Robert Fisk: Strange goings-on here in Lebanon

[bemildred]

Posted because Fisk thinks it might be Pakistan that gets the 3-day blitz. It bears saying that one would not normally tell Iran what one plans to do and when, militarily speaking, before doing it.

Did you know that the Hizbollah "Party of God" has installed its own private communications network in the south of Lebanon, stretching from the village of Zawter Sharqiya all the way to Beirut? And why, I wonder, would it be doing that? Well, to safeguard its phones in the event that the Israelis immobilise the public mobile system in the next war. Next war? Well, if there's not going to be another war in Lebanon, why is Hizbollah building new roads north of the Litani river, new bunkers, new logistics far outside the area of operations of the Nato-led UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon?

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader, boasts of new weapons. The Lebanese suspect that these include anti-aircraft missiles. If this is true – and many Lebanese who have spent their lives under Israel's cruel air attacks, assaults which have often been war crimes, hope it is – then the next war will be anticipated with dark but keen anxiety. Since the Israeli army is incapable of fighting the Hizbollah on its own ground – its collapse when faced by Hizbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon last year proved this – what happens if their awesome air power is also neutered?

---

And then comes the cruncher in my friend's letter. "I think that the Bush administration is looking for something to distract Americans before the mid-September report on progress in Iraq. And I believe that the pressure is building to do something about the sanctuaries for the Taliban and foreign fighters along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border..."

A few days after my friend's letter arrived in Beirut, the Pakistanis reported that the Americans were using pilotless drones to attack targets just inside Pakistan. But it seems much more ambitious military plans may now be in the works. An all-out strike inside the North West Frontier province before President Pervez Musharref steps down – or is overthrown? A last throw of the dice at Bin Laden before "democracy" returns to Pakistan?

http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2917317.ece

[madeline_con]

1. Don't U.S. operations always coincide with....

major offensives by the Israelis?

Wouldn't Hizbollah realize that, and be preparing?

There's alot of talk about Iran, and it would be a huge distration for the Israelis to raze a few more Muslim areas.

editred 4 speeling

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

3. Well, I'd imagine any form of armed force is preparing for the expansion of US war in the M.E.

I'm not just talking M.E. countries, either. We get lots of little pieces of the puzzle and often overlook what the PNACers have in store for the world.

[peacetalksforall]

5. The U.S. takes Iran for PNAC/barons and Israel..

Israel takes Lebanon - as practiced last year.

That's what all the pieces spell.

Damn. Damn their hell that they drop on us.

[cali]

13. simplistic bullshit. n/t

[bemildred]

10. Well No, they don't.

US operations are way more common than major offensives by the Israelis. There is however, a strain of thought in Israeli military circles that "thinks" that the Second Lebanon War needs to be redone so the right army wins. However there seems to be some disagreement about the wisdom of that course, and in any case preparations take a lot of time.

I have seen the argument elsewhere that the Israeli forces stationed in Turkey would help us out by attacking Iran, which is also a fatuous idea.

[Spazito]

2. Very interesting reading!

Thanks for posting this. It certainly re-enforces the sense that something is up and it is NOT good whether the target is Iran or Pakistan.

Recommended.

[bemildred]

11. My pleasure. nt

[Swede]

4. I think anyone that thinks Israel incapable of fighting Hisbollah on its own ground is delusional.

Last year was a skirmish with an armed militia.

[JCMach1]

6. Exactly, the 'scary' Hezbollah might be as potent as say

the Delaware National Guard...

[bemildred]

12. Well, I doubt Hizbullah could invade Israel with much success.

On the other hand it seems unlikely that the IDF "lost" the Second Lebanon War intentionally or because Olmert/Halutz were putzes.

[Swede]

15. They lost nothing. They walked on eggshells fighting a skirmish.

They could have flattened Southern Lebanon,but chose not to at this time. If Hezbollah ever hits one of the major Israeli cities,Southern Lebanon will look like the moon.

[Adsos Letter]

7. I know the source is extremely problematic and right-wing...

...but (ahem) Dekafile (cough) is reporting that the USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group is positioning itself off lebanese waters in preparation for the outcome of upcoming elections...don't know if it means anything.

http://www.debka.com/

ON EDIT: to get the nomenclature of the Kearsarge group correct...

[Gregorian]

8. Oh. Suddenly just before elections, they pull Bin Laden out of a hat?

It would make sense. And hardly anyone will balk at it. And the war machine will get it's tax dollars. Great. Just great.

I'm guessing here. Pakistan is the most likely target?

I can think of so many ways our money could have been better spent.

[xchrom]

9. recommend

[leftchick]

14. I can pretty much confirm this part...

<snip>

So what else do the Americans have up their sleeve for us out here? Well, an old chum of mine in the Deep South – a former US Vietnam veteran officer – has a habit of tramping through the hills to the north of his home and writes to me that "in my therapeutic and recreation trips ... in the mountains of North Carolina over the last two weeks, I've noticed a lot of F-16 and C-130 activity. They are coming right through the passes, low to the ground. The last time I saw this kind of thing up there was before Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan".

That was in early August. Two weeks later, my friend wrote again. "There were a few (more) C-130 passes... I know that some 75th Rangers have just moved out of their home base and that manoeuvres have gone on in areas that have been used... in the past before assaults utilizing aircraft guided by small numbers of special operations people."

..... I live in Central NC and have been awakened in the wee hours of the morning by large military aircraft moving in groups. How many I don't know because it was too dark. What was alarming to me was it sounded like a lot of planes moving at once from west to east, I am assuming FT. Bragg. This happened at least a half dozen times over the summer.

I sure wish we had someone in congress who wanted to stop this insanity.

:(

[Selatius]

17. If true, it indicates the US military is moving a lot of heavy assets. Where? I guess for Iran.

Or wherever the Emperor wishes to strike next.

[shance]

16. Pilotless drones = endless war, anywhere,

with no pain, no feeling of whats being done.

We need to stop paying for global genocide.