Blindingly stupid article by Neocon Krauthammer

[n2doc]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801379.html

The road to a solution is therefore clear: Israel liberates south Lebanon and gives it back to the Lebanese.

It starts by preparing the ground with air power, just as the Persian Gulf War began with a 40-day air campaign. But if all that happens is the air campaign, the result will be failure. Hezbollah will remain in place, Israel will remain under the gun, Lebanon will remain divided and unfree. And this war will start again at a time of Hezbollah and Iran's choosing.

Just as in Kuwait in 1991, what must follow the air campaign is a land invasion to clear the ground and expel the occupier. Israel must retake south Lebanon and expel Hezbollah. It would then declare the obvious: that it has no claim to Lebanese territory and is prepared to withdraw and hand south Lebanon over to the Lebanese army (augmented perhaps by an international force), thus finally bringing about what the world has demanded -- implementation of Resolution 1559 and restoration of south Lebanon to Lebanese sovereignty.

My Comment: Just how stupid are these guys? Do they honestly think that Hezbollah will just vanish if driven north? Do they think that by driving the IDF into south Lebanon that somehow the people living in Lebanon will greet them as "liberators"? And do they think that Hezbollah won't return once they leave and hand the region back to Lebanon? The whole mode of action by Hezbollah and other grups like it is to attack and then retreat back, avoiding direct head to head battles that they know they will lose. This has been proven to be a winning tactic from Algiers to Vietnam. What a freakin' moron.

[Jacobin]

1. Yeah. They'll be like throwing flowers in the street

It'll be just like the neo-cons still pretend that Iraq was gonna be like.

That's the ticket

[meegbear]

3. Indeed!

Why I wouldn't be surprised if one year from now, they erect of statue of president bush in the middle of Beruit.

[Benhurst]

2. It's always good to hear what Dr. Strangelove is thinking.

:puke:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. LOL. n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. "Just how stupid are these guys?"

They're not stupid, they're ideologues, very smart, and we underestimate them at our peril. What he is saying is terribly, terribly wrong, but I bet there are more than a few people in the Bush administration nodding their heads in agreement.

[n2doc]

6. I should probably have used the word "insane" instead

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result....

[sandnsea]

7. Create a UN buffer zone

Sorry, sounds like a great plan to me. I'd like to see UN peacekeepers in the West Bank and Gaza too, loads of them. I'm sick of this shit and it is time to disavow these terrorist groups.

[cantstandbush]

8. Killing you to set you free. Blows the mind. nt

[DemFromMem]

9. That's why an international force is needed

And Krauthammer, to his credit, calls for that in his article. A lot of neocons probably would prefer for Israel or the US to do the job of occupying. Israel doesn't want that and it would likely fail.

Tom Friedman had a better take in his op-ed this morning. The US should seize the opportunity and try and bring Syria into the fold of non-rogue nations. The best way to neutralize Hezbollah is to make a deal with Syria and get them to be a wedge between Iran and Hezbollah.

[Jim__]

10. That ought to work about as well as "liberating" Iraq did.- n/t