The Middle East spirals out of control!

Originally Posted by Wesker

Fists of all, the Israelis haven't gotten themselves into this mess, the unprovoked attack by Hezbollah is what started this mess. The very fact that the IDF hasn't just rolled all over Lebanon, occupying the entire country is not evidence of a lack of IDF capability but a demonstration of the extreme restrait thta has been used by the Israelis. Had israel wanted to they could be in Damascus now and there is not much Lebanon or Syria could do about it militarily. Isreal, if anything is guilty of following a Rumsfeldian concept of limited war, which, as we see in iraq, is seldom successful. They would have been much better off to roll into southern Lebanon in full force, instead of on a tit for tat basis.

I guess I'll jump into the fray. First of all, I'll say flat-out that I'm against Israel on this issue. I was fairly neutral, but Israel's actions in this latest conflict is mindnumbingly irrational.

First of all, Hezbollah captured the soldiers with the intent of freeing it's own troops that were captured by Israel. You can't call something like that unprovoked.

Also, Israel hasn't occupied the country because it knows that would enflame the Middle East to such a degree that something truly dangerous could break out. How do you justify yourself to the international community after invading a country because of what an extremist group of its government did independently? At least, when the US attacked Afghanistan, the Taliban controlled Afg completely. In this case, the Lebanese gov't and Hezbollah are distinctly different, with different policies. Likewise, the majority of Lebanese citizens had nothing to do with Hezbollah, yet are paying the price. It's not restraint, it's common political sense.

Israel has completely ignored the civilian lives that are being harmed. Airports, bridges, power plants, and more are being leveled, reducing the quality of life in the area to nil. And all this to avenge the death of 8 SOLDIERS and the capture of two? I don't see the annihilation of civilians their way of life a fair response to captured troops.

I find it pathetic that America is taking such a feeble stance on this. I doubt Bush would ever condemn Israel for anything, but he should at least call for a ceasefire or something similar. One of my classmates, a Lebanese girl, went to visit her grandparents, and almost got killed in the bombing. She finally managed to escape to Syria days later. This is an American citizen and her family, who are in danger for something a militant group did? Outrageous.

Sadly, the Jewish lobby is too powerful in the United States for anything concrete to get done. The US pumps Israel full of weapons, yet complains when Iran sells weapons to a beleaguered Lebanon (and since when is purchasing weapons when you are being attacked some sort of taboo?) I feel that this will only enrage the Muslim world more. As soon as Iran gets its nukes up, there will be hell to pay.

Jam it back in, in the dark.