August 8, 2006
EVERY TIME A ROCKET FALLS A DICTATOR GETS HIS WINGS:
Israel's Way Out: Hezbollah and Hamas attacks have backed it into a corner. Escalation against Iran and Syria might be the best hope (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, August 8, 2006, LA Times)
The sixth option is to compel Hezbollah's suppliers and patrons — Syria and Iran — to end the terror. Neither country wishes a war with militarily superior Israel (Syria's saber rattling notwithstanding). If every Hezbollah missile into Israel produced Israeli retaliation against Syria, and possibly Iran (including its nuclear production sites), Syria and Iran would be forced to make Hezbollah stop. Obviously, this is a last-ditch option. It would escalate the conflict and increase international pressure on Israel to desist.
Note that it was the first option for W after 9-11 and worked brilliantly. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 8, 2006 4:12 PM
Let's bomb the supplier of Iran and Syria first and see how that works. Why piddle around with the middle men?
Posted by: NC3 at August 8, 2006 5:32 PMYou mean Russia, NC?
Posted by: obc at August 8, 2006 5:46 PMI think he means North Korea.
Posted by: TimF at August 8, 2006 6:51 PMEverybody knows that the real supplier for Iran and Syria is the French.
"Obviously, this is a last-ditch option. It would escalate the conflict and increase international pressure on Israel to desist."
At some point all these expert realists are going to realize that after half a century of of avoiding their "last-ditch option[s], maybe it's time to ditch what hasn't worked.
And shouldn't "wings" be "horns and barbed tail"?
The IAF is having trouble enough busting the Hezbo bunkers south of the Litani. (Though IDF ground forces are slowly, but surely, doing an Okinawa on those bunkers as we chat.)
Air power ... absent the mushroom cloud ... has its limits. While it's a terrific force-multiplier, it can't get the job fully done.
Posted by: ghostcat at August 8, 2006 11:59 PM