The American Spectator

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A lot of people waste a lot of ink (or space) on totally inane commentary. Wasted time reading the blather too.

But Jed Babbin's column of the 24th was probably the most concise, no nonsense, valid and reasoned appraisal of the Middle East situation yet -- should be required reading for Dubya and Condi and the others who suffer from indecision, cowardice, or terminal drooling.

Jed Babbin is off the mark.

First, he does not mention Iran's near term objective with the Hizbullah attack on Israel, which is very likely to provide cover for a surge of forces into Iraq to attack the Sunnis and cause a breakdown of the current effort to build a civil society. That would deal us a blow, perhaps a decisive one in Iraq. The timing makes sense both for the situation in Iraq and for the coming elections in November. The Administration's strongest card is that we are making sufficient progress "standing up" the Iraqis that we can start withdrawing troops. A collapse of the Iraqi security apparatus would be the equivalent of Dien Bien Phu or Tet.

Jed Babbin does not provide the military analysis of Hizbullah which I would very much have liked to hear. Absent that, it is not clear to an observer why Israel is not in a position to pick the bones of Hizbullah clean. Yes, I would expect that would take time, which I assume is why so many observers are anxious to tie Israel to some timetable measured in days or weeks, which is absurd. Why any timetable at all? Perhaps it will take months or even a year or more. So what? It is a question of survival for Israel. It has now been attacked in its homeland on an entirely unprovoked basis -- there were no Jews in Lebanon. So the issue is clear. Let's hope the Israeli's have the fiber to do what is necessary. I expect they will.

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Islam, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Israel, North Korea, Oil