[BGB] OK who do you think won the Israeli/Hezbollah skirmish?

[tballou at comcast.net]

Hi Mike

I did not know you where in London you lucky bastard.  You should be going up to Lard Island (St. Albans) and trying out some games with the IABSM guys.  They seem like a really nice crew.  I recommend their yahoo group, just for shits and grins.   Funny guys.

It will be interesting weapons aside, what the UN will do about bunkers and such.

Its going to be interesting to see how they stop reconstruction of these.   What do they do, put a guy on top of each one?   Blow them up?   Hezbollah can argue that they are just doing this in defense, but their defense is their offense.  

--Tom

*************************************************************

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president,
 or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is
 not only unpatriotic, and servile, but is morally treasonable
 to the American public."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"Never drive a car when you're dead."

--Tom Waits "Telephone Call From Istanbul"

************************************************************

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: <michael.cartine at thomson.com>
> Yes I think that pretty squarely sums it up.
> Although I don't think Hezbollah will be rearming.  I don't think they
> ever stopped...
> My take on the u.n./French is they want the right to shoot back.  But
> I'd expect them to be too scared to ever actually do anything.  That's
> not to hose the French, just a realization that anybody who screws with
> Hezbollah will buy a ticket to go somewhere.
> Would be interesting to see if the u.n. force will actually try to keep
> Hezbollah from re-arming.  If they're brave enough, they can say look at
> resolution 1701 or whatever it is.
> Then if Hezbollah blasts the u.n., it's the rest of the world against
> Hezbollah/iran.  But those are big 'ifs'.
> 
> One more thing - the arab world has no idea at all that Hezbollah
> started the war.  Living in London now, I can actually tell you most
> people here, meaning non-arabs, actually think Israel started the war.
> Or maybe Hezbollah did, but they don't know exactly what Hezbollah did,
> or how bad they were screwing off.  That's waspy London, and I can tell
> you the few arabs I know have much less of an idea.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bgb-bounces at battlegroupboston.org
> [mailto:bgb-bounces at battlegroupboston.org] On Behalf Of
> tballou at comcast.net
> Sent: 17 August 2006 16:30
> To: Peter Mancini; BattleGroup Boston
> Subject: [BGB] OK who do you think won the Israeli/Hezbollah skirmish?
> 
> This has been a big issue in the news, curious what you guys think.
> 
> 
> Sadly, I think Hezbollah can claim victory, the Cease-fire and Peace
> keeping forces will not weaken their position, if anything they will
> strenghten it.
> 
> It seems the Lebanese Army have made a public statement that they will
> not actively disarm the Hezbollah.  The French seem to be pushing the UN
> to allow them to do such, but I doubt that they really want to try it.
> 
> Now Hezbollah is taking the PR initiatiave to rebuild and provide relief
> to the people in southern Lebanon (at the expense of Iran).  The
> Lebanese government, can do little, so they fill the vacuum, and gain
> more status as a "State within a State".  Seemingly people of Lebanon
> and the Arab world are "forgetting" Hezbollah started this whole mess.
> 
> What will get interesting, is if they start to try to rebuild the
> bunkers and hardened  positions the Israelis took out.  What will the
> Peace keepers do?  If they don't try to stop them, then soon I suspect
> Hezbollah will begin re-arming.
> 
> I doubt the any of the Peace keeping force will be willing to start an
> open confrontation with Hezbollah.
> 
> Losers are clearly the people of Lebanon.
> 
> A draw at best for Israeli.
> 
> Of course I could be wrong.
> 
> --Tom
> 
> *************************************************************
> 
> "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president,
>  or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is
>  not only unpatriotic, and servile, but is morally treasonable
>  to the American public."
> 
> --Theodore Roosevelt
> 
> "Never drive a car when you're dead."
> 
> --Tom Waits "Telephone Call From Istanbul"
> 
> ************************************************************
> _______________________________________________
> BGB mailing list
> BGB at battlegroupboston.org
> http://www.battlegroupboston.org/mailman/listinfo/bgb