...it is only a matter of time before they are forced to run up the white flag and surrender...

The splodeydopes have been claiming all along that one advantage they have over the Israelis is that they WANT to die in this fight. I say let 'em. Less paperwork for the IDF.

I concur with the Rev.

It is up to their maker to forgive them; it is up to the Israeli's to arrange the meeting...

Well, this is a just war, and worth supporting.

Now we can only hope that bumbling idiot we call President has been paying attention.

Well, this is a just war, and worth supporting.

Well, this is an unjust troll, and worth ignoring...

Well, this is an unjust troll, and worth ignoring...

I concur with keefer.

Maf, you can count on the fact that the Prez is paying attention. Condi Rice has not pushed for any cease fire, she is there to see if a lasting peace can be arranged. She left because it has become obvious that is not going to happen for a while.

kjs - That IS paying attention. Who wants a cease fire? There can only be peace through victory.

Hear that drive by Steve? VICTORY!

And this sounds like a job for a Marine or Airmobile Division (or two). Does Israel have such an animal?

Noonan, when you return to Earth, let us know. The lack of oxygen is affecting your ability to think logically. Your military expertise that lead you to such a solution leaves me breathless.

I never talk to trolls. They smell.
Rev, this is a smart strategery, one I will adopt as of now.
Posted by: keefer at August 1, 2006 07:01 PM

Well, this is a just war, and worth supporting.
Well, this is an unjust troll, and worth ignoring...
Posted by: keefer at August 1, 2006 10:01 PM

Keefer, you kept your word for three whole hours. A new record for you, bravo.

maf53

The gretest concern that you should have is that our president will act to try and force Israel into a cease fire too soon. If he did this, he would truly be "bumbling." In other words, to push Israel into a cease fire now would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I know I've said this before but it is not entirely unprecedented that the US has acted to restrain Israel when they should not have. I just hope and pray that the US has learned its lessons and will STAY OUT OF ISRAEl'S WAy!! Of course, if Israel asks for weapons, I would send it to them.

Now we can only hope that bumbling idiot we call President has been paying attention.

Obviously he hasn't maf as demonstrated by his cowboy statements earlier today. We can go anywhere in the world, we can protect the homeland.....

Except his military commanders contradict him by saying that there or zero brigades combat ready to deploy. Whew he just keeps getting stupider and stupider.

Mark:

I agree, "Things are moving, and are about to start moving very fast."

About half a second after you flush the toilet, the water starts to swirl down the drain rapidly.

Such is the same with Mr. Bush and Republican (lack of) foreign policy.

The chain on neocon fantasies has been pulled and the commode is about to flush this nightmare down the into the sewer.

Wade

Ash

The Navy and the Air Force are available for missions. They should be able to be used to handle any threats, however, it does seem clear to me that we need a larger army. This seemed clear to me post 911. Hopefully true leaders will step up and commit more resources to Iraq and elsewhere in the GWOT.

Due to the Army situation, this is all the more reason for America to stay out of Israel's way and let them deal with Hezbollah.

Mark,

Your lead topic heading does seem a bit "strange" if you will, at first. But after you think about it for a bit, and read through the whole thing, it comes to make a little sense.

If they put these buggers on a parole, and tell them what they can and can't do, then that leaves the door open for ease of handling with future conflicts, seems simple and easy enough. A good solution if it ends right there. And it would be nice if it actually worked. But there are gaps to be filled in the thought process.

The one fact still remains. These terrorists never have and never will listen to reason or follow orders. They could put them on parole, but once the buggers break the parole then it's just gonna be a matter of time before Israel ends up back in the same rut they were in when this whole mess started.

I'll agree it is a good thought, one quick shot to the head and leave the bloody idiots for dead. But ... that's not to say that Hezbollah won't mount their forces and efforts to retaliate full force. I think they take it pretty serious when someone goes and shoots one of their "righteous warriors", wouldn't you agree?

We'd be seeing the same thing going on in the news for another several weeks, or months, until some other type of agreement was reached. One that the terrorists would surely break with time.

It's like a never-ending cycle ... terrorists break the rules, and we end up making new ones for them to break. Somehow we have to break the cycle, because to them there are no rules, only one purpose, kill any and all who are "infidels" by their standards.

Give me some feed back on what you think of my post, I'm not sure if I have stated everything as clearly and correctly as I would like. I hope to discuss this topic further.

