Bomber's Remorse

Perhaps we were all a little too quick to call Israel's half-hearted campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon a victory for the terrorists:

The leader of the militant group Hezbollah says that if he had it to do all over again, he wouldn't order the capture of Israeli soldiers that ignited the war in Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in the Aug. 27 TV interview. (New TV/Associated Press) "You ask me, if I had known on July 11 … that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with Lebanon's New TV station broadcast Sunday.

The war devastated Lebanon, where at least 850 militants and civilians died in Israeli bombardments and land attacks, while Hezbollah rockets and fighters killed at least 157 Israeli civilians and soldiers. Estimates of the cost of repairing damage to Lebanese buildings, roads and infrastructure run into the billions of dollars.

Hezbollah fighters crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel on July 12, killing three Israeli soldiers and capturing two more. Israel responded with attacks that lasted until a UN-organized ceasefire took effect on Aug. 14.

"We did not think, even one per cent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude," Nasrallah said.

Time is making matters clearer. Hezbollah's propaganda victory is looking increasingly hollow outside the Islamic echo chamber; too many reports of Hezbollah rockets being fired from civilian areas at Israeli civilians, and the utter devestation left behind, have started making even knee-jerk anti-Israelis take notice.

Hezbollah looks less like a brave popular resistance force and more like what it is: Iran's sock puppet.

At least among common opinion, anyway. The elites who govern us are still blithering along about "moral equivalence" and "proportionate response."

Source: CBC