I'll say it right up front: Color me pro-Israel. Maybe I was exposed to enough Christian fundamentalism in my childhood to affect my thinking, or maybe I got where I am some other way. In any case as far as I'm concerned Israel belongs to the Jews, always has and always will, and the Israelis have the right to do whatever it takes to keep it that way. It would suit me fine to see Israel march into Lebanon in force and install a tame government, then turn east an do the same in Syria. If they have to nuke Iran to keep Iran from nuking them, then so be it.

I said I was pro-Israel. That doesn't by any means mean I'm pro-ChamberlainCarterOlmert or that I that I think the Israeli government can do no wrong. Reading things like this is not good for this ol' dogs blood pressure:

War Stirs Worry in Israel Over State of Military
Many Say Failure to Silence Hezbollah Sends Bad Signal
By Doug Struck and Tal Zipper

JERUSALEM, Aug. 18 -- Sgt. Lior Rahamin's Israeli reserve unit had not trained in two years. When its members were called up for the Lebanon war, they didn't have straps for their guns, spare ammunition, flak jackets or more than one good radio. There were other shortages: Twice their operations were canceled because they had no water to take; once they went two days without food.

"Hezbollah didn't surprise us. We were surprised by the Israel Defense Forces," said Rahamin, 30, a paratrooper who was wounded fighting in Lebanon in 1997 and who volunteered to go with his unit again. The next time they call, he said, "we will not show up."

From the failure to get food and water to the troops, to complaints of an uncertain war plan and overconfident generals, the Lebanon war is fast being viewed within Israel as a major stumble. ...

"For four weeks we failed to defend ourselves against daily bombardments against our cities. This is a failure that never happened before," ... "This is going to send a bad message."

[Read on.]

The message it sends is "Nobody's driving." Regardless of what other tactical or strategic goals the Israeli government had in mind they should have sent as many troops as it took as far north as necessary to put an immediate end to those rocket attacks, and they should not have withdrawn from Lebanon as long as there was any possibility of renewed attacks.

The recent Israel/Hezbollah war is widely seen, and properly so, as a proxy war between the U.S. and Iran. By displaying weakness the Olmert government made the U.S. and all of her allies look weak. The odds of President Ahmashiithead getting a case of juevos grandes and doing something stupid sometime soon just went way up.

Color me pissed.

Contributed by Bill Faith on August 19, 2006 at 10:29 PM in Bill Faith, Hezbollah, Iran, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel, Lebanon | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Jim Bartimus

You bring up a good point here Bill, and one that all should consider. Under funding our military is a problem here in this country as well and we can thank the Left Wing "Peace Monkeys" for that little screw up. At some point we will have to fight this war and my greatest fear is that we aren't ready to do it either.
You can color me pissed too.

Posted by: Jim Bartimus | Aug 20, 2006 7:33:22 AM

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