Hezbollah chief survives assassination attempt, declares open war

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=663321e8ccf45831

The head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has vowed 'open war' against Israel after surviving an Israeli airstrike on his home and office in Beirut.

In an audio message Friday, Hassan Nasrallah said Israel would feel Hezbollah's response at all levels, to the northern Israeli city of Haifa and beyond.

He also hailed an attack on an Israeli naval ship off the Lebanese coast. An Israeli spokesman said the ship was lightly damaged, although the Arab television network al-Jazeera is reporting the Israeli military is searching for four people missing from the warship.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack urged American citizens to assess their own personal security situation and consider leaving Lebanon when conditions permit. He said, however, no U.S. officials have left the country because there is currently no way for them to leave.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pledged to continue the offensive until Hezbollah guerrillas are disarmed and two captured Israeli soldiers are released.

Lebanese officials say more than 60 people have been killed in Israeli attacks. Israel says eight Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians have died in Hezbollah rocket attacks since Wednesday, when Hezbollah captured the two Israeli soldiers.
more...
War thats what we got alright...:nuke:

[Recursion]

1. Give war a chance?

If only there were a way to let all the militant people fight it out and declare a winner, without there being all those civilians in the way. The 19th-century "everybody line up at a pre-arranged place and shoot each other" mode of warfare seems really stupid, but it did avoid a lot of this...

[purduejake]

2. Open War?

How long before we're dragged into this? Who is supplying Israel with munitions? Oops, we're already involved.

[Redstone]

3. And we're supposed to cheer him on for this?

Redstone

[saltpoint]

4. Mr. Nasrallah's comments are not difficult to understand given the

fact that he was just targeted for assassination.

I could definitely understand why that might have put him on edge.

Things are not looking very hopeful for peace in this region, are they?

And the U.S. involvement/response is brought into complete question because the Bush administration is packed with corrupt, incompetent liars.

[wagthedogwar]

6. another conveniently planned action

--don't worry, this will all be over shortly after the mid-term elections in November.

Pity the Lebanon, so far from God, so close to Israel

[saltpoint]

7. Is it your impression that so far at least, this is helping Republicans?

I don't know if it is or isn't, but it doesn't seem as if it would.

It suggest to me that Bush's foreign policy, already a distinct failure, is growing calamitous.

[ButterflyBlood]

10. I actually just looked it up

and Bush has actually DROPPED in the latest poll, from FAUX none the less, down 5 points and below 40 again....

[saltpoint]

12. Well, that's a small comfort at least. Good. I don't like the idea of

him getting any credit for shooting his mouth off at pig roasts while the Middle East blazes to destruction.

[lovuian]

8. Can't you feel those Bush polls going up up up

this was so calculated and planned :nuke:

[ButterflyBlood]

9. How does this help Bush?

All I see it doing is making him look like the incompetant clod he is for sitting on his ass eating pork in Germany while this happens, and showing just what his idiotic foreign policy has given us.

[Solo_in_MD]

11. Was he really targeted?

In Gaza care seem to have been taken to destroy buildings when no one was in them. Not saying it wasn't an assignation attempt, but in PA builidings were bombed in the dead of night.

[saltpoint]

13. I'm not in a position to know, only responding to info in the reports.

In the chaos of the last few days especially, just about anything could be happening differently than it's reported. Good point.

[The Magistrate]

14. He Has Neither Right Nor Reason To Expect Anything Else, Sir

Once the Sage wrote: "What others teach, I teach also: 'A violent man will die a violent death!'"

[saltpoint]

15. I wouldn't single him out as that region's only violent man.

[The Magistrate]

17. He Is Not The Only One, Sir, Certainly

But he is the one who commenced this latest episode in Lebanon.

[saltpoint]

18. My post aimed for an assessment of the big picture tensions

which define that part of the world and which are made worse by vacuous leadership.

One man is not to blame. Sadly, and tragically, it takes a village to destroy a village sometimes. I think that's the case in the Middle East.

The last two paragraphs of my post are the heart of my point. Under Presidents Carter and Clinton, a deliberate focus on peaceful resolution to violent conflict was definitional, even historic. Not so under George W. Bush.

Traditionally, a U.S. Secretary of State would be on the job trying to cool a few brows in a given region of the world. I would ask where Dr. Rice is these days.

[uppityperson]

5. Remembering way back to last night, analysts said don't attack him

If his home was bombed, there goes another chance at getting it stopped and here is another way to greatly escalate it. Damng

[Selatius]

16. Hezbollah should've disarmed when the other militias did

No, they didn't disarm. They insisted on keeping their arms even though other secular and religious militias from the Christian side to the Sunni side to the Shi'ite side to the Druze side all agreed to disarm.

What Hezbollah has done is destabilized the situation in Lebanon so that militias could decide to re-arm once again!

[ButterflyBlood]

19. You have pointed out probably the most important fact

Hezbollah is the only group from the Civil War that has refused to follow the peace agreement and UN resolutions. For that reason alone they deserve no support.

[Igel]

20. And yet, for that reason and that reason alone,

they are considered heroes by many.