...and not a peep of it here? That's rather odd.

I don't see anything good coming of this. There were rumors that Israel might even go after Syria and Iran for their support of Hezbollah and Hamas.

What are your thoughts on this?

How does it affect me? On another note, why are we trying to use diplomacy to stop north korea from making nukes, and who says we have a right to tell anyone what to do anyways? Either bomb and kill them all, ending the nuke program, or just let them do what they want...

At the very least, 3/4 of the Middle East embroiled in war would raise oil prices. Plus...that's a frickin' huge war. China has some vested interested in Iran (they'd aided them in development of missiles), and Russia's always seemed to be rather friendly with Iran.

Well it can't be good, but its not like it wasn't bound to happen with all the violence and **** going on over there. Fools. What exactly is everyone fighting over again? Land?

My dad's in the oil industry, and just for the record, it hit a record high today.

$77 per barrel of CRUDE, and one barrel = 42 gallons.

Israel went in after two soldeirs who were kidnapped by a Hezbollah group initially, but I think they're going after Lebanon now for letting it happen.

Ohh I KNOW I'm gonna get a lot **** for this but...it's at least honest.

Good for Israel. Seriously. They're finally going on the offensive. The little kid is finally standing up to the bullies. Yes yes I know there's going to be a lot of casualties and that is unfortunate and unfortunate that it has to come down to this. But perhaps this will get Syria, Lebenon, and Palestine to just stop flicking the back of Isreal's ears. Or the borders of the Middle-east are going to change a bit.

Finally standing up? Look at the history of the modern day nation of Israel, Id say they've been "on the offensive" from the start of their nation


And if the borders change at all, then it will be a regional war instead of just Israel invading Lebanon (which by the way has a new government not controlled by Hazebalah, even Bush said to leave the government intact unlike how they just arrested members of the government of palestine)

If you can call Hamas a government.

Yay for Israel!

Well they were elected by the people and all, but yeah...still.
I have a feeling this isn't going to end well at all.

Yeah. It's just really sketchy. I know why Israel is so nervy these days.

It's bull****.

1) They don't even know if it was Hezbollah that kidnapped/killed their soldiers.
2) They're hitting stuff like airports and major roads, why aren't they destroying the missile sites shooting back at them?

For #2: Military tactics. Destroy means of resource intake and troop distribution first. Sure shoot the missile launch pads and they'll just reconstruct/relocate the pads. By destroying major roads artillery and troops can't move. Makes for easy pickins.

Noone wants to talk about it because everyone is fed up of the whole Israel/Palestine situation. There will never be peace between these two nations cause they cannot forgive nor forget the bloodshed. It's a case of a continuous loop of revenge whereby each generation is instilled with more anger and hatred of the opposing nation. Like the Serbs and Croats, there will always be continued hatred for one another.

I think it's a shame that the US veto'd the UN Security Council resolution.

I too acknowledge Israel's right to defend itself, but this retaliation is a severe overreaction. The reply should have been more measured.

Two experts on a news broadcast I was watching, said that one of the problems is that the current Israeli Prime minister and the minister of defense have no military experience. It may sound odd, but a more experienced (military) leader in that field (like Ariel Sharon) wouldn't have let things escalate like this.

Let's hope things don't get any worse.

Lots of Lebanese civilian casualties already... (last I heard, 50) and more of them will only fuel the fires of terrorism.

Yay logistics killin's

SUPPLY LINES NEED SLASHING

I once had an isr... actually, i don't think it's appropriate in here. Let's pretend i didn't write this.

-GC

To provide context, this is the largest offensive Israel has undertaken since invading Lebanon in 1982. Back then, the U.S got involved eventually, and the Americans response will be interesting to watch. In my opinion, the U.S is probably a little pissed off at Israel, because attacks like these undermine whatever good the U.S is trying to accomplish. After all, Israel and the US in the eyes of the Middle East are joined at the hip.
To be honest, I wasn't really aware of this story until yesterday/today, and I have to say the Israeli response must have been intended to be more than just a "rescue" operatin. This is a statement, probably to demonstrate Israel is still strong. Every so often they go forward with military action like this just to flex their muscles. Otherwise, this offensive is way too aggressive considering what brought it on.

Well being that they are the leaders of a government, yes one must recgonize that they are a government, whether you like them or not.



great post



It's not necessairly about what WE want to accomplish, but what the Lebonese have and are trying to accomplish. Syria only recently pulled out of Lebenon and they are now able to rule themselves.

America released a statement that said for Israel to leave the government intact.

Someone made a good point, and that is that they probably don't even know for sure if it was Hezbollah that kidnapped the soldiers.

Plus the rocket attacks in Israel after the invasion of Lebenon, Hezbollah denied involvment.

This makes Israel look quite bad

I don't like paying over $50 at the pump to fill up my car

Sweet, I filled up my tank last night



As someone already mentioned, its Isreal thats been on the offensive.

And hit higher today, just watching the news. $78, and only gonna get higher.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13853565/?GT1=8307

The quotes sound like children fighting to me.

I like how the french prime minister admits Iran is probably involved, but still won't raise a hand against them becoming a nuclear power. France could crush Iran. And that's saying a lot, remember - they're French.

The Lebonese government is in a tight spot here - they are responsible for the actions of their citizens, but are powerless to stop them or bring them to justice. And, of course, it is true that the Lebonese leaders were elected democratically. The problem, as is so often the case in the area, is that as soon as they were elected, they abolished all further elections. It's not a four years and another election system like we have, and it's not a limited power position either. They are essentially voting on their next dictator - just like Germany in the 30s.

