Lebanon and Israel these days

Much can be written and is being written about the latest installment of the long long war in the Middle East, and most of it seems futile. Still, it seems strange to shut up about it, so here are some bulletpoints from me:

• It sucks. Neither the people of Lebanon or of Israel deserve to fear explosive devices falling from the sky. It's heartbreaking to know that yet another generation of children in this area will be burdened by such trauma.
• How many people have noticed that all this will end if the two missing Israeli soldiers (Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev) are returned to Israel?
• Much of what comes next depends on the payload capacity, accuracy, range, mobility, and quantity of "Katyusha" batteries and missiles held by Hizballah. The conventional wisdom is that Iran has supplied Hezbollah with these arms, and there is no question that Iran has missiles with a great deal of accuracy and range. One could almost speculate that Hezbollah only has rockets and missiles that can't reach Damascus or Iran, and that would limit the damage they could do.
• Besides, I have to imagine the IDF has a plan for putting these Katyusha rockets out of commission. This plan must - we can assume - include sophisticated means for identifying, targeting, and destroying them in short order, probably also with special forces.
• There are probably a lot of Israeli (and American) forces in Lebanon already, closing in on the Hezbollah elite's hiding place. Where I don't think they'll be taking a lot of prisoners.
• I don't know what precisely it means to destroy terrorist infrastructure, as Olmert has promised. We hear this a lot, but I still don't understand what the success criteria are for this.
• Notice how everyone is scrambling to evacuate Lebanon? You'd think Israel was a lot less safe; after all, Israel has the means to precisely target what they want to destroy; Hezbollah is simply throwing rockets in the general direction of Israeli cities, including Nazareth.
• If Hezbollah is in fact destroyed by this, wouldn't that be a good thing, for everyone? I can't imagine the Lebanese really want them around; Israel could certainly use a stable neighbor in the north; Iran and Syria will be significantly weakened in their support for terrorism; there will be an example of terrorist warlords being put out of commission.

Comments

[Chr.]

Compare the civilian losses/suffering on the Lebanese vs the Israeli side of the border, and you might find the answer to why people are fleeing Lebanon.

And keep in mind that the Israeli "...has the means to precisely target what they want to destroy.", as you so aptly put it. Thats good news for the 4 UN peacekeepers...

Are we better off without Hezbollah and Hamas? Without a doubt. The frightening thing is that the Middle-East would probably be better off without Israel aswell.