I will only say the decision to attack an all Muslim country was not thought out to the fullest extent.
Keith, Lebanon is not all muslim. My brother in law is a Maronite Christian (he and my sister happened to be visiting there when the war began), and Maronites make us a significant percentage of the Lebanese population (and even more if you consider those who have chosen to emigrate due to the civil war).
And even amongst the Muslims, there are divisions between Sunni, Shi'a, and Druze. And Sunnis are not particularly keen on Shi'a, and especially militant Shi'a, seizing inordinate power within Lebanon. And the Druze? We'll they are considered "heretics" by both the Sunni and the Shi'a and they don't want either of them to hold power.
But to get back to the primary point, it's pretty apparent that Israel limited the extent of its attacks to retaliation against Katyusha launches, and destroying Hizbullah Loci points (C4I). Additionally, they targeted bridges and access points between Syria and Lebanon in order to deny them the ability to move weapons in, and/or the hostages out.
But war is war.. It's the deliberate and brutal science of killing fellow human beings, and it represents a total collapse of civilized human relations. We can attempt to "pretty it up" and establish rules of behavior via treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, but at its heart, we should never forget that war is the organized murder of human beings for the purpose of effecting a political outcome that could not be achieved via diplomacy.
It should not be entered into lightly. And when a nation threatened by an enemy sworn to exterminate it, it's imperative to ensure that the intended victim does not lose, it must destroy the enemies capacity and will to perpetuate their aggression.
And although recent advances in technology have drastically improved the ability to destroy physical capacity, some would suggest that to destroy the will, the enemies population must suffer to such an extent that they no longer perceive an advantage in pursuing their aggression. Thus, technology, and its use, has the disadvantage of permitting the "will" of the enemy population to survive to fight again.
Hawk |
