An offer they couldn't refuse

New York Times writer Hassan Fattah paints an interesting picture from a predominately Sunni village in war-torn southern Lebanon overrun by Hizballah terrorists shortly before hostilities began.

Their actions essentially transformed the residents into unwilling human shields. Notice it also verifies that Hizballah was up-arming well before the kidnapping and murder of the IDF soldiers, no doubt on order from Iran/Syria:

“We kept beseeching them, ‘Stay out! Stay out!’ ” said Zainab Ali Abdullah, 19, who lost her father, brother and several other members of the family in the attack. “They said, ‘We’re all in the same boat together, so deal with it.’ But why should our children die for their cause?”

No unity there. Despite the fact they both hate Israel, they seem to hold just as much for each other. We've been told there is some resentment for operations of this nature coming from the Iranian street. Both sound like exploitable situations.

But it also points out the intensity of rank intimidation coming from these terrorist groups. The MSM laps up pictures of Hizballah "officials" handing out crisp 100 dollar bills or helping people rebuild homes, but they don't show what happens to the people who refuse to play along.

“There is no way for us to stop them,” said Ibrahim, who lost several relatives in the attack and who asked that his last name not be used for fear of retribution. “These are not people you can say no to.”

Al Capone would be impressed.

HIZBALLAH LOST 8/25/06

This morning Glenn Reynolds linked to a column by Reason's Michael Young that deconstructs the notion Hizballah scored a major victory in their recent clash:

Nasrallah would likely obey an Iranian request to attack Israel once again if the Tehran regime deemed that to be necessary. However, Shiites making up Hezbollah's base of support may not be so eager to be turned into cannon fodder for a country thousands of miles away. That's why the party's deterrence capacity has suddenly become very costly.

Despite how the Israelis feel about Olmert one could say the recent war brought some positives, if such a thing can be said about such things.

One, it showed everyone that Hizballah, without question, is an arm of Iran faciliated by Syria. Case closed.

Two, it showed the world how their propaganda spin machine works, either through outright false stories, rearranging scenes for publication or pressuing journalists to doctor photographs.

Three, they didn't gain any territory.

Four, they spent a lot of their ammo.

Five, Iran still faces the nuclear deadline. It's doubtful that any new hostitilies designed to take attention away from that deadline would strike fear into the Israelis or the west, rather it would more adversely impact the Lebanese civilians, turning them further against Hizballah's foreign masters. They will also have to get past a UN force, such as it is.

And six, the west now has a pretty good idea of their overall military capabilities and tactics, and will adjust accordingly.

But ok, Hizballah won.