Israel's Lost Moment (Krauthammer)

Israel's war with Hezbollah is a war to secure its northern border, to defeat a terrorist militia bent on Israel's destruction, to restore Israeli deterrence in the age of the missile. But even more is at stake. Israel's leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous a military failure in Lebanon would be to its relationship with America, Israel's most vital lifeline.

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But that was decades ago. The question, as always, is: What have you done for me lately? There is fierce debate in the United States about whether, in the post-Sept. 11 world, Israel is a net asset or liability. Hezbollah's unprovoked attack on July 12 provided Israel the extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate its utility by making a major contribution to America's war on terrorism.

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Hence Israel's rare opportunity to demonstrate what it can do for its great American patron. The defeat of Hezbollah would be a huge loss for Iran, both psychologically and strategically. Iran would lose its foothold in Lebanon. It would lose its major means to destabilize and inject itself into the heart of the Middle East. It would be shown to have vastly overreached in trying to establish itself as the regional superpower.

The United States has gone far out on a limb to allow Israel to win and for all this to happen. It has counted on Israel's ability to do the job. It has been disappointed. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has provided unsteady and uncertain leadership. Foolishly relying on air power alone, he denied his generals the ground offensive they wanted, only to reverse himself later. He has allowed his war cabinet meetings to become fully public through the kind of leaks no serious wartime leadership would ever countenance. Divisive cabinet debates are broadcast to the world, as was Olmert's own complaint that "I'm tired. I didn't sleep at all last night" (Haaretz, July 28). Hardly the stuff to instill Churchillian confidence.

His search for victory on the cheap has jeopardized not just the Lebanon operation but America's confidence in Israel as well. That confidence -- and the relationship it reinforces -- is as important to Israel's survival as its own army. The tremulous Olmert seems not to have a clue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301258.html

like posting the brain farts of reich-wing pundits in order to add to the already biased cacophany of the pro-Israeli message machine, I'd like to hear what you think of the newest recruit of the Nasrallah fan club (so to speak).

Krauthammer is totally fricken nuts.

...as "The New Republic's Neanderthal-in-Residence." :spank:

But the fact that his commentary somehow gets posted on these boards compells me to put the kibosh on this nonsense.

I'd read snippets of this op-ed but the full thing is just... oh my god. How can he put this in ink in good conscience? "What have you done for me lately?" Ingrate! THIS is the vaunted neocon commitment to Israel? We'll support you but we may reassess that support if you can't beat up on the friend of our enemy properly? Jewish blood or Israel dismissed?

I don't think the Democrats need fear a mass Jewish voter jump to the GOP anytime soon, if this is the thickness of the Republican commitment.

Pretty shocking statement to make about a PM who has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, wounded a few thousand more, bombed neighborhoods back to the stone age and sent ground troops deep into Lebanon. He's also had rockets rain down on his citizenry. What does Krauthammer want - the Final Solution?

Kristol, Brooks, Krauthammer and their ilk never cease to amaze me in their foolishness. The Pablum of the Punditry.

Krauthammer has nearly stated the goal of those in charge - stoking a war with no real objective other than to kill as many people as possible. In other words: destabilization. Of course Krauthammer makes many claims that can't be verified, twists reality, and applies motivations that aren't real, but that's no surprise to those who've read his rantings before. But if you read closely this time, you'll see that every move he's suggesting would lead to even greater chaos in the Middle East.

Here are a few things you can pick out from this article. One, He says Hezbollah's capture of Israeli soldiers was an "unprovoked attack". I'm certainly not going to justify continued fighting on either side, but this was not unprovoked. Hezbollah and Israel are constantly working to embarrass and destabilize the other side. It's been going on since Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which was the catalyst for Hezbollah's formation.

Two, he suggests that Israel needs to continue and escalate this war to show it's worthiness to "it's great American patron". There is never a need for any country to continue to kill innocent people just to prove it to us. That is not only farcical, it's sickening.

Three, Krauthammer actually attempts to goad Olmert into a more aggressive stance with this:


And four, he suggests that Hezbollah can be defeated by use of ground troops willing to decimate Lebanon. This kind of logic has been proved time and again to be no more than fantasy for the deluded. Terror organizations like Hezbollah and Al Queda only become more powerful when those around them are left in poverty, ignorance, and instability. It is by showing the people of the Middle East that there is a better alternative to terror that we will destroy these groups, not by arms.

My belief is that the multinational oil and arms conglomerates are working very hard to escalate this war as an excuse to invade both Iran and Syria. By creating chaos in the region they are able to raise the price of oil and sell billions in weaponry to the competing factions. Israel and Hezbollah are nothing more than pawns in a game much larger than their own squabbles. Krauthammer is merely one small part of a large propaganda machine working to make this happen.

He is one hateful little ingrate.

Krauthammer is a major ass.

One of the great misconceptions of the neocons, is that the United States has some great power to control events ,nations and peoples all over the world, all the time. To be sure, the U.S. has had the potential to yield much influence in the world, but that comes with working within the world community and not trying to dominate it. Since the end of the Cold War, The E.U has solidified in its influence; Russia has become a more diversified player; China is no longer an impotent giant. The influenced has waned. Does Krauthammer have any ideas what these other powers are telling us behind the scenes? He can't even imagine it.

...the courageous pundit, far, far away from the acrid smell of burning flesh and the wailing sounds of grief.

Hurry up with that martini boy, and this time hold the olive...after all, there is a war on...

that Israel hasn't been a good little tool for neocon fuckwits? Hookay. . .

as though he is wearing his daddy's rumpled suit; they, whomever 'they' are, need to stop paying him by the column inch imo

and secure the northern border for the U.N. peacekeepers. Neither goal has been accomplished and one could say PM Olmert has made some strategic errors.

Olmert doesn't have military experience as his predecessor did and his tactical mistakes have probably cost lives.

In military operations this is costly but not necessarily fatal. Everybody has an opinion and some see dire consequences in every misstep. Nobody knows at this point how things will play out.

I never read Krauthammer and I don't see the situation through his eyes. His opinions are irrelevant to me, as is the blathering of countless media pundits who all seem to have an opinion.

The war will end in due course, hopefully sooner than later.