Operation Israel-Lebanon

cat: and what's also sad is that if you ask most college students what beirut is, they'll say beer pong

The fighting began last week after Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.
Israel responded with an offensive in Lebanon aimed at Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group with a strong presence in the southern part of the country.
In six days of fighting, 170 people have been killed and 415 wounded in Lebanon, Lebanese internal security sources said. Twenty-four Israelis have died in the conflict, including 12 soldiers, and more than 300 have been wounded, Israeli military sources said.

it's been about a week since the fighting in the middle east began (does it actually ever stop?). i really wish i knew more, but the history of the middle east is so long, so complicated, and so incredibly tragic. they've pretty much been screwed every step of the way. you can't really rely on american news sources for unbiased news. there's a little truth in everything you read, but one thing's for sure - the people are suffering.

what i do know: hezbollah's basically a terrorist group running amuck in southern lebanon, most likely with support from iran and syria. beirut has no control over anyhing, so diplomacy would have to start with discussions with damascus. israel's fighting a war on two fronts, since the aggression on the gaza strip's been going on for a month. understandably, israel feels threatened, but how far should they be allowed to go? do you ask israel to cease-fire when hezbollah shows no restraint? can diplomacy work when iran and syria have been bent on destroying israel for so long? can lebanon's young democracy survive this? most likely the conflict will end with a dramatic exchange of prisoners; it usually has in the past. we all want the violence to stop, but imho, hezbollah needs to be disarmed. how do you go about doing that? israel may not be able to even if it unleashed it's military force at full force. and that would be worse then simply allowing hezbollah to exist.

Current Mood: worried

Current Music: keane - a bad dream