Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Coughlin II

...and again, here. So I wrote: "The only realistic way out of the current mess in Lebanon is for Israel to follow through and take out both Syria & Iran's capacity to make war against her, either directly or through their proxies, Hizbollah & Hamas. A window of opportunity is open now, but may soon close if an international force ever lands in southern Lebanon. (On the other hand, an international force there might free up Israel to do the real work against the puppetmasters. On still another hand, the last thing Israel needs is a pack of European - & English - anti-Semites encamped on its northern border! It is fitting that the LibDems' foreign affairs spokesman is named Michael Moore.) In any event, the U.S. and U.K. should make it very clear to Israel that it has a free hand to clean up the region. Secretary Rice's diplomatic charade should be abandoned, pronto... or perhaps given a fair chance to fail quickly, thus demonstrating the need for decisive action by Israel."

I wonder if anyone ever reads the comments that are invited for those newspaper columns?

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Israel is NOT the problem

Con Coughlin,"Defence and Security Editor" of The Daily Telegraph, wrote this in today's Telegraph: "The Israeli government has already blamed Syria and Iran for the unrest on its northern border."

I posted a comment as follows: "As has everyone else with a brain between their ears! Iran calls the shots with Hezbollah & the terrorists wouldn't be able to take the actions that they have without Damascus' approval. If Western tourists are inconvenienced by the lack of an airport they should place the blame where it belongs: on the shoulders of nutbar Islamic radicals from Beirut to Tehran."

The gist of the article was that Mr. Olmert is a rookie leader with scant military experience, and this could have a variety of negative consequences. True. On the other hand, in terms of his response to this crisis, I think he is placing the blame in the right place. As for President Bush's refusal to condemn Israel for its response to the terrorists, my only concern is that he hasn't shown as much support as he might have done. As William Kristol has suggested, he ought to travel to Jerusalem from the (useless) G8 meeting to show the unconditional support of the U.S. for Israel against the Islamofascists.