Quote Originally Posted by Kamion
And God (fitting expression), so many americans here are unbelievably brainwashed.
...and most seem to think that Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, al-Qaeda, Syria etc. are totally indistinguishable from each other and part of one uniform Muslim conspiracy against the West. When the reality is a lot more complex. For example, al-Qaeda are a Wahhabist movement who view Shias with contempt and see them as not being real Muslims. That's why Zarqawi and the foreign fighters in Iraq target car bombs at Shia civilians in an attempt to provoke outright civil war in the country. Hezbollah is a Shia organisation and has no admiration for or connection with al-Qaeda. Even Hamas has no real links with al-Qaeda and is solely focused on its fight against Israel while al-Qaeda has little real interest in the Palestinian cause, being more concerned with the overthrow of pro-Western governments in the rest of the Middle East.

Just allowing Israel to bash Hezbollah isn't necessarily going to make things any better, in fact there's a grave risk it will make matters much worse. Lebanon is a fragile multiethnic society that is still recovering from years of civil war and could fall apart again in the face of this onslaught, creating another failed state for al-Qaeda fighters to operate in. Also perhaps Bush and his pals should stop and think how the Shias in Iraq feel about seeing their brothers in Lebanon bombed relentlessly by Israel day after day (now with American supplied bunker busting bombs). The Sunni population is already in revolt at the American presence there, how much worse will it be for American soldiers on the ground if the Shias turn against them too?