What is their strategery ?

[BravoCompanyUSA]

What is the upside for Israel accepting this cease-fire?

15,000 UN Forces will secure the boarder.
Since 1978 we have had UN Forces at the boarder there. Most recently it was 2000, and they accomplished zero. With the size increase by about 7.5 times, I still would bet they accomplish zero.
If Hezbollah wants they can just fire rockets over the heads of the UN Troops and into Israel. If they use the longer range rockets that Iran has admitted to giving them, they can actually pull farther back away from the UN Troops and go right over everyones head and into Israel again. The UN will not stop them, and if Israel felt the need to enguage with ground troops, they have to get around the UN troops who will be stuck in the middle.

With this resolution the UN will not have the authority do disarm Hezbollah, not that they would have had the motivation or the capacity to do so anyways.

Does Israel get their kidnapped soldiers back? I don't beleive so.

So I ask, why would they sign on. I don't see a single upside for Israel in this agreement. Is it that they just don't want to continue to enguage Hezbollah any longer? Are the various risks too great if they were to continue to try to accomplish their military objectives?





By the way, who is going to enforce Res#1559? . . . anyone ? . . . .anyone . . . ?

[sapper326]

I am with you on this. I have been scratching my head ever since I heard of this resolution wondering what is the point. I have served under the UN flag before and have seen how bad they can screw things up. Israel was in the right to do what they have been doing bur the world screwd up politics have condemed them from the ofset and it has really ticked me off. If you look at what Israel has done in the recent past ie. given back the terretories, they have not received any peace. I beleive that the Israelis need to continue and wipe Hezbollah of the face of the earth and piss off all these "lets try and negotiate with the muslim freedom fighters" weak liberal mo fos. We as a world will be better off once we recognize who the real enemy in this war is and fight it like Teddy Roosevelt would have and wack em with a big stick!

[Dave Berryhill]

....By the way, who is going to enforce Res#1559? . . . anyone ? . . . .anyone . . . ?

Fear not! The French are going to send troops!

[Rmplstlskn]

It is either a "get the hell out of this mess" before the Hezbo's look even more brave and formidable than they do now... or,

It is brilliant way to show the world the TRUE NATURE of the Hezbos by having them turn against the UN force, leaving Israel to come in soon after WITH MASSIVE FORCE to finish the job once and for all, without world condemnation. They now know that AIR POWER alone cannot do this, unless they carpet bomb everything (lots of civvy deaths), so when they do go back in it will be under the command of an INFANTRY GENERAL, not a fly boy, and it will be massive ground operations.

This will also let the UN Forces find all the IED's and booby-traps set by the Hezbos, allowing a relatively SMOOTH re-entry into Lebanon when Israel comes back in.

Israel also needs time to re-stock from the USA arsenal their bunker busters and other deep penetration ordinance and "cluster bombs," as well as open better supply lines to the soon coming ground offensive. That is a narrow road, twisting and turning environment there in southern Lebanon...

I personally DO NOT think it will be honored by Hezbollah (Iran), as they will not allow the UN to hinder their hold on southern Lebanon (defeat in their minds), nor will they give back the two soldiers (if even they are alive still), so all this 24/7 talk about UN Ceasefire in the NEWS and POLITICAL circles is wasted breath. I don't even pay attention anymore... I'll wait till the Hezbos are shown to be exactly who they have always been and Israel truly mounts a real ground war...

Rmpl

[sapper326]

This whole mess reminds me of a thing that happened at work the other day. We have alot of muslims where I work and on one ocassion after Israel retaliated against Hez, a certain muslim I work with saw that I was whereing an IDF t-shirt and decided to tell me why Israel was at fault. He proceeded to explain how Israel is not where the jews are from but rather they are from some place in Afrika and that palestine was actually a muslim land since the beginning. I told him that he his full of shit and to get the hell back to work. Well 2 days later I was sent to the HR department where I was accused of insighting racial intolerance by the wearing of my t-shirt and there had been complaints. I said what is the difference between me and my t-shirt and the constant prayer sessions in the cafeteria with the muslims. I was told that we have to acomidate people of other faiths and that I was not to wear my t-shirt again. That is a microcosim of the world today!

[Dave Berryhill]

...I was told that we have to acomidate people of other faiths...

You could wear a yarmulke with your IDF t-shirt. Wouldn't they have to accomodate your faith?

[Razoreye]

I'm waiting for Israel to go kick Lebanon's, Syria's, and Iran's asses. They have my full support. Also, they should take back all the land by force. Enough of this bull hockey where we let them decide the way things go. I've been saying it for years and years now and when I first heard about Israel going after them I got excited and I hope they follow through to the end.

I don't think the resolution will hold any weight but only time will tell.

[Business_Casual]

Israel made two mistakes. First, they failed to respond initially with massive, overwhelming force. Secondly, they escalated slowly instead of striking immediately with everything in their arsenal.

If they would have been half-way to the Litani river before the East Coast news cycle it would have been better for them. Good thing is that the Israelis aren't afraid to learn from mistakes. Ten or so years from now they'll be back in the Bekka valley and they'll do it right. The UN effort will be the typical joke; let's hope no US troops get saddled with that duty.

That's my opinion. What do you think?

M_P

[9DivDoc]

[Submariner]

Maybe they are formulating a Plan "B". Air power alone has never won a war.

The United States and Israel have shared intelligence and enjoyed close military coöperation for decades, but early this spring, according to a former senior intelligence official, high-level planners from the U.S. Air Force—under pressure from the White House to develop a war plan for a decisive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities—began consulting with their counterparts in the Israeli Air Force.

“The big question for our Air Force was how to hit a series of hard targets in Iran successfully,” the former senior intelligence official said. “Who is the closest ally of the U.S. Air Force in its planning? It’s not Congo—it’s Israel. Everybody knows that Iranian engineers have been advising Hezbollah on tunnels and underground gun emplacements. And so the Air Force went to the Israelis with some new tactics and said to them, ‘Let’s concentrate on the bombing and share what we have on Iran and what you have on Lebanon.’ ” The discussions reached the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he said.

“The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits,” a U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel said. “Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.”

From Seymour Hirsch's WATCHING LEBANON - Washington’s interests in Israel’s war

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/conten.../060821fa_fact