That's it. I have had enough of Israel and there cowardly,indiscriminate,bombings of Lebanon. I am a proud American who does not know how his fellow Americans can stand and watch as hundreds soon to be thousands of children ,and there mothers are murdered .I cant even begin to tell you the anti Israeli passion I feel every night after watching the NBC news .maybe if more Americans were educated on the REAL Israeli history of the last 50 plus years we would have the empathy and sympathy for all the oppressed,and bullied people in the region. Every life is priceless no matter the race....I was wondering does the fact that I against Israel makes me an anti Semite.

truly yours concerned Christian American

I see a lot of people talking about how Lebanon "allowed" Hezbollah to consume their country. Check your facts. The Lebanese Government is not a powerful one, and therefore was not powerful enough to simply rid the country of Hezbollah. You have to look at both sides. It is ignorant to say Israel isn't doing anything wrong, and it is also ignorant to show support for Hezbollah. Lebanon, the country that is being DESTROYED has nothing to do with those terrorists. If they were strong enough to kick them out, they would have. They fear Hezbollah. If there was a terrorist group MUCH stronger than the government in America, out of fear I'm sure no one would take military action against them if they knew that the terrorist group had the power to hurt the country and its people (possibly even overtake it). I am Lebanese. I am Christian. Does that make me a supporter of Hezbollah? Definitely not. Should Israel be allowed to destroy my country? I don't think so. I want Hezbollah destroyed too, they are full of hatred and kill innocent people simply due to race or religion. Then again, Israel shouldn't "defend" itself by fighting the WRONG people: the Lebanese. It's been said over and over again, but shouldn't we be concerned about who is really causing the problem by arming Hezbollah (examply, Iran)? And how come the entire U.N. supports a ceasefire except for the U.S., and because we are a grossly powerful nation, we have the ability to override all of them. Regardless of politics, the killing has to stop. And people who can't see that should take a trip to either Lebanon or Israel and see how they feel while bombs are flying towards them. It's easy to support violence when it won't hurt you.

Alan, Irleand
you can't compare an act of God (god, gods, Superman) with a man made disaster.
I can assure you, with 100% certainty that if I was in N.O. I would not have waited / expected / demanded the federal government to help me.
At least not the first several days.
But that’s a different issue.

One of Israel’s problems is that they have already concluded that they lost the PR war, so they don’t even bother.
A big mistake in my opinion.

I have no evidence that Hezbollah made people stay at gun point, just the what the press reports, but like you (I assume) I don’t believe what I read / hear unless but take it all as PR and come to my own conclusions after reading several newspapers from the foreign press and trying to read between the lines (usually where the truth is hidden). I’m sure some people stayed and took their chances, but if you gamble be prepared to lose. I’m equally as sure that some people stayed because they could not leave, for whatever reason. And I’m equally as sure that Hezbollah made people stay.

Terrorism is a business like anything else. If they made peace, the multimillions in support stop rolling in. Their self imposed leaders will no longer wield any power over anything. No more self rule where anything goes. No more strapping a bomb to yourself and running into a supermarket to win your gods good graces, you might have to do that the old fashion way and live your life right. These people are very cold and calculated and the media plays right into it. I read a story yesterday where one reporter was in a south lebanon city after the bombing and during the temporary cease fire. The reporter, very clever I might add in his innuendo, notices that people are starting to move about and can't help but notice the lack of young men in city . He notices a disproportinate number of women children and elderly. The only young men about are obvious hezbolla(by their hezbolla tattoos and shirts, weapons etc). They "are driving about town in their late model Mercedes and BMW's" (I.E. terrorism=$$$$), aiding the victims that were too young,poor,or feable to heed the warnings to evacuate. One of them spoke to the reporter and when asked if these were his family, he replied that he had moved his family to safety and out of the area long ago. They were just there to help the wounded.
The funny thing in all of this is that before they start launching rockets from the area, they get their out family far away, knowing that this action is going to draw fire. Doesn't anybody think this is intentional? If they can get the isreali army to go after a launcher, strategicly placed near a place that they have evacuated everyone but poor, women,and children and then when isreal does attack the resulting dead are the expendable(to them) but the most likely to cause world outcry and unity amoung Arabs(legitimate governmets and terrorist groups alike) against Isreal. Those that are not killed, they rush back in with food water and aid and not only appear to be humanitarians to the world but win the favor of the people who didnt support them previously. Of course none of these people realize that they were used as intentional targets. Hezbolla secures a new generation of recruits in the young that survive and supporters out of the others. Very clever, but amazing nobody in the media expresses this view. I guess playing them up as the underdog fighting for a greater good sells more papers. Everyone loves a good underdog story.......