Canuck,

Beg pardon? All I've done is look at the map - I figured out precisely where the Israelis would need to put a blocking force about a week ago and was wondering all this past week when we'd start to see some moves towards that end...we are starting to see such moves. This is Strategy 101 - Israeli forces so placed would, in the by and by, wipe out Hezbollah in southern Lebanon - they couldn't bring down more fighters, couldn't bring in more ammunition and other supplies, they can't grow enough food in that area to be self-sufficient...it is surrender, or eventually be starved and/or bombed out.

This is no great esoteric mystery - nothing about military strategy really is; what makes the difference between good generalship and bad generalship is usually will. Do the Israelis have the will to carry out a battle of destruction with Hezbollah? I think they do - time will tell if I am right.

I think in this case they aren't going to let the enemy get away as they did in 1967, 1973 and 1982.

Lucas,

I think it better than holding them - look what has happened to us vis a vis the Gitmo prisoners: we're treating them with kid gloves, and yet the whole world is full of stories of Americans torturing the detainees...better to just keep a few of the really important ones, and parole the rest back to their homes, and shoot them out of hand if we capture them again.

Ash,

Do you realise how dumb that sounds? We're deploying brigades in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan all the time meaning, by definition, that we've always got brigades ready to deploy...or do you think the troops in Iraq today are the same troops which were in Iraq in 2003?

Do you ever bother to think about the leftwing propaganda you are spoon fed?

maf,

Really, get a grip - the President has been managing this with a great deal of finesse....while the hand-wringers are demanding that we pressure Israel for a "save Hezbollah's butt" ceasefire, President Bush has been artfully fobbing them off...it is a bit of diplomatic master work, what the President and Rice have accomplished this past two weeks...the appearance of action without the reality, and the MSM really too stupid to figure it out.

Panic: you can see it on the faces of Hezbollah. You can hear it in the talking heads for the terrorist supporters who realize the jig is up. And you can detect it in the psycho-babble coming from leftist and wacko trolls like maf and Barney Rubble. They're on the run and have nowhere left to hide. As they say at the Conservative Bar and Grill, "Another round of desperation, with a dash of panic for our liberal 'friends' here. Put it on my tab."

I think it's hard to really separate Lebenon from Hezbolla. With Syrian puppets pervasive in the gov't and no real condemnation of Hezbollah, what's the over under if you really get 90% Hezbollah killed or captured of solving the problem of being just another hostile border to Israel?

Do you ever bother to think about the leftwing propaganda you are spoon fed?

Well, the "left wing propaganda" came from National Guard Bureau Chief Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum. He said:

"More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready due largely to vast equipment shortfalls that will take as much as $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday"

USA Today

My statement stands, if somewhat hyperbolic. Where are you going to get the $21 billion? May I suggest rescinding the tax cuts to our elite? Or increase the inheritance tax?

Ash

I would suggest eliminating the well fare state.

Also, we could get rid of some of the pork barrell spending that both parties engage in.

Also, we could get rid of some of the pork barrell spending that both parties engage in.

I certainly agree with you here B.P. 'specially that bridge in Alaska that connecte 17 people with 4 people (or whatever)

As far as eliminating the welfare state, that's a pretty large slice of thought. If you mean corporate welfare, I'm on board. If you mean helping some kid with cerebal palsey get an education, I'm agin' it.

Ash

When I was thinking about pork barrell spending that bridge to no where in Alaska was exactly what I was thinking of.

As for corporate welfare, I think that is over rated. I think we could get rid of the corporate subsidies and in exchange get the government to stay out of their business. This government, both Republican and Democrat, like to meddle to much!! Ending corporate welfare would be a win-win. Businesses get less intusive head aches that cost more than they benefit and we lessen the bureaucracy. This will save money all the way around and when businesses are spending less time and money worrying about complying with silly technicalities they will be able to actually make safer and better products.

As for the kid with cebral palsy, no decent person wants to see them go without their educational needs being met. The private sector can handle this better than the government can. I say let people keep more of their money and let private charities handle this. They will probably be much better at it than govenrment buercrats will be.

Noonan:
Regarding your comment "I think in this case they aren't going to let the enemy get away as they did in 1967, 1973 and 1982".

I can already see the writing on the wall, Israel will not meet their (and yours) objectives. They would need 100,000 troops to successfully carry out an entrapment movement and bag the majority of the terrorists.
We shall soon see who is right. Actually I hope you are right but I am just being realistic, General Mark.

