A Lose/Lose Situation

The recent conflict involving Israel and Hezbollah (the state-within-a-state) is over for now. Both sides claim victory. But both sides lost.

Israel lost because they bowed to international pressure. 157 Israelis - mostly civilians -were killed. Imagine if Hezbollah had made more precise attacks! It became clear that Israel was out to seperate Hezbollah from the world and neutralize them. They nearly did that. Yet stopped short. In the end, Hezbollah still remains a threat to the north of Israel. And remember how this crisis started? With the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers? They have not been returned, and are seldom mentioned anymore.

Hezbollah lost simply because - despite their claims - they did not win. They did not invade Israel. Nor did they inflict the same kind of damage or casualties as was inflicted upon Lebanon. Depending on which side you believe, either 530 or just 80 Hezbollah fighters were killed (I tend to believe the higher Israeli figure as the Muslim press cannot be trusted). Hezbollah also exposed its sponsors, Iran and Syria, with unwanted scrutiny from the global community. And even today, many Lebanese are questioning why Hezbollah has been allowed to operate in Lebanon, just as they have questioned Syrian influence on Lebanese politics. How can Hezbollah possibly say they won? Did they win Palestinian freedom anywhere? Did they even return a single refugee to Palestine? Granted they inflicted some damage, but they certainly did not break the capability of the Israeli military nor break the will and the spirit of the Israeli people. In fact, the Israelis are probably stronger for it. And Israel remains a major and formidable threat to Hezbollah, with the ability to attack with impunity at any time they choose. So Hezbollah won? I don't think so.

Only the United Nations itself can claim a marginal victory in that they somehow were able to broker a cease-fire at all. But Hezbollah has already vowed they will not disarm themselves, and the Lebanese Army certainly won't disarm them, either.

The European Union lost because they never acknowledged Hezbollah as a terrorist organization before this crisis. And they still don't recognize them as such, even though Hezbollah provoked this attack.

The United States lost because they never convinced the rest of the world that Hezbollah was even a viable threat to the security of the Middle East.

Syria has always been a loser, and this conflict didn't help their image any.

The events surrounding this crisis have also lifted high the veil that has covered the Islamo-facist regime of Iran; even a lot of Arab nations are growing nervous over a Persian-dominated Middle East.

But the biggest loser in all this is Lebanon, a country caught in the cross-fire. Estimates place civilian casualties there at 1130 dead, 3600 wounded, and one million displaced. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses are destroyed. When a state-within-a-state is targeted, there is much collateral damage upon the state. It's not unlike treating an agressive cancer - you risk losing the patient.

The environmental cost has been high, too. Israeli ordinance includes depleted uranium warheads, the very nature of which constitute a health risk. There is an oil spill in the Mediterranean resulting from an Israeli airstrike on a power station. It covers an extensive area along the shores of Lebanon and Syria, and is drifting toward Cyprus and Turket. If not contained soon, it will rival the Exxon-Valdez spill of 1989. And in Israel, firefighters are busy with forest fires in the Naftali mountain range which were sparked by Hezbollah rockets.

Thankfully the truce is holding. But I don't hold much faith in it.

Keep watch, my brethren. Be vigilant.