Heres my prediction of what will happen:
Isreal will find some way to prove to the UN that Iran is backing the militants in southern Lebanon.
Isreal will then, naturally, declare war on Iran. Afterall, if the militants are backed by a government, then the kidnapping of Isreali soldiers is an act of war on the part of that government.
Because the US is strongly allied with Isreal, we will have no choice but to support them.
Iran's support from China and Russia will suddenly vanish. Those countries only support Iran because it annoys us; but continuing to support Iran in war would draw them into it as well.
Iran will be crushed. American soldiers on both sides of Iran, in Iraq and Pakistan, will mow through the country and meet in the middle.
We can only pray that someone more capable to adminster this sort of war than Rumsfield will be put in charge, and the mistakes made in Iraq won't be made all over again.
Eventually, a democratic government will be set up in Iran. It won't happen overnight, like everyone seems to think it should. Most likely, it won't be firmly in place until the next generation grows up and takes over.

Sounds like too long a road to me. I say we just nuke them and siphon their oil out by slant drilling from kuwait. Or we can skip the democratic government part (after all, we havn't got one of them ourselves!) and just annex them. Maybe in a few decades they could petition for statehood, and we could finally start to see our manifest destiny to become the United States of Earth.

Boo hoo. Hezbolla was looking for a fight, and they're about to find out they bit off more than they can chew. The Israelis aren't playing dirty, they're dropping leaflets telling civilians to stay away from very specific places and warning them those locations will be bombed. "Israel's always been on the offense" my ***. They can't afford defeat. Defeat for Israel means complete extermination of its citizens. But no, you wouldn't understand that, your nations are safe and established...

If only the world worked that way.

"The Lebonese government is in a tight spot here - they are responsible for the actions of their citizens, but are powerless to stop them or bring them to justice. And, of course, it is true that the Lebonese leaders were elected democratically. The problem, as is so often the case in the area, is that as soon as they were elected, they abolished all further elections. It's not a four years and another election system like we have, and it's not a limited power position either. They are essentially voting on their next dictator - just like Germany in the 30s."

The Lebanese government was pretty much just established you know, up until just months ago it was under the rule of Syria, now they have their own government.

Bush's support for this war and against Palestine shows that he loves democracy...when they elect the right people

But you claiming that they abolished all future elections is simply false.

I'll log into the forums from my hotel in Bolivia to tell you this: read the news before you post nonsense. They officially admitted to it and are very, very proud of it.

While I respect both sides of the debate, I always find it annoying (as with any other topic) that people feel the need to post their "rock-solid" opinions when all they know comes from snippets of news they overheard on TV while tying their shoelaces in the morning.

Um well, I've been following the news pretty closely, and Hezbollah is still denying the attacks.

****'s getting really out of hand. One newspaper said Israel gave Syria a 72 hour ultimatum to make Hezbollah retreat from South Lebanon and return the kidnapped soildiers, or there will be dire consequences for Syria. Iran reacted to that by saying that 'Israel is like Hitler'.

The only attacks they denied were the firing of the first two rockets onto Haifa, which was probably caused by a battery on standby firing without official authorization. The kidnapped soldiers, according to Nasrallah, are "already in a place far, far away".

I'll add that they stated the operation had been planned for months in advance.

Counter-Terrorists Win?

It's not a question of right. There are no rights. It's a question of what they will do with it once they have it. If they are going to use it against us and our allies, it's our business whether we like it or not. We can't ignore it, and war is not a choice to be made lightly.

It is vital to be able to distinguish the time is for negotiation and the time for war. Either one by it self is equally destructive.

It'd be nice if we could somehow trick Kim Jong into attack China. Mabye if we sent him free drugs...





The president of Iran is like comic relief.

Your excelrencry! A package has just arrived! It is from Uniteda States!

"To his right most honorable and all around great dude, Kim Jong-Il.

Sorry for all the **** we caused you. No hard feelings, k? In the mean time take this. You must breathe deeeeply.

Your friend,
Condy Rice"

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Counter-Terrorists Win?[/QUOTE]

Not yet. The T's still have the hosties, and the round isn't over.

I haven't looked into it enough, but I don't know why Israel is blowing up Lebanese infrastructure--ex. highways and airport resources. It would only help if they were planning to sweep into southern Lebanon to create a buffer between Israeli border towns and Hezbollah rocket launchers. Didn't Hezbollah recently declare that they would be willing to fight an "all out war"?

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Counter-Terrorists Win?[/QUOTE]
*Relax, the following post is a joke*

I think it would be somewhat humorous if someone took the idea of [url]www.hlcomic.com[/url] and did it as CS:S only. They'd then proceed to act out the middle east controversy in CS:S, much like you and JDKNITE did. Note that it would just be as a joke, not to be taken seriously. But some money-hungry ***** out there would go and protest that it's unpatriotic and blah blah blah and get it taken down

I don't know what to make of this situation. I don't feel particularly empathetic toward any sides in this conflict, nor do I know much about it. I say if people want to kill people, let them.

Yeah, not like innocent people dying is anybody's problem.

Spanish Inquisition lololololar.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Yeah, not like innocent people dying is anybody's problem.[/QUOTE]


Yeah, because the U.S. has always responded to innocents are dying.

I'm with Free on this one. Let the Middle East work itself out.

Oh, I'm not saying the US has. In fact, one thing I hate about our country is our lack of involvement in Sudan, Somalia, and Rwanda. But I personally think we should do something.

But we're especially not doing **** about this because Israel is our ally, and going against your allies is never good.