DEPENDS ON WHAT THEY WERE TRYING TO ACHIEVE:

Damning File Is Presented on Olmert (BENNY AVNI, May 1, 2007, NY Sun)

In an interim report made public yesterday, a government-appointed panel accused Mr. Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and the army chief of staff during the war, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, of "critical failures" and said they rushed into a war they were unprepared to wage.

Mr. Olmert went to war "despite the fact that no detailed military plan was submitted to him and without asking for one," the panel said. Mr. Peretz "did not have knowledge or experience in military, political or governmental matters" — and made little effort to compensate for his lack of expertise, it said. Mr. Halutz failed to disclose to the government the scope of internal debate within the army, including whether a war could be won without a large-scale ground operation. [...]

Amid the political turmoil in Israel, Hezbollah, which Israel fought in the war in Lebanon last summer, celebrated.

"The report proves our divine victory came true. The Israeli side was defeated," the organization's international relations chief, Nawaf al-Moussawi, told the Hezbollah satellite television station Al-Manar, according to a translation by the Israeli Web site Ynet. "What happened proves what we said all along — that this enemy can be defeated, and the path of resistance can bring victory."

If the intent was to make Southern Lebanon a separate nation and strengthen Hezbollah, the war could hardly have been more effective.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 1, 2007 12:01 AM