Bush Says Israel Defeated Hezbollah Guerillas <>
(CBS News) President Bush said Monday that Hezbollah guerillas suffered a defeat at the hands of Israel in their month-long Mideast war. "There's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon," Mr. Bush said. Mr. Bush also said the war was part of a broader struggle between freedom and terror and "we can only imagine how much more dangerous this conflict would be if Iran had the nuclear weapon it seeks."
Mr. Bush said Iran and Syria were the primary sponsors of Hezbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers, igniting the battle with Israel. More than 900 people were killed in the fighting, and there was massive destruction in southern Lebanon. Mr. Bush said the "responsibility for this suffering lies with Hezbollah."
And now contrast that with Israel's own vision of this 34 day war. Keep in mind the hidden subversive message above: that an oppositional political party is guilty for the slaughter of its own nation's citizens simply because it was the oppositional party. Get it??? Just ask Cheney, when he says Democrats are in league with Al Qaeda.
Israel's Verdict: We Lost the War
by Donald Macintyre
<> Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, was obliged to admit "shortcomings" in the 34-day-old conflict in Lebanon yesterday as he launched what may prove a protracted fight for his own political survival. Mr Olmert's admission in a stormy Knesset session came in the face of devastating poll figures showing a majority of the Israeli public believes none or only a very small part of the goals of the war had been achieved. The Prime Minister, who was repeatedly heckled by opposition MPs during his address, insisted the international commitments in Friday night's UN resolution would "change fundamentally" the balance of forces on the country's northern border. <>Promising that the government "will have to examine ourselves at all levels,"
Mr Olmert fought to pre-empt a probable campaign by the political right by declaring that Hizbollah had been dealt a "harsh blow". He added that the guerrilla group was no longer "a state within a state" or a "terrorist organisation that is allowed to act inside a state as an arm of the axis of evil", referring to Syria and Iran.
While refraining from a direct personal attack on Mr Olmert, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right- wing Likud opposition, lost little time in declaring "there were many failures, failures in identifying the threat, failures in preparing to meet the threat, failures in the management of the war, failures in the management of the home front."
Now let's consider two other points. First, that Bush and Olmert suggest that this was really about Syria and Iran; that the US has strategic intent to pre-emptively attack Iran and was supporting the Israeli strike against Lebanon to instigate a Syrian/Iranian response. Assume that Bush/Cheney also refers to Iraq as a victory, and considering Israel's effort a victory, foreshadows decades of war in the Middle East, killing thousands of US citizens and hundreds of thousands of foreign citizens, these crazy mofos would call that a victory too. But that isn't the critical point. What underlies all of this is that Israel had been planning this attack for more than a year, with the direct support and approval of Bushco, and that this year long planning and preparation are viewed by Israel as a complete defeat.
Last month the San Francisco Chronicle reported that "Israel's military response by air, land and sea to what it considered a provocation last week by Hizbollah militants was unfolding according to a plan finalised more than a year ago". The report said that a senior Israeli army officer had been briefing diplomats, journalists and think-tanks for more than a year about the plan and it quoted Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at [Israel's] Bar-Ilan University, who said: "Of all of Israel's wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared." Last week the New Statesman magazine reported that Britain had also been informed in advance of the military preparations and that the Prime Minister had chosen not to try to stop them "because he did not want to".
This latest report is the first to tie the Israeli operation to a broader framework that includes a possible US strike against Iran.
Unidentified officials said a strike could "ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American pre-emptive attack". Shabtai Shavit, a national security adviser to the Knesset, said: "We do what we think is best for us, and if it happens to meet America's requirements, that's just part of a relationship between two friends. Hizbollah is armed to the teeth and trained in the most advanced technology of guerrilla warfare. It was just a matter of time."
An anonymous Middle East expert claimed that while the State Department supported the plan because it believed it would help the Lebanese government assert control over the south, the White House was focussed on stripping Hizbollah of its missiles.
