Juan Cole also argues that the war was planned in advance and states that recent events were only a pretext to implement this plan rather than the cause of Israel's Lebanon campaign.

http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/war-on-lebanon-planned-for-at-least.html

A Washington Post article discusses the lessons from Viet Nam that should have been incorporated into the Iraq strategy and speculates that Israel making be making some of the same mistakes in Lebanon today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072201004.html

...down the field, I think hoping that someone will do something to end the state sponsor relationships between Iran, Syria and Hizbollah. In their worldview, I would guess that they think that in the absence of state sponsorship, the military capabilities of Hizbollah would be reduced to something like Hamas - Qassams rather than Katyushas. Infiltration would still be a major risk, but they view that as playing to their strengths and the bad guys' weaknesses. I don't think they can conceive of a situation where the western powers won't end up doing something pretty significant to Iran (diplomatic or otherwise) to curtail their scope of action, given their nuclear ambitions, over the timeframe that they've bought for themselves (2-3 years) with these attacks.

I would guess that in their view, whether Hizbollah becomes somewhat more popular amongst the population in Lebanon is a minor issue as it pertains to them, compared to the immediate threat - the assumption would be that internal political dynamics should mitigate what Hizbollah can do over the long term. For this same reason (internal dynamics), I don't see Lebanon willingly cozying up to the Shi'ite arc - recent history vis a vis the Syrian occupation, as well as the older association between Lebanese Shi'a and Iran, combined with the aftermath of the confessional system make me think that they'll be reluctant to do this. Some political factions will go this way, but I don't think any of the ones that can actually lead a government will do so. If you can potentially have the whole pie, why share?

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

State sponsors of terror?

USA and Israel have bombed, invaded, supplied weapons, terrorists etc in how many countries?

I believe the long term plan for Israel is another land grab.

I'm trying to 'deconstruct' the concept of 'terror'. It has been turned into something wholly propagandistic by the two states probably most responsible for the real thing since 2nd world war.

I don't see anything unusual or sinister in Israel having advanced plans for such operations. One of the main jobs of a military is to have prepared-in-advance and up-to-date plans for the most likely (and some not so likely) kinds of military operation, so when a political decision is made to start an operation, the military doesn't have to plan from scratch.

I'm sure the Pentagon has advance ready-to-go plans (though perhaps not so well updated) for the invasion of Canada.

the US agreed to Israel's plans for both Lebanon and Gaza back in June.

July 22/23, 2006 -- The Israeli invasion of Lebanon was planned between top Israeli officials and members of the Bush administration. On June 17 and 18, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud Knesset member Natan Sharansky met with Vice President Dick Cheney at the American Enterprise Institute conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado. There, the impending Israeli invasions of both Gaza and Lebanon were discussed. After receiving Cheney's full backing for the invasion of Gaza and Lebanon, Netanyahu flew back to Israel and participated in a special "Ex-Prime Ministers" meeting, in which he conveyed the Bush administration's support for the carrying out of the "Clean Break" policy -- the trashing of all past Middle East peace accords, including Oslo. Present at the meeting, in addition to Netanyahu, were current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Regardless of who might have started this most recent of the countless wars in the Middle East it appears to come as a godsend for the BushCo. I forget who exactly did this but I remember seeing a graph of terrorist 'plots foiled' and alerts in the US vs. Bush's popularity ratings. (or most recently, unpopularity ratings...)

Its quite predictable at this point that whenever the public opinion polls show the right wingers falling in the polls, some diversionary tactic is always seized upon to try to force the media frame back into the terrorism fear frame and away from the depressed wages for US workers, healthcare nightmare, lack of a real energy strategy, (insert your crisis here...) And it usually works..

What I say to friends about the Middle East is that the Israelis and Arabs will be fighting each other 100 years from now. And neither side's arguments are such that they are the clear moral winner, both sides have committed real atrocities.. so neither really deserve our help such that we should get involved heavily.

I wish it wasn't that way (I do support the existence of the -if-secular+democratic- state of Israel) but it is.

Why encourage the extremists? It is always a mistake.

Over at FDL this morning one of the folks (and your little dog too ) posted this:

Crap. I’ve just scared myself to death.

I’ve been out front grooming dogs this morning, and like vaccuuming and mowing the lawn, grooming lets my mind do some good thinking without much direction from me.

All of a sudden, this war - - and the way Bush and Co. are handling it - - makes sense to me.

Why is Condi Rice diddling around for two weeks before she shows up over there?

Why does Fratso talk like a small-town hotshot to Tony Blair as if stopping this war is a simple proposition?

Why are Israel and the US letting these horrendous photos and personal accounts get a foothold in everyones’ minds, causing outrage and nightmares?

Why are we announcing that we’re rush-shipping an order of smart bombs to Israel when that will certainly put a target on our backs for every Muslim terrorist group to see so they can race to be the ones who bring off a devastating terrorist attack on the US sooner than the other?

Oh, Sh*t.

The only thing that will turn this anti-Bush and now, anti-Republican tide is another 9-11.

They aren’t stupid enough to do it themselves, but like the suicidal man who lunges at a cop so the police will shoot him, if we act like big enough as*holes to piss off every. single. Muslim. in the world, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll hit us before the November elections.

The disastrous war in Iraq hasn’t been enough, so let’s show them in big pictures how bad we are, and maybe they’ll hit us in time to save BushCo and the Republicans.

I’m going to start praying again.

It's been bothering me off and on all day. I try to tend not to be a doom and gloom seer/sayer, but it got me thinking. Could they really be that evil?

Any thoughts on your part?

*Comforting the Afflicted and Afflicting the Comfortable*