I just have to ask this:

[cantstandbush]

If Israel is such a big ally in the ME and enjoys our most favored nation status with respect to fianancial and military aid, why the hell wouln't the Israelis warn the US prior to their attacks in Lebanon and arrange for the safe return of our students studyig there and our citizens vacationing there? The panic i heard from the female student interviewed on the air makes me want to cry.

Anybody remember Grenada? Our students were not even being held in danger there until we attacked but all Grenada was asking for was some economic help. Yet we bombed the hell out of Grenada, called it a great victory in "rescuing" our students there? Now when our students and other citizens are in mortal danger, the US seems impotent and a pawn to the Israeli government that has really done us no favors with this attack on Lebanon and the continued massacres taking place. They gave us no warning and are seemingly giving us no help with evacuations thanks to blowing up all the air port runways. I AM PISSED WITH ISRAEL AND THE US!!

[MADem]

1. Because it is not their habit to share everything with us

They didn't bother to mention anything when they took the Golan Heights, either. In fact, we TOLD them NOT TO, and they did it ANYWAY.

Here's the brutal deal: they can get away without telling us everything, because they are the only "Democratic" game in Middle East Town. We may not like it, but they are too strategically important to us, so we put up with it.

Odds are, they didn't tell because they figured we'd either leak or stall.

They want their hostages back, and they want Hiz b'Allah to stop lobbing rockets over the border. They've asked for those two things, and the installation of the Lebanese Army (instead of HB) in the south.

We'll see if they get their way. There does not seem to be a shitload of "diplomacy" happening, so maybe their big stick will rule the day.

[cantstandbush]

3. The hostages are a ruse. They already have lost more soldiers in this

than there are hostages.

[MADem]

4. I disagree. They are NOT a ruse. They have always been overly

serious about hostages. They don't "negotiate" but they don't put up with shit, either. Don't you remember Entebbe??????

They are fond of pointing out that the "value" of an Israeli exceeds the value of an American or most other nationalities, because they are such a small nation. They bring that up all the time. "If we lost three thousand, well, that would be like three MILLION," they say.

Regardless about how people feel about the entire matter...and you can go all the way back to concept of Israel in Palestinian lands....the bottom line is that those soldiers were kidnapped, and Israel has been rocketed for several days now. The Israelis are responding to these events, and they aren't pussyfooting around.

I rather doubt if Canada came over the border and kidnapped a bunch of us, and then started shelling Maine, we'd take it all that gracefully, either. Unless they captured Dumbya and Condi, that is...and limited their shelling to Walker's Point.

[tazzerman2004]

2. No time..

First off, there were/are 25,000 Americans in Lebanon.  
Israel could NOT have warned us early enough and there's no
way we could have evacuated those 25k in time.  No way. 
Israel had to move quickly in order to capture Hizzbolah
elements in place before they could escape.  We're only NOW
(today) providing a chartered ship to take those that want to
leave to Cyprus...

[MADem]

5. Most of those "25K" are NOT LEAVING

If four thousand bail out, maybe five, I'd still think that was a lot.

Most of the people who are "Americans" over there came over here in the late sixties/early seventies and got citizenship during the "troubles" over there. Then, when shit finally settled down, they went HOME.

It will have to get a LOT worse before they move again. They have homes, farms, land, family over there.

And they have TWO passports.

[snappyturtle]

6. I just heard the cruise ship only......

has space for 750 passengers! The U.S. will wait until some of our citizens in Lebanon are killed and then we can enter this war too.