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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (191808)	7/16/2006 6:38:57 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

But rather than putting Lebanon's Prime Minister on the international hotseat for not disarming Hizbullah, they have now essentially permitted their Prime Minister to turn this crisis into a attack upon Lebanon's sovereignty. He knows he's powerless to disarm Hizbullah, but he's not been put in the spot of having to internationally admit that reality. So Israel's failure to offer an "alliance" with the Lebanese government to disarm Hizbullah has permitted their PM the easy political excuse that Israel is attacking Lebanon. The Lebanese PM has stated his intention of taking control of southern Lebanon. The course you suggest sounds great in theory, but we know how much time useless diplomatic moves done for the sake of PR take. By the time all that was done, the crisis would have passed, Nasrallah would be crowing, and the Israel's military option would be off the table for all practical purposes.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (191808)	7/17/2006 3:08:41 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "Israel should have called upon the UNSC to support it's providing assistance and coordination with Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah." I doubt that the UNSC would have been very supportive of Israel. They might have suggested, for example, that Israel take revenge by crossing the border into Lebanon and kidnapping two Lebanese. That's not what Israel wanted to hear. Re: "And in the meantime it could still call up its reserves, conduct air strikes against Hizbullah positions in the South." I think that we both realize that there is no way those rockets are going to stop falling without the Israeli army going into the southernmost 30 miles of Lebanon. And to do that, they have to call up their reserves. So where is the call up? I keep watching for it, but no sign. The only reserves getting called up are of the type that would suggest that all the Israelis are going to do is some bombing raids. It reminds me of the futility of the US bombing Iraq for all those years. But in the face of the futility of actually invading Iraq, the bombing campaign looks intelligent in retrospect. Of course my suggestion at the time was to make peace with Saddam and leave the place alone. I really don't think Israel has any good choices. Their basic problem is maintaining their country as an attractive place to live. Neither invading Lebanon nor allowing the Lebanese to pelt them with missiles will allow this. -- Carl