The Wars To Come...

-As always, Victor Davis Hanson has written some great articles. I have chosen 2 of his latest writings that stood out for me.

August 21, 2006
Excuse After Excuse
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services

What makes two-dozen British Muslims want to blow up thousands of innocent passengers on jumbo jets? Why does al Qaeda plan hourly to kill civilians? And why does oil-rich Iran wish to "wipe out" Israel ?

In short, it's the old blame game, one that over the past century has taken multiple forms.
Once, a tired whine of Islamists was that European colonialists and American oilmen rigged global commerce to "rob" the Middle East of its natural wealth. But they were pretty quiet when the price of crude oil jumped from around an expensive $25 a barrel to an exorbitant $75.

Recently, oil exporters of the Middle East have taken in around an extra $500 billion each year in windfall profits beyond the old lucrative income. It is one of the largest, most sudden — and least remarked upon — transfers of capital in history.
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So never mind the trillions in petrodollars, billions in aid and concessions. Unless we change our very character, or the Middle East achieves success and confidence through Western-style democracy and economic reform, expect more tired scapegoating and violence from radical discontents, from Lebanon to London — and well beyond.
[....] Read the Whole Article...

August 18, 2006
Hope Amid Despair?
A reluctant world begins to confront reality.
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

Pessimism is now the conventional wisdom about the wars in the Middle East , and, indeed, it is hard to find any good news in the recent ceasefire.

Syria and Iran stage celebrations as news emerges from the ruins of southern Lebanon revealing just how well-armed Hezbollah was — and how impotent the Lebanese “government” really is. The only suspense remaining is whether the United Nations peacekeeping force or the Lebanese army will prove the most craven in giving Hezbollah a green light to rearm and terrorize.

The old Arab agenda of recapturing “stolen” land has been superseded by a new Islamist jihad that is as fanatical as it is inhuman. The Islamists care not a whit for ground, but only for the abject destruction of the Jewish state and to finish the Holocaust that they claim did not take place. Few of the pundits now clamoring for “engagement” care to recall that Syria probably murdered Rafik Hariri, or that Iran promises to wipe Israel off the map.

The near criminal indifference of the international community is cause for greater depression still.
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The globalized media is absolutely discredited after the coverage of Lebanon . Reuters has destroyed its reputation, gained from 150 years of world reporting, by releasing doctored pictures and tolerating staged photo-ops. Almost all the Western media outlets failed to distinguish Lebanese civilian from military casualties — as if the Hezbollah terrorists they never filmed and never interviewed never died.

Indeed, thanks to the unprofessional reporters abroad, and their disingenuous chiefs back home, the world never saw the killers who sent the rockets nor many of their civilian victims on the ground in Israel . Nor did the reporters apprise their audience of the different landscapes in which they worked: candor in Israel might win loud disagreement; truth in Lebanon meant death. It would be as if Reuters, AP, or the New York Times embedded its reporters within the Waffen SS, beaming daily reports back home about the great morale and noble suffering of the Wehrmacht as it advanced into the snowy Ardennes.
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In an amorphous war of self-induced Western restraint, like the present one, truth and moral clarity are as important as military force. This past month, the world of the fascist jihadist and those who tolerate him was once again on display for civilization to fathom. Even the most timid and prone to appeasement in the West are beginning to see that it is becoming a question of “the Islamists or us.”

In this eleventh hour, that is a sort of progress after all.
[....] Read the Whole Article...

-Caroline Glick opines how the realities of the outcome of the Israel-Hezbollah War will lead to the Palestinians starting the next round of fighting. READ THE REST...

Since the cease-fire was implemented in Lebanon, we have heard scattered reports indicating that a prisoner swap with the Palestinians may be in the works. In exchange for hundreds if not thousands of Palestinian terrorists now held in Israeli prisons, IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage by Palestinian terrorists for nearly two months, may be released from captivity.

