So this is the way World War IV starts, eh? It seems too much like Bismarck’s prediction of the start of World War I. The bad guys seize one soldier, so the good guys shoot some folks up, so the bad guys seize more soldiers, so the good guys bomb their house, then the bad guys declare war, the good guys go to war and pretty soon everyone is jumping in on one side or the other.
Lebanon may be Western oriented but Hezbollah is in charge down south. Syria runs Hezbollah and Iran runs Syria. So who are we fighting? Why is Israel bombing Lebanon? To keep the thing from escalating? It’s getting to be too late for that.
Seems to me the question is this: if we choose to go the route of diplomacy, try to defuse the situation and leave things at the status quo ante bellum what do we plan to do when Tel Aviv is nuked? If we leave Iran as is – we buy them off and pray for peace and quiet – they will get nuclear weapons and they will use them at the earliest opportunity. Then what do we do? Do we let Israel vanish in nuclear fire or do we really go to war?
Pretty soon we’re going to have to decide. Hoo boy.