Bomben auf Lebanon

Like their fore-runners, the modern day luftwaffe called the IDF Air Force, is raining bombs on cities, roads, villages and anywhere else that might benefit from a good bang. Why? To fight Hezbolleh, or to be more accurate, to punish Lebanon for not fighting Hezbolleh. The faster Lebanon gets after those shiite Lebanese who call themseves the 'Party of God', the faster the bombs will stop falling. If they don't, well the USA is always willing to replenish the bomb magazines.

I think there is something inherently wrong with this 'measured response' to Hezbolleh's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. I wonder what an immoderate and irrational response would have looked like? Probably little different in effect. Besides, how do soldiers get 'kidnapped'- were they off duty? Soldiers get 'taken prisoner', but the former term makes a better excuse for the need to respond in a "measured" way. Bottom line, the massive destruction and loss of innocent life seems disproportionate to the 'crime'.

It's not as if this kind of thing hasn't happened before. Israel has a large number of 'prisoners' on hand who have been that way for a number of years now, with no charges or Geneva protections. Israel has negotiated exchanges with Hezbolleh before.
In fact, exchanges have been good for Israel insofar as, after release, some of these 'terrorists' can be targetted for assassination and killed - something that couldn't be done so cleanly while they're in custody. This time, however, no talking until the stale ammunition gets used up.

The latest Israeli peace stipulation is a multi-national force in southern Lebanon to 'fight' the Hezbolleh. Israel seems reticent to fight the Hezbolleh and would like the rest of the world to do it. Why didn't Israel do a reprise of its last two Lebanese vacations? Because they were far too expensive and the last time they had to come home before they'd done everything they'd planned to do. Even old Arik Sharon realized, the second time, that invading Lebanon was like a dog catching a car, once you got it, what you gonna do with it? Hezbolleh just made things worse. I can't see anybody, except some peculiar 'Murrican' types, lining up for this duty. I hope old 'Harpy' ain't thinkin' about tossing in our reserves.

As it is, the bombs will keep falling just so long as they can be shipped in from the 'Arsenal of Democracy' because now it's about Hezbolleh rockets and not the two servicemen. I wonder if anybody studying economics has done any work on the relation between economic cycles and America's 'wars'. America's economy should be booming with all the money cut loose by the Bush wars.