Lebanon says Israel attack is barbaric.

[cali]

UNITED NATIONS -- Lebanon accused Israel on Friday of launching "a widespread barbaric aggression" aimed at bringing the small Mideast nation to its knees and urged the international community to end the military offensive.

At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting requested by Lebanon, special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud warned that Israel's destruction of vital bridges, roads and buildings and the killing and maiming of hundreds of Lebanese civilians "will not resolve the problem, but will further complicate it."

"The Security Council meets today in the shadow of a widespread barbaric aggression waged by Israel to this very moment against my nation," he said. "What Israel is undertaking is an act of aggression and devastation aimed at bringing Lebanon to its knees and subverting it by any means."

Mahmoud urged the Security Council to establish a cease-fire and to end the air and sea blockade of Lebanon imposed by Israel.

<snip>

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Mideast_Fighting_UN.html

[MADem]

1. Well, there are 25K AMERICANS over there, stuck, right now

Ya can't get out. The roads are bombed to shit, the airports are bombed, they're stuck, with incoming and no where to hide.

Send in an amphib or a carrier???

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. military is preparing contingency plans to evacuate U.S. citizens from Lebanon, who currently number some 25,000 people, Cable News Network reported Friday.
Lebanon has been subject to attacks from Israeli military forces seeking out Hezbollah guerrillas after the militant group took two Israeli soldiers hostage.
According to CNN, the U.S. military is looking at different options for U.S. forces to enter Lebanon and evacuate U.S. citizens.
It said the U.S. forces are looking at whether there are any airfields left in Lebanon they can use, although Israeli bombing has made that difficult.
A more practical option, according to CNN, might be to move a group of ships into the Mediterranean Sea and send in helicopters for evacuating people. CNN said such an operation would start small and build if it has to. http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=20462&lang=fra&NewsRubrique=2

[northernsoul]

4. I heard that all of our amphib craft are the Persian Gulf now

Now we've got 25,000 of our own trapped in a what looks to be a potential slaughterhouse and we can't get 'em out because of the Iraq debacle.

[MADem]

7. They just put the hammer down, they can be there in short order

A couple of days tops.

Those people will get to know the joys of a NonCombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO). Hope they have local friends who will take their pets....because they don't get to go. It sucks.

[northernsoul]

10. hopefully faster than it took to get that hospital ship to N.O.

They didn't bother to give the ship its dispatch orders from it's port in Maryland until a week after Katrina hit.

[MADem]

11. They didn't even activate the crew for that thing

It takes at least forty eight hours (and that is national emergency time) to muster a crew for a hospital ship, cut orders, ensure overseas screening, and actually MAN the vessel. They just have a skeleton crew on her normally.

They knew they weren't gonna do it in the first place. Plus, they had an amphib close on the littoral that they would not even allow to be used, with space for six hundred patients.

It's different when you are deployed. You just turn around and put the hammer down, and you can be there quicker than the stated speed of advance. Of course, once they GET "there" they usually end up sailing around in a box until some asshole figures out what the game plan is.

When you are doing a NEO, the State Department takes the lead and directs all aspects of the evacuation. I am not impressed with this State Department, frankly...they're a bunch of fuckups.

[sellitman]

2. Maybe...just maybe.....

Lebanon shouldn't have allowed the Hezbollah to launch rockets into Israel unimpeded?

Maybe?


Duh.

[Cary]

3. You're assuming Lebanon could do anything about it.

I don't believe that assumption is correct.That's part of the problem.

[sellitman]

8. If they can't then

they shouldn't be surprised Israel is trying.

[Waya]

5. Haven't you been listening?

The Lebanese Government isn't in a position to allow or disallow Hezbollah to do anything. They have no control over Hezbollah.....Just like the Palestinian Government under Arafat had no or only limited control over Hamas.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Or Gerry Adams over the "Real IRA." Can't control splinters.

They should, however, condemn what is happening.

[1monster]

6. Israel has invaded and bombed the daylights out of Lebannon in the

past to no good result except to help destroy that once beautiful country.

I don't believe that Israel is bombing them now for retaliation, but to ensure that Lebannon NEVER is able to rebuild enough to gain any strength.

I believe that kind of reasoning is also behind their treatment of those in the Gaza strip.

Whatever transgressions the Palestinians or Hezbollah or others have made against Israel, Israel has returned a hundred fold. Every time it looks like they might be moderating their policy to something like reasonableness, they find a way to turn around 180 degrees.

I certainly believe that Israel has a right to a self-governing existance, as, I believe most Arab nations have now acknowledged. But only if they are going to grant the same to all the other nations in the area, including the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. And the Lebannese