘we stand with you’ message. I hope.
As to vercs chastening for his outburst at actus, I can only say we all go there eventually. His tactics make it almost inevitable for anyone who isn’t Buddha. I always feel bad for it too.
Ultraloser should STFU.
Nobody talks that way about Verc and gets away with it.
The Vercs of the world are the equivalent of Winston Churchill and the Ultralosers are the equivalent of Neville Chamberlain. Retarded dunghills or actii as I like to call them need to be LOUDLY rebutted and humiliated in public. Sure in the blog format you eventually have to ban or ignore them but sometimes it does come down to the solution to the problem of free speech is more speech. Allowing insidious and dangerous ideas to go unchallenged is sometimes dangerous to society at large. For instance I always thought Mr. Arbuckle was guilty because that was the idea or meme that won the competition. Now I know better and am ashamed for being misled.
P.S. Nothing in my previous rant should be taken to construe that Verc is NOT in great need of a firm disciplining from an education type person.
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RC
Responding civilly to a civil lefty is necessary discourse, improving the ideas of both positions. Responding to moonbat fringe, as characterized by meme-repeating, fact-ignoring, absence of logic needs to be done with care.
A good, solid response should include thorough refutation of all points: identifying erroneous facts, including missing facts, dispelling the meme arguments, and destroying the logical fallacies. The response should include links to supporting facts, and refuting logic.
This is all a great deal of work, so responding requires effort and should be limited to cases egregious enough to disturb. Good for Verc for taking on this work occasionally, as well as you and others.
Of course, in many cases the moonbat is trying to provoke such reaction, and perhaps start a link war that boosts their own position in moonbat land. Consider before firing back.
A good solid moonbat trounce is high entertainment, but choose well.
Nothing here argues that Verc should not be punished, frequently and severely, by any passing schoolmarm.
John Lynch – well said.
Well, I can’t find the offending “verc” ness…so all I have to say is…I LOVE YOU MAN!
Verc,
I have missed why you are in need of my services. I have been very busy at the house of horrors. Sorry, it is just that time of year … vacations and all.
Have you been naughty? I suppose that is more of statement than a question. Last reply I read by you was very well said. I can’t imagine you need to be chastised over those remarks. However if your attitude needs to be readjusted I would be glad to assist.
TW: It is the “least” I can do.
John,
We are way beyond that point here. You can only muster sound, rational arguments for so long. Eventually you get tired beyond measure of moonbats putting their fingers in their ears are shouting “la,la,la,la”.
Almost by definition a moonbat is irrational and not interested in a rational dialog of ideas. Putting too much effort into arguing with them is a waste of time and more than they deserve. They simply need to be given a smacking around.
The fear that I have here (I know, I know—Stonewall said “Never take counsel of your fears”, and Ol’ Bluelight was correct)is that the IDF may not be equal to the task. They made their rep over the years whipping the Arabs’ collective asses in basically conventional warfare, and the Arabs suck in a conventional standup fight. The IDF’s previous sojourn in south Lebanon didn’t turn out so well, however, and the IDF is now facing asymmetrical warfare with an enemy that has learned how to fight asymmetrically over the last few years. They’ve had plenty of practice in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have no shortage of willing, experienced mentors. The IDF, on the other hand, is pretty well trained, but not really blooded in this type (and scale) of fight. They are going to learn some hard lessons, and take a lot of casualties. Let’s hope they learn fast, and don’t let the casualties (or outside pressure) make them lose heart before the do what needs to be done.
TW: Whether they can get ‘er done, only time will tell.
I think it’s a chronic condition known as “he just wants it.”
And when ever does that not appear to be the case?
I differ with you on this. Most of the experienced ones are dead. or staying where they are. The folks we saw crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan were alot less ably led than in the past – and if you go beyond the headlines in Afghanistan you will see almost all of those “killed in escalating violence” are the Talib and HIG. So I would argue that there is a shortage of experienced leadership.
Also, the IDF has never been able to rest on laurels or wallow in defeat – they have had to adapt and overcome, or their nation dies. I think they have; 1. taken to heart their experinece in Lebanon the last time, 2. paid strict attention to our experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as that of the Russians with the Chechens. The IDF will be better prep’d than I think you credit them.
One humble Army 0-4’s opinion, anyway.
Then there are folks like my brother, who claim that Israel targetting civilian airports both makes them a terrorist organization and fits in with a series of punitive economic attacks targetted at destroying the Lebanese economy, which to him is SOP for Israel, economically devastating their opponents because… you know… they’re Jews. I don’t even try any more.
Major John, I agree. Israel has successfully fought against far more powerful enemies than Hizballah. I personally hope the Israelis crush Hizballah and take out Syria. Powerline has some good stuff on the current fight, including this link to Jack Kelly’s article
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060722/COLUMNIST14/607220366/-1/COLUMNIST
Kelly is right on the money. Israel can choose to bleed now or later. I would feel better with Netanyahu in the drivers seat, rather than Olmert.
Mark,
But Olmert can do things that Netanyahu couldn’t – because he is from the new centrist group that tried “peace” first. Now he can drop the hammer and say – “well, we tried the land give-away, look what it got us…” I think they will be OK. Yaweh willing and the wadi don’t rise (and the IDF stays on its game…).
Then there are folks like my brother, who claim that Israel targetting civilian airports both makes them a terrorist organization and fits in with a series of punitive economic attacks targetted at destroying the Lebanese economy, which to him is SOP for Israel, economically devastating their opponents because… you know… they’re Jews. I don’t even try any more.
Posted by OHNOES | permalink
Here’s one your brother hasn’t considered. Hisbollah ARE civilians. They have no military bases except civilian neighbohoods. They have no military headquarters except civilian buildings.They plan it that way for propaganda purposes. Your brother bought it.
Major John,
I bow to your admittedly more recent experience in that part of the world, although I’m not entirely convinced that all of the experienced and competent Hajis are sitting this one out. I do, however, sincerely hope that you are right and that this turns out to be a cake walk for the IDF. Unlike some of our reality-based brethren, I’d rather see the good guys win than be able to say I told you so.
I wouldn’t say cakewalk…but as long as they succeed, Israel lives. Man, and I thought it was heavy that MacArthur said “fail and the Nation dies” to the US Army. What the heck can you say to the IDF? Fail and…. yikes.
I just hope you’re right. Or else a lot of wingers have squandered the last few cents of their credibility; we are jumping ship to something other than else.
Huh?