Lebanon: And the Winner Is…

Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria are all proclaiming victory as the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah holds for a third day. That seems somewhat akin to Wall Street greeting Wal-Mart’s 25% drop in quarterly ratings as good news because it was not as great as predicted. Sure looks as if Wal-Mart lost money to me and I have equal trouble looking at Lebanon and seeing success for Hezbollah. Certainly Israel did not achieve its hoped for destruction of Hezbollah. But assuming that an International Force and the Lebanese Army move into and take control of Southern Lebanon with 30,000 troops, it appears that Israel will be much better off than it was before the fighting began. They won’t have an unfettered terrorist organization on their border with the ability to harass Israel whenever it suits its or Iran’s needs. Any Arab country thinking Israel is weak will have to look seriously at the destruction in Lebanon and factor that into their decision. Hezbollah lost an unknown but in all probability a significant portion of its strength, and once the ecstasy of survival is past, the Lebanese ought to be asking serious questions about why their country was decimated. The real reason – Iran and Syria are more than willing to fight Israel to the last drop of Lebanese and Palestinian blood.

This war did not do the US any good as we were unable to persuade anyone to follow our lead and we were painted again as an enemy of Islam, but I believe that the Administration’s actions were justified in letting Israel proceed as they did. Unlike Iraq, there was clear justification to support the Israeli response to Hezbollah’s provocations, and since we are using all of our resources in Iraq, why not let the Israeli’s carry the fight for us.