Israeli Ground Troops Poised at Lebanon Border

The other thread seemed to have devolved pretty badly, I'm calling for a cease fire on the name-calling off-topic discussion. But with Israel ready to send troops into occupy Southern Lebanon, this looks to me to be getting real ugly, real quick.

What happens when Israel goes in? Lebanese troops (who we like, and are trying to help become independent from Syria) align to fight Israel off their border. Syria and Iran fund ($$) & support (weapons, insurgent types) Lebanon. U.S. supports Israel and (another) regional war breaks out. We're fighting in Iraq. We're fighting in Afghanistan. Everyone else is pissed at us. International (read: U.S.) diplomatic intervention is sorely needed. Bush needs to bring in some special mediator for foreign policy gusto. Condi ain't gonna get it done. What's she been doing this whole time? Nothing.

 

Last man standing wins.

Ready. Set. Go.

 

An invasion is exactly what Syria/Iran want. And it looks like they're going to get it.

 

as a person who supports israel in this debate, i think a prolonged ground war is a very bad idea.

if they are going in to destroy missile sites, then get out -- ok. but staying there didnt work before, and wont work know.

 

This is getting completely crazy-assed. There is no reason to blow the crap out of infrastructre in Beirut to stop rockets from being fired from across the border.
Luckily, the US has no credibility left, so I guess we sit it out.
I agree with soccerdad -- didn't work in '82 and won't work this time, except there are 130K American troops not far away for the pissed off Shi'a to have fun with.

 

I posted my opinion on this a while back ... we ought to place a Festivus pole in Jerusalem, everyone can kinda come from their own direction.

Israel on the west side. Egypt on the south. Jordan/Syria/Iran/Iraq on the east. Lebanon (aka Hezbollah Hotel) on the north. We can air grievances, just kinda make a little statement about how you view the world, why you hate (add religious group here), why your god is more right. Then we can just have it out. Last team standing wins. We'll even allow mega alliances. Egypt/Syria/Iraq/Jordan can try that little deal they pulled in 1967. Maybe it'll work this time.

US doesn't even have to be involved. I mean, we can officiate if y'all wanna. Israel certainly doesn't need our help.

Anyway, it's high time for some legit resolutions over there. I think this a great chance to clear the air.

 

This is my way of thinking how the Lebanese should be thinking, but they probably won't: Israel must continue blowing the shit out of Lebanon and reinforcing its assault by telling the natives that until Hezbollah disbands the destruction will continue. You keep putting the onus on Hezbollah until the Lebanon natives start to understand, so they start to carry hate in their hearts for Hezbollah, that it's Hezbollah's fault Israel is destroying their country. At some point they have to start hating Hezbollah, too. They started this whole thing. Israel has to bomb and bomb and bomb and bomb, and it's paramount that the Lebanese understand why..

But that's just how I think.

 

The other thing: When the hell is anyone going to start showing the destruction from the Hezbollah missiles into Israel?

 

Songbird,
Let me recommend NBC Nightly News to you. Every night they've had a report from Beruit and a report from Haifa (sp?). Also, they've had correspondants on the ground in Cypress where those fleeing Lebanon are heading. They showed Hezbullah bombing from an aerial view, and the back on the ground driving back to safety there were three bombs thatlanded which NBC's camera's caught the aftermath of.

One showed a woman's husband who had taken a direct strike outside of a bomb shelter, the wife was inconsolable and hysterical when she saw the body, and couldn't believe it was her husband. She dialed his cell phone as others were trying to restrain and console her, and get her back into the bomb shelter, and all of a sudden you heard a phone ringing off in the distance. It was her husband's phone, laying next to his dead body. Graphic, compelling and raw. Brian Williams is a badass and I TIVO the broadcast every day to watch when I get home. If you've only got 30 minutes in a day, TIVO it. You'll learn more from that than in 12 hours of watching CNN or FOX News.

Casualties in Lebanon have been more severe, and that has been portrayed on the broadcast also, but at least in NBC's case, the war has been covered extensively.

That's my unsolicited plug. I have no financial interest in GE or NBC. You can't blame the coverage on this one. You just have to pick the right stuff.

 

And, Xan, you'd be hard-pressed to make the case that the Israeli viewpoint on things hasn't been the predominant one on most of the chat-shows.

UPDATE -- Of course, tonight, Neil Cavuto had, as his Middle East experts, Ann Coulter and Bo Dietl.

 

I guess I just get CNN's perspective. I haven't tried the NBC flavor yet. I'll do that, though I'm not usually home when it's on.

 

Not to shill for NBC but they webcast the Nightly News starting after the West Coast airing.