Originally posted by Gunslinger
SO how would you fight a "Proportionate war" if such a thing exists? One bomb for every rocket? That seems rather absurd considering. The thing that seems to piss off europeans and some lefties alike is that Israel is not afraid to step on some toes. While the EU is trying at great lengths to appease Iran and other arabs Israel is continuing to fight them in their own back yard. But it seems most europeans never met an enemy of Israel that they didn't like.
Once again you're showing your complete separation from reality. Hezbolla didn't kill any Israeli civilians in this latest round until Israel escalated the conflict by bombing civilian infrastructure targets. Meanwhile, how can you sit there labelling other nations as appeasers when your own president walks hand in hand with the Saudi Crown prince in front of the worlds press?
As far as alienating Christian lebbonese? Who cares, most of them recognized hezbollah as a legitimate entity before all of this even started.
And if Israel wants Hezbollah reigned in it needs the cooperation of the Christians, particularly as it is becoming clear that the military campaign in its current form is not going to succeed in eliminating them alone.
You can try and drag this into an argument about Iraq but it's not.
It is relevant because it proves that you don't have a clue about what you're discussing. You bang on about the threat of what
you term "Islamofacism" as if it is some monolithic global threat; yet you can't answer the question as to why you've just spent $300+ billion invading and occupying the state in the region whose leader was the nemesis of both Sunni and Shia radicalism in Iraq. A country that is now dominated by the same Shia who support Hezbollah and the regime in Tehran.
you have If you don't understand Islamofascism or refuse to see the writing on the walls you are beyond hope.
I understand that it doesn't exist in the terms you think it does. Hamas and Hezbollah are primarily local movements that formed in repsonse to outside events, those being the previous Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank. They are inward looking and parochial, not expansionist and apocalyptic. Neither really consists of a hardcore numbered in more than a few thousands. Take away the perceived injustices with which they rally popular support and their powerbase would melt away. Many Israelis know this; but they are caught in a trap of their own making since to accept such a thing challenges a basic tenet of zionism, which is the divine title they believe themselves to have over the land now largely inhabited by another ethnic group.
That Israel and its supporters are spinning this as an episode in some loosely defined global struggle just marks how desperate they are to attract outside support for a long standing fight that they are at least in part responsible for picking. Its nonsense. Its just a rerun of old strife that Israel should have settled by now by itself.
Originally posted by Thrawn
I find it hard to believe that people don't understand that this is exactly what Hezbollah wants...lots of civilians dead, homes destroyed, civil infrastructure destroyed. It's a recruiting drive.
Exactly. And it's more than that. I think Hezbollah always expected Israel to come for them eventually; in a years time, maybe more, once the political groundwork had been laid. Notice the recent and totally baseless suggestion by Fox News that Saddam's WMD may possibly now be in the Hands of Hezbollah? That's the kind of thing I mean. I think the Lebanese Shia have quite cleverly forced Israel to show their hand before they were ready knowing very well that if Israel does not finsih Hezbollah this time around, which now seems unlikely, they will be prevented from launching a more comprehensive and effective attack in the near future.
