Am I a neocon?
It looks like Chucky Krauthammmer and me are on the same page! I wrote last week that this shaky cease-fire in Lebanon was just a big show: "I think Israel's generals are going back to the blackboard while they wait for the next big shipment of jet fuel and brand new super bombs for Lebanon Smackdown: Shock and Awe, Part II."
In an op-ed today Krauthammer writes: "everything remains in place awaiting the order to restart the war when the time is right. . .By the now inevitable Round Two, Israel will have rejected the Olmert-led exercise in hesitancy and will have new leadership, new tactics and new equipment. . ."
I wrote: "But not before the midterm elections! A full scale war in the Middle East would most likely be a loser for the GOP. So better to bide their time and who knows, in the interim maybe Kadima will be tossed out of office and Netanyahu will take over. Now there's a guy who's got the guts to wage a biblical conflagration!"
And wage it they will. Krauthammer is of the mind that if Israel had been "permitted to proceed with the expanded offensive it began two days before the cease-fire, [it] would have eventually destroyed Hezbollah in the south, albeit at great cost to itself, Lebanon and Israel's patron, the United States." (Yes, if only we hadn't tied Israel's hands. . .) This is an existential fight against terror and "in the end Israel will take care of itself."
Nice to know that after all the diplomatic capital we've expended in Israel's interest and all the damage it's done to our international reputation, they're going to go ahead and do what ever the hell the they feel like doing anyway.
Soon enough Israel will resume its mission of, as Richard Perle put it in the NYT on July 22, dealing a "blow of such magnitude that its earlier policy of acquiescence is over. This means precise military action against Hezbollah and its infrastructure in Lebanon and Syria, for as long as it takes and without regard to mindless diplomatic blather about proportionality."
So stay tuned, there's more to come.
In an op-ed today Krauthammer writes: "everything remains in place awaiting the order to restart the war when the time is right. . .By the now inevitable Round Two, Israel will have rejected the Olmert-led exercise in hesitancy and will have new leadership, new tactics and new equipment. . ."
I wrote: "But not before the midterm elections! A full scale war in the Middle East would most likely be a loser for the GOP. So better to bide their time and who knows, in the interim maybe Kadima will be tossed out of office and Netanyahu will take over. Now there's a guy who's got the guts to wage a biblical conflagration!"
And wage it they will. Krauthammer is of the mind that if Israel had been "permitted to proceed with the expanded offensive it began two days before the cease-fire, [it] would have eventually destroyed Hezbollah in the south, albeit at great cost to itself, Lebanon and Israel's patron, the United States." (Yes, if only we hadn't tied Israel's hands. . .) This is an existential fight against terror and "in the end Israel will take care of itself."
Nice to know that after all the diplomatic capital we've expended in Israel's interest and all the damage it's done to our international reputation, they're going to go ahead and do what ever the hell the they feel like doing anyway.
Soon enough Israel will resume its mission of, as Richard Perle put it in the NYT on July 22, dealing a "blow of such magnitude that its earlier policy of acquiescence is over. This means precise military action against Hezbollah and its infrastructure in Lebanon and Syria, for as long as it takes and without regard to mindless diplomatic blather about proportionality."
So stay tuned, there's more to come.
posted by William Duane at 6:58 PM
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