As a Christian my thought processes will be affected regarding the Israeli/Arab conflict. Even if this were not the case, I would still support Israel. There enemies are the same as ours.

I think most people here support Israel. There has not been a frank discussion on what supporting Israel will cost. Hezbollah's alllies are extremely powerful. They control large amounts of oil and they own large amounts of US debt. They can wield these economic weapons to devestating effect. A person with character will do the right thing regardless of the cost. Standing with Israel is the right thing. I pray that our leaders have enough character to resist the international pressure calling for a cease fire before Israel finishes degrading Hezbollah to the point that are not a significant threat.

Btw, there would be no pressure for a cease fire if Hezbollah were winning. Due to oil and the threat of terrorist attacks many nations have decided that in their calculations Israel can be sacrificed.

Canuckguy

You may be right about those troop numbers. I have been pleading with the Bush administration for some time to commit more troops to Iraq or to at least explain the stakes to the American people. Some securtiy experts have said that it would take around 500,000 troops to immediately secure Iraq. Lebanon is much smaller than Iraq. It should be able to be secured with fewer trrops. I have no doubt the Israelis can do it. My only concern is will a cease fire be forced on them to soon.

[/QUOTE]I think it better than holding them - look what has happened to us vis a vis the Gitmo prisoners[/QUOTE]

Mark,

We're on the same page here. It would be bad to detain these guys and just keep them prisoners, because I think you are exactly right. We'd end up hearing everyone cry abuse. We don't need to soft-toe around these terrorists anymore than we do the Gitmo detainees.

But at any rate, what I was shooting at in my post is that I think it would be better just to shoot the terrorists straight off-hand rather than even try them and take time to come up with parole. Everyone knows what they've done and how despicable it is, I don't think even a trial is necessary. But, I guess we do have to keep humanity in mind when dealing with any human being.

So, all in all I have to agree with your point. But I still don't think that these terrorists, or any terrorists for that matter, deserve the same treatment as any other citizen. They murder in broad daylight, and cower behind women and children when the fighting heats up. It's despicable, a disgrace.

You're also very right about the important ones, we need to scrape every piece of information out of them as we can, then eradicate them. These guys are like fleas, they multiply so fast so we need to try and put the Raid on them, ha ha.

I think if we keep one goal in mind, one-hundred percent eradication of terrorists, then there is a highly likely chance that this problem will start to dwindle and the people of Israel can focus on "peace". And also keep focus on making sure that the peaceable citizens have strong troop defense to back them up when the fire does come.

Lucas.

[/QUOTE]I think it better than holding them - look what has happened to us vis a vis the Gitmo prisoners[/QUOTE]

Mark,

We're on the same page here. It would be bad to detain these guys and just keep them prisoners, because I think you are exactly right. We'd end up hearing everyone cry abuse. We don't need to soft-toe around these terrorists anymore than we do the Gitmo detainees.

But at any rate, what I was shooting at in my post is that I think it would be better just to shoot the terrorists straight off-hand rather than even try them and take time to come up with parole. Everyone knows what they've done and how despicable it is, I don't think even a trial is necessary. But, I guess we do have to keep humanity in mind when dealing with any human being.

So, all in all I have to agree with your point. But I still don't think that these terrorists, or any terrorists for that matter, deserve the same treatment as any other citizen. They murder in broad daylight, and cower behind women and children when the fighting heats up. It's despicable, a disgrace.

You're also very right about the important ones, we need to scrape every piece of information out of them as we can, then eradicate them. These guys are like fleas, they multiply so fast so we need to try and put the Raid on them, ha ha.

I think if we keep one goal in mind, one-hundred percent eradication of terrorists, then there is a highly likely chance that this problem will start to dwindle and the people of Israel can focus on "peace". And also keep focus on making sure that the peaceable citizens have strong troop defense to back them up when the fire does come.

Lucas.

Attn: B. Poster And Mark Noonan:

Regarding my estimate of 100,000 Israeli troops to trap Hezbollah securely, I will back off on that number(before Mark rightfully craps all over me) because the area involved is pretty small but it is going to take a lot more than the 8000 troops on the ground that the IDF says it is using to achieve the entrapment. For what it's worth, I suggest 30,000 to 40,000 is required.
Regards
Lazy-Boy Chair General Canuck