1 " he was sufficiently aggressive to increase hostility toward Israel without being sufficiently decisive to achieve a desired military outcome "    Rash of that going around! Deja Vu all over again!! :-(

2 Oh! I forgot ......  Fore!

3 Its a trap!
Israel did it this way on purpose.
As anyone who has dueled with lightsabers knows... sure, cutting off the hand is nice, but if you can sucker the head close enough.. well that works better.

4 Nobody ever took the guy seriously who lost a fight. We have all seen what happens when the loser keeps running his mouth. Eventually he take a haymaker right to the chin; and drops like a bad habit.
 
I don't believe Israel planned to do the job half way. It just turned out like that. They may even change leaders. But they will not change their commitment to National Security.
 
Hezbollah and Iran and Syria can run their mouths all they want. Talk is cheap.

5 The Israelis, and we here in America, are learning the lessons of what you get when you elect liberals to government. We elected our first liberal President in 1960, and with the sole exception of 1980-1988, have been on a downhill slide ever since. If Americans or Israelis are stupid enough to put liberals in power again after this, we all deserve what we get, because we can't say we didn't know.

6 I said this several weeks ago, that in ten years when Arab armies are marching on Jerusalem, we will look to this battle with Hesbollah as the beginning of the end for Israel.

7 One would have to be a true academic ostrich not to see the terrific gains Hezbollah has made. Worse, when Hezbollah wins the filthy Iranian pigs win. Oh no. I did it again. Call the racist police.

Hell, we might even interview their sicko president on national television and beam it all over the world.

8 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, imitating President Johnson`s command and control, has given Israel their very own "Vietnam." The politico/socio/military damages will not easily be mended. He led his tiny nation headon into a well-organized, armed, motivated guerilla sanctuary which was mentally prepared to: "Lose a hundred battles a week, until you are destroyed!"

And like we did, he agreed to leave before the job was done.

The ramifications are many and broad.
* Israel`s morale is low.
* Islam`s morale is high.
* Iran will listen to no one.
* Iraq opposition will take advantage.
* Muslims will swell with newfound uphoric "honor".
* The GWOT suffered a setback.
* Terrorism will exploit the confusion of our setback.
* The UN will make that exploitation difficult to quash.
* Our President and State Secretary will be endlessly hounded; more than ever.
* Doubters will become more vocal.
* AND most important, the WILL to perservere will start shipping seawater in every compartment!

Israel`s hesitation to accomplish the mission they so clearly stated at the outset had laid the last plank in the road leading to a war with Iran.

And the timing is rotten................because our leadership has to revisit fighting this world war on Marguis De Queensbury rules while the savage in the ring honors no rule!

Patience and common sense are in for hardest test in history.

Semper Fi,

9 Well said Forest Hunter, well said and Semper Fi.

10 With any luck, the Knesset will vote "no confidence" on Olmert and his cabinet very soon, and the Israelis will get smart and elect someone with a brain, spine, and balls.

11 As they say in the Ghetto. Your rep is everything. Olmert, just hurt Israel's rep. Got to get it back quick. Let these Islamofacists think they can win and things will get worse.