Wednesday, July 19, 2006

A Golden Opportunity?

Charles Krauthammer gives us this prospective:

"Every important party in the region and in the world, except the radical Islamists in Tehran and their clients in Damascus, wants Hezbollah disarmed and removed from south Lebanon so that it is no longer able to destabilize the peace of both Lebanon and the broader Middle East. ...

Everyone agrees it must be done. But who to do it? No one. The Lebanese are too weak. The Europeans don't invade anyone. After its bitter experience of 20 years ago, the United States has a Lebanon allergy. And Israel could not act out of the blue because it would immediately have been branded the aggressor and forced to retreat.

Hence the golden, unprecedented opportunity. Hezbollah makes a fatal mistake. It crosses the U.N.-delineated international frontier to attack Israel, kill soldiers and take hostages. This aggression is so naked that even Russia joins in the Group of Eight summit communique blaming Hezbollah for the violence and calling for the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty in the south.
But only one country has the capacity to do the job. That is Israel, now recognized by the world as forced into this fight by Hezbollah's aggression."

So everyone agrees that Hezbollah must go. But no one wants innocents killed. Which is kind of difficult since Hezbollah hides behind women and children. On the one hand if Israel goes full force, innocents will be killed because they are basically used as shields here. On the other hand, if Israel doesn't kill Hezbollah then Hezbollah continues to kill innocents and terrorize. A compliant Israel will not stop Hezbollah and we all know that.

So either way innocents are killed. Am I right? That is the simple truth that no one seems to want to face. Innocents will be killed EITHER WAY. Wouldn't we rather the end result be the elimination of Hezbollah?

Tell me how I am wrong.

via The Captain