Hezbollah Rises in Lebanon
Friday, May 9th, 2008 - 6:33am
Looks like Hezbollah has taken over West Beirut and the Lebanese Army is in paralysis. The government seems to fear that if the Army is ordered to move, it will fracture, tossing the country completely into civil war. The situation is changing quickly so I'll not quote from the article.
This has the ability to drag Israel into a regional conflict. Obviously we are concerned because Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy, but is it completely so? Is this done at Tehran's orders, or in self-interest within the context of Lebanese politics?
“Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” Atty Gen'l John Ashcroft, on secret NSC torture guideline discussions.
Fierce gunfights erupted in Beirut on Thursday after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah charged that a Lebanese government crackdown on his group was tantamount to a "declaration of war," raising fears of a full-blown sectarian conflict.
Sounds like what's happening in Sadr City. The Bush Administration encouraging allies in both countries to pick at the Iranian scab?
Sadr city is about to be Fallujah'd; the Iraqi government and US forces have spent the last ten days telling residents to move out temporarily, and shelters have been opened in other parts of the city from what I heard. Fighting has gone on their continuously for about a month, with daily air and artillery strikes.
“Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” Atty Gen'l John Ashcroft, on secret NSC torture guideline discussions.
Kids these days!
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The most likely outcome of that will be EVERYONE uniting against Israel.
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Considering Sharon's invasion of southern Lebanon basically created Hezbollah, this looks like chickens coming home to roost.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Already already tried to spank Hezbollah recently and got drawn into a battle it wasn't prepared for. I'm sure they want another crack at them, but they might be a little hesitant until they fix what went wrong.
It's too bad we're going to end up bleeding for it.
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It really sucks being even partially right.
What you're seeing is the tail end of the Lebanese government imploding because of the war in 2006. Hezbollah is high off their victory against the Israelis and I think it's unlikely they will stop until they control the government.
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Wow, Aetius, I just spent some time with that old thread. The hard-line Neocons were in a sense right - since Israel did not completely smash Hezbollah, the seeds were laid for it's resurgence. But I'm impressed with your view of the conflict and it's effects, you were pretty much spot-on.
Interesting there at the end to see how badly wrong the conservative wish-fulfillment articles were. As asserted by some, the war was ill-advised and did not achieve the goal the hawks anticipated; now we see exactly the fallout as Iran's influence spreads further into the region.
I imagine for Israelis these events have the same sick feeling Americans had as they figured out that the war in Iraq was not "Mission Accomplished".
“Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” Atty Gen'l John Ashcroft, on secret NSC torture guideline discussions.