These reports lend weight to the view that things are back to normal. Terrorists kidnap Israelis and hold them hostage and Israel releases terrorists in order to free them. It is a comforting thought for people like Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his colleagues and the members of Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz's General Staff who continue to believe that it will be possible for Israel to sign on a dotted line and achieve "a normal existence." Unfortunately, the chance that Shalit will be released is almost as small as the chance that Israel will be able to achieve a "normal existence." Palestinian sources explain that the decision of whether or not to release Shalit is firmly in the hands of the Iranians and Syrians, and they are not in any mood to horse trade with the Jews.
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Now, in the aftermath of the cease-fire, which handed Hizbullah and its state sponsors Syria and Iran the greatest victory in their history, forces in the PA are actively preparing for a new round of war against Israel. As Hamas spokesmen have put it, Israel's defeat in Lebanon has convinced them that it is possible to adopt Hizbullah's methods to destroy the Jewish state. Amid false reports that he was planning to dissolve the Hamas government and replace it with a government of technocrats, Abbas went to Gaza on Monday morning and asked Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh if Fatah could join his government.
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Throughout the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria, the Palestinians are gearing up for their next round of jihad with Israel. As was the case six years ago, they are beginning with public executions of Palestinians accused of helping Israel combat terrorism. Just this week, a crowd of hundreds hooted and stomped their feet in ecstasy as unmasked murderers killed one such Palestinian "collaborator" in Jenin.

So while all eyes are glued on Lebanon, the Palestinians may well start the next war. And we know exactly how that war will look.
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-Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Shimon Shapira gives a concise history on exactly how Hezbollah has been preparing for war with Israel over the past 6 years, since Israel's withdraw from Lebanon in May of 2000.
-No calm after the storm: The UN must make good on its promises, & media should rethink skewed coverage

War, it is said, is a series of catastrophes that, sooner or later, result in victory. But the war between Israel and Hezbollah has resulted not in victory but in a disturbingly unquiet peace.

First, there's the question about whether the United Nations will put some muscle where its mouth is and insist on disarming Hezbollah. President Bush has declared victory, but that is way premature. It doesn't fit with Secretary of State Rice's statement that the disarmament of Hezbollah should be achieved "voluntarily."

Dream on! Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the boss of Hezbollah (and Iran's puppet), has already said he won't disarm. To no one's surprise, the Lebanese defense minister vows not to order his army to confiscate Hezbollah's rockets, mainly because his army couldn't defeat the New York City Police Department. As for the UN, its record in Somalia, Bosnia and Lebanon offers little cause for hope.

So nobody will do it, and Israel, which might, is withdrawing on the basis of a document widely seen as a fraud even before the ink on it dries.

The bottom line: Lebanon may well be Hezbollah's for the taking. What that would mean, of course, is the prospect of more rockets and missiles raining on Israeli civilians.
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-Finally, UN Secretary General has caused new anger amongst Israelis when he announced that Israel will have no say in which countries can donate troops to the "robust" UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon. Malaysia and Indonesia are amongst 2 of the Muslim nations vying to make up a large number of the scheduled 15,000 UNIFIL forces to be deployed in southern Lebanon. What has driven up concern in Israel is the fact that all of the European countries that volunteered to send the majority of the forces have either withdrawn their offers or drastically reduced their troop numbers. For example, France promised at least 2,000 troops and to lead the force. Now, they have backed out on leading the Forces and are donating a mere 200 troops. Most of which will be logistical officers and Engineers. Many of the Muslim countries offering to donate troops do not have diplomatic relationships with Israel. Malaysia does not recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel is afraid that if Muslim countries make up a majority of the UNIFIL force, they will either have a conflict of interest, or make no attempt to prevent Hezbollah from disarming and reporting violations, or they may even willingly fight alongside Hezbollah or assist them in some way.

Annan, Not Israel, to Decide on Makeup of Peacekeeping Force
A new row is brewing between Israel and the United Nations over which of the U.N.'s member-states should be eligible to contribute troops to a mission to keep the peace between Israel and Shi'ite terrorists in Lebanon.

Countries that do not recognize and have diplomatic relations with Israel should not participate in a beefed-up UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government declared.

But U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's spokesman, asked during a briefing in New York Monday whether recognition of Israel was a criterion for participation, replied that the composition of the force was a decision that "belongs to the secretary-general."
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Of the few countries that are offering sizeable troop contingents -- Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, all Muslim -- do not have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
[....]Read the Whole Article...

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