After getting permission from Hezbollah and promising not to disarm anyone, the Lebanese Army is on the march; rolling into … uh … well… Lebanon for the first time in over 6 years. The Lebanese soldiers come with tanks but no answers about the government’s plans for the area, meanwhile Hezbollah is handing out $12,000 in crisp $100 bills to every family in sight (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/19/MNGBGKLP771.DTL) and hiring bulldozers and contracting crews to begin the rebuilding of Hezbollah-land.
While it is already clear that Hezbollah’s leading Islamofascist, and chief holocaust denier, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, is a “winner”, and the Israeli leaders who balked at an overwhelming ground force to eliminate Hezbollah are the “losers”, it is time to recognize the big winner in this summer’s latest Middle East tragedy – IRAN.
Much has been written about Hezbollah being “founded” by Iran, “supported” by Iran, “supplied” by Iran. Hezbollah is not simply “influenced” by Iran – Hezbollah is Iran. Hezbollah is to Iran what the French Foreign Legion is to France (http://www.ambafrance-us.org/atoz/legion/what.asp), or what Spanish missionaries were to Spain, or what U.S. troops in Korea or Germany are to the U.S., a forward deployed presence to advance and protect the nation’s interests. (Author’s preemptive note: please no comments about comparing the terrorists of Hezbollah to professional U.S. troops, the only comparison meant is to how each “army” is deployed in the nation’s interests.)
If Hezbollah is, as is often repeated in the apologist MSM, a simple, homegrown “insurgency” fighting against “occupation” then why didn’t they return to their orchards and fields when the occupiers left 6 years ago? Why did they dig sophisticated military bunker systems? Why did they deploy over 10,000 offensive rockets packed with ball bearings? Why did they move their guns closer? And why did they invade Israel to murder and kidnap Israeli soldiers?
So how, and what, did Iran win?
Iran won the diversion of world attention away from the Iranian race for the “Islamic bomb.” Hezbollah’s unprovoked attack on Israel coming the day after Iran was referred to the U.N. Security Council.Iran won the respect of the Islamic street; for they not confused about who calls the shots for Hezbollah. Iran and Field Nasrallah are the only ones willing to lead the global Jihad against the Zionists and the western oppressors.
Iran won the respect of the Islamic street; for they not confused about who calls the shots for Hezbollah. Iran and Field Nasrallah are the only ones willing to lead the global Jihad against the Zionists and the western oppressors.
Iran won the now expected condemnation of Israel for the use of “disproportionate force” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13841307/, and http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19305&Cr=middle&Cr1=east, and http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ALO676978.htm, I could go on) by the UN, the EU, the MSM, and the “Blame America First But If You Can’t Then Blame Israel” wing of the American left.
Iran won the chance to be the patron-shiek of the oppressed Lebanese Muslims. Who do you think Herr Nasrallah means when he says “we will rebuild every brick and every house.” Hezbollah makes nothing except terror. Hezbollah’s GDP is zero. It sells nothing except itself and the promise of a one-way ticket to visit Allah. Iran pays the bills – with piles of crisp U.S. Ben Franklins.
Iran won the kind of fawning western media coverage usually reserved for dying Communist leaders and anti-war activists. President Ahmadinejad has risen from “hostage taker-in-chief” bent on “death to America” and “wiping Israel off the face of the map” to a “smart and savvy” leader saddened by the plight of the incarcerated and uninsured in America. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR2006080901422.html) All while the U.S. has slumped from the “last best hope on earth” to the leader of the “so-called free world” – thanks CBS.
And today Iran has won the biggest prize of all – virtual certainty that when they go right on building their nuclear weapons program (of course while promising “serious” negotiations) no one – certainly not the U.S. and certainly not Israel – will be able to respond with even the threat of military action. Iran has won the world united in watching us, and Israel, as the greatest threat to world peace – pretty good work without firing a shot or losing a single soldier or town.
