Current Mid-east Crisis

[RedOctober]

Beirut for all intents and purposes was back. A flourishing tourist city that many europeans, those of the middle east....and slowly, even americans were starting to visit. That was until the recent events...if you looked at the pictures of Beirut behind the bomb blasts you can see a very nice city, good steet lights, new road signs, etc. By way of contrast....Israels tourism industry has floundered with rates to die for. No one wants to go there with the current de-stabilization.

Sooo...lets put this in perspective. If the drug cartel in Mexico attacks one the military units on our southern border, kills several and then captures two of them....do we go ahead and bomb the airport in Cabo San Lucas, Cancun or Mexico City? Kill several dozen civilians who had no part of it...and not to mention lose some moreof your own troops due to incursions?

Oh and for the reasoning, "so they can't smuggle thekidnapped troops out of the country"......ummmm...am I missing something here? Why would a shady element use a PUBLIC venue to smuggle thier victims out? That makes absolutely no sense. If anything you want them to use the public venue as to make it easier to find them and strike with thier special ops forces....which Israel is reputed to have as some of the best in the world.

Also....did anyone per chance think that Hezbollah wanted this to happen? Afterall, thier Syrian allies were thrown out, there military movement was in decline...the country is not going in the direction they want it (an Islamist extremism country), soooo...what better way to rejuvanate everything than an Israeli attack. And they knew Israel would as thats exactly what they did in Gaza. The Israeli Government knee-jerked and gave Hezbollah exactly what they wanted.

Also, as I mentioned...lot of things are not adding up here. I do think Syria and Iran have something in the background and perhaps are getting ready to enter a regional war. Why would they risk it? The United States is not in a position to heavily intervene. Its bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq....and no doubt the insurgents there will increase thier activities to keep it that way....plus North Korea is probally salivating and keeping the US busy in thier area...stretching everything thin.

IF this does escalate and Syria and Iran enter the fray...whats going to happen? What does everyone think what the real motivations are?

[wall]

Don't know what you're implying Israels motives are, but they did control parts of Lebanon for about 18 years and finally pulled out in 2000. Do you think they want it back?

I think Israel has a zero tolerance for their enemies, and that would include all Muslim countries, history has shown the Muslim countries want them out, in fact the Iran President recently made a statement that all Israelies should be wiped off the face of the earth. With this type of hatred surrounding Israel, and their zero tolerance stand, I feel they like to make a show to their enemies they will not back down to any foul play against them.

In US/Mexico history, the US has invaded Mexico twice, once in the 1840's, mostly fueled by the Texas conflicts and manifest destiny, the US actually took over Mexico City, the Mexican government at the time dropped Santa Anna as their dictator andwanted to place Winfield Scott, the US General in charge, in his place, which he denied, but in the treaty following the war the US did pick-up most of the Southwest states. The other in the early 1900's, the US sent 6,000 troops into Mexico to capture Poncho Villa who was invading US border towns.

[Pavel]

I think that it is just a show of force that Israel is demonstrating for the whole middle east, showing that they are still ready to go to war if the Muslim world is going to try to take them out. The Iran-China connection is also probably scaring them a lot, as it isscaringthe rest of the world. Iran's fuel and China's technology and size of army is a formitable threat to the world, more so because they are unamerican, undemocratic, and unchristian.

[RedOctober]

My point is this....I was thinking Israel was going a bit overboard and hitting non-hezbollah targets in order to coax the Lebanese Government into taking action against Hezbollah. From what I read on MSNBC....apparently that was one of thier intentions. Basically the logic was, a fox stole your chicken...so you punish your rooster for not doing anything. The current Lebanese government is in no position to confront Hezbollah...as we can see already...thier rather well equiped and just coming out of a civil war...well.....

My other thought....war always involve some sort of economic point...scaring the tourist industry away from a rival nation may have been motivated because thats what happened to Israel.

Bottom line, this is much like the Cold War where battles by proxy were waged. In this case its Syria & Iran vs. Israel and United States via Hezbollah.

One point I want to make that many are probaly not aware of....Hezbollah was formed in reaction to Israel invading Lebanon some two decades ago. Your reap what you sow.

[RedOctober]

Its beginning to look like a can of worms was opened.

[Pavel]

I heard talk about Israel threatening to fire nuclear weapons on Lebanon. Interestingly, there was also a piece on today talking to survivors of the Nuclear bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan.

[Pavel]

Here is an interesting article comparing the last Israel-Lebanon War with this present one and why the United States needs to get out now. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0721-24.htm