By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on 8.3.06 @ 12:09AM
Steady support from our president is helping Israel overcome its hesitancy.
WASHINGTON -- The week brings some very dour news for the
Hezbollah killers and their Iranian masters. No, it is not that the
Lebanese government has ordered them to take their rocket launchers
off the school grounds and out of the hospital parking lots. No,
they remain free to use Lebanese as human shields while "world
opinion" dizzily blames Israel for the civilian casualties.
The bad news comes from Washington. There our debonair president
just had his annual physical, and his blood pressure was a mere
108/68. For a man his age a normal blood pressure is 130/90. Yes,
after a weekend of counseling with his advisers on the troubles in
the Middle East our Commander in Chief remained notably nonchalant,
clinically nonchalant. And just before taking that blood
pressure reading he announced that the world pressure on Israel to
suspend hostilities in Lebanon "won't address the root causes of
the problem." President George W. Bush still favored the Israeli
offensive to extirpate Hezbollah from Lebanon.
This war against Hezbollah, launched by Israel in response to
Hezbollah's assault on Israeli soldiers and following years of
Hezbollah's refusal to comply with UN Resolution 1559 requiring
militias to disarm, has not gone as well as we would like. In the
Wall Street Journal Bret Stephens, the extremely
well-informed former editor of the Jerusalem Post,
announced "Israel is losing this war....if it keeps going as it is,
Israel is headed for the greatest military humiliation in its
history." After expressing confidence that Israel will eventually
triumph, Stephens diagnosed Israel's problems as stemming from
hesitancy, early intelligence failures, and over-reliance on what
others have called "surgical bombing" as opposed to the early use
of infantry.
Now the ground troops have moved in. There is no more talk of
ending this in short order but rather of ending this incursion when
Hezbollah has been swept from southern Lebanon. The destruction of
the Hezbollah infrastructure is being handled by infantry and the
soldiers on the ground -- with the help of high-tech intelligence
gatherers such as drones -- are intent on arresting or killing the
Hezbollah leadership. Doubtless informants and spies are also at
work too.
The fear remaining is that Hezbollah will now be able to portray
itself as having withstood an Israeli assault tolerably well.
Commentators suggest that without a coup by the Israelis a battered
and uprooted Hezbollah will become a legitimate force in Lebanese
politics. Well, perhaps, but once the dust has settled on the
rubble that Hezbollah invited, perhaps the Lebanese who were wary
of Hezbollah to begin with will draw the proper conclusion.
Terrorists who refuse to disarm and who fight as guerrillas from
civilian neighborhoods are dangerous neighbors. In fact, the way
they allowed Lebanese neighborhoods to be used they are worse than
dangerous neighbors. They are the enemies of democratic
Lebanon.
From the war zone, the New York Sun's Eli Lake reports
that Israeli psychological warfare has been clever and effective.
On Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station Israeli intelligence
wizards hack in with threatening messages of imminent death to the
Hezbollah leadership and pictures of Israeli air strikes with the
accompaniment of a voice saying, "There is no doubt that this is
the strongest air force in the area. And we can't stand up against
it."
Now the Israelis' goal is to continue to push Hezbollah back and
to destroy the terrorists' infrastructure. A second goal is to
instill the fear in prospective enemies that they cannot win. This
will take a week or more, the military believes. A question that
will remain unanswered for months is what will Hezbollah's standing
be in the Middle East in the long run. One thing is clear. Israel
has a very cool ally in the White House.
topics:
Television, Military, Iran, Israel
