Prelude

Dan Gordon, who has been mentioned in Michael Totten's reports from the front in Israel, writes a piece for The American Thinker that really is a must read. He explains why the press has it exactly wrong on the war in Lebanon. He makes a convincing case, because the only victory Hezbollah had was in the Western press. There, Hezbollah won big. Everywhere else, they lost.

Hezb’allah is not your father’s terrorist organization. This is not a group of loosely affiliated cells of would-be hijackers or suicide bombers. Hezb’allah is a terrorist army, trained like an army, organized like an army, funded and equipped like an army, with one glaring difference.  The main use of its arsenal was terror aimed at Israel’s civilian population while hiding behind Lebanon’s civilian population. Its intent was to cause maximum civilian casualties amongst both.  This was not by accident. This was by design.

This was Hezb’allah’s war, planned and prepared for six years, funded by close to a billion dollars by Iran, aided by Syria. One of the great benefits to the West to come out of this war (if they choose not to turn a blind eye to it) is the certain knowledge that Hezb’allah is Iran’s terrorist operational arm. It is the terrorist extension of Iran’s expressed foreign policy. 

It is not a coincidence that Hezb’allah launched its totally unprovoked attack across Israel’s internationally recognized border, killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers and dragging Lebanon and Israel into a war which neither one wanted at exactly the moment when the international community had issued its ultimatum to Iran. That ultimatum was: “Cease your efforts to develop nuclear weapons or face the sanctions of the International Community.” Iran’s response was Hezb’allah’s war.

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There was one other indispensable element to their war plan; the centering of their offensive capability against Israel’s civilian population within Lebanon’s civilian population.  Much has been made in the Western press of Hezb’allah’s benign social services function in Lebanon, of the hospitals and schools it has built. 

The Press as Hezb’allah’s Tool

Almost no notice, however, has been paid to the large numbers of these hospitals and schools which were built over its military bunkers and rocket launching sites.  This was perhaps both the most cynical and barbaric disregard for innocent civilian lives of all of Hezb’allah’s and Iran’s strategic choices.  It was also the most successful. 

The decision was predicated not on its knowledge of its enemy (Israel) but its true genius lay in its knowledge of the press.  The calculus was simple: launch a rocket from within a civilian population; if you kill Jews that’s a victory. If the Jews hit back and in so doing kill Lebanese civilians, that’s a victory. If they don’t hit back because they’re afraid to hit civilians, that’s a victory. Now repeat the process until you kill so many Jews they have to hit back and in so doing kill more Lebanese civilians.  That’s the ultimate victory, because they know that in striking just those chords exactly what music the press will play. 

The awful truth, which the Western Press was manipulated to ignore or downplay, was that Iran, through its terrorist operational arm Hezb’allah, had invaded Lebanon from within.  Hezb’allah did not protect Lebanon, they occupied it and they used those Hezb’allah-occupied territories to launch Iran’s offensive in response to the West’s ultimatum to cease development of nuclear weapons.

Nasrallah admitted today that he had badly misjudged the whole war. Actually, Iran acting as puppetmaster, is the one who misjudged. But the West is running out of time to deal with Iran.

Funny thing is, my left-leaning commenters seem to think I want a war. They are unable to understand that I do not want a war. I also see that their actions and antics are making that war inevitable. They will not see that until it is too late.

Read the whole thing, it is long, but worth taking the time.