In regards to the civilian deaths in Qana, Israel’s ambassador to the UN is saying (on MTP) that “this is what Hezbollah wanted” (i.e., the civilian deaths).
Given that Hezbollah fighter stage their weapons amidst civilians, and launch attacks from amidst civilians, I can’t disagree with the assessment.
However, the question hangs heavy in the air: then why give Hezbollah what it wants?
If, in fact, this campaign could have resulted in the destruction of Hezbollah as a fighting force then the argument can be made, but as I have argued from the beginning from this campaign (for example here), it seems to me that what is going to result from this fight is that there will be more persons willing to fight with Hezbollah within Lebanon, not less.
As such, the exact goals here are unclear–especially since the sad truth is that the kidnap victims are unlikely to be recovered alive.Instead, the Israeli government has allowed two terrorist groups to create a great deal of death and chaos with no discernible endgame in sight.
Eighteen days later, I don’t think anything has changed.
July 30th, 2024 at 10:40 am
[...] ws of children, women, and old men. The left, and even some normally sober thinkers like Dr. Steven Taylor, wish the Israelis would let the terrorists live to launch more murder on Israel. And that [...]
July 30th, 2024 at 2:26 pm
[...] mment…
By Dr. Steven Taylor @ 2:21 pm
Wrote Bill Hennessy earlier today in response to my post of earlier this morning: The left, and even some normally sober thinkers like Dr. Stev [...]
July 30th, 2024 at 3:34 pm
The problem. . . One of the problems is the dearth of choices. There are no good outcomes, and it extremely difficult to even say that one is clearly “less bad.”
July 31st, 2024 at 1:43 pm
Sometimes you have to do things you’d much rather not, in order to prevent an even greater harm from occuring. Look around the Blogosphere and you’ll see that the Lebanese are blaming the civilian deaths on Hezbollah. They get angry enough they may figure it’s better to fight back and take some terrorists with them.
Hezbollah: You run, you die.
Israel: You stay, you die.
Lebanon: We run we die. We stay we die. The Israelis aren’t here, so we can’t strike back at them. But you are here, so we can strike back at you.
Hezbollah: That’s not in the script!
August 7th, 2024 at 8:57 pm
However, it doesn’t appear to be working out that way, and it was alwyas rather unlikely that such a script was ever going to be followed.
Instead, many Lebanese are looking to Hezbollah as the only armed defense against Israel, and that is not a good development.