Kal, NJ
Can I assume that the poor residents in New Orleans's were held at gunpoint by the "liberal" media so that they couldn't escape hurricane Katrina. I can only assume that the fact that no news agency of any note has found any evidence that Hizbollah was holding anybody hostage will matter one wit to some. Poor people, no transport, no petrol (gas), bombed roads and bridges, and no money to pay for anything once they'd escaped to the north. Not to mention the fact that, as this article demonstrates, there's a good chance they'd have been targeted from the air while they made good their evacuation. 80 bombs & missiles hit their tiny village that night while they huddled in fear in that building. Israel and the jewish people deserve peace, but not like this. This is madness, plain and simple.

If anyone truly believed that the airstrikes were going to end, is living on fantacy island. This will go on until Israel feels that they made their point to the Arab world. I agree that this needs to stop, and if Israel continues to strike at Hezbollah, they(Israel) will only hurt themselves in the long run. The point has been made, and this needs to stop. If this continue Israel could face for possible blacklash from other Arab countries and draw them into this conflict. The US needs to tread very softly and be very smart on their decisions that could influence an end to the conflict or create a bigger and much more costly war. We as the American people can not afford to be drawn into this conflict. This country will not support another war involving the US Military. Just look at what happened in Iraq. Lessons learned!!!!!!

Two and a half weeks of bombardments and "only" 500 or so civlians (I'm sure some of them weren't civilians but that's another matter) killed.

Before you start, I hate to use the word "only", but it drives my point.

If that's not targeted bombing I don't know what is.

Yes, it's sad.
Yes, it's horrible.
Yes, my heart aches for every uninvolved man, woman and child.
War isn't pretty and isn't politically correct.
It's not a Rambo movie.

If someone was to bomb my NJ town, and had given us a fair warning, you better believe my wife and child will start walking away...unless someone made us stay at gunpoint.
Hmmmm????

"fighting Hezbollah man-to-man like real soldiers"

Oh boy did someone see one too many John Wayne movies.
Next you're going to tell me that the Green Berets are going to combat wearing ... green berets instead of helmets.

There hasn't been "man-to-man" fighting since the invention of long spears and the longbow.

Those who are calling Israel the "aggressor" or a "terrorist state" are sadly deluded.

I mourn the loss of innocent civilians but curse those who can not see through the public relations issues and dirty tactics being employed by Hezbollah and other terrorist groups like Hamas in Gaza.

This is not a fight between the oppressed and the oppressor as some would have you believe. This is a war of ideals between civilizations. One, which cares about freedom, progress and true democracy and the other which breeds hate, sells lies to its people and exports terror and fear.

The Arab countries have plenty of money to feed their own and develop education and health care systems. They opt to develop weapons, smuggle rockets and train terorrists. The U.S., Great Britain and Israel DO NOT oppress people in the Arab world. The leaders of the Arab world do. The majority of the world lives in relative poverty but do not resort to violence. China has over 800,000,000 people living below the poverty line not to mention India, South and Central America, Africa, huge portions of Central Asia. Why then is it that some say these terrorists, who are state sponsored no less, are acting out of desparation. It's a lie. Right here in the U.S. we have 35 million people living below the poverty line. My fellow countrymen have hardly used that as an excuse to murder people.

Let's stop referring to Hezbollah as a group that is "considered to be a terrorist organization". Its stated purpose is to wipe Israel off the map. They don't even try to hide it. Their standard approach is to indiscriminately lob unguided rockets into Israel to hit and destroy whatever they can - not military targets - just anything. If Israel asserted itself in this way it could completely eliminate entire nations with the firepower it has but it does not because Israelis, like Americans, value human life.

I too would like the fighting to stop and for the bloodshed to end but it will not until terrorism is purged from the planet.

History has shown that peace is not gained by negotiating with this type of enemy and here we have a somewhat unique, and franky unfair, situation where the Lebanese people - generally moderate - are caught in the middle of a war completely instigated by the terrorists who subversively run their country while being supported by outside governments. Israel is not "the aggresor" here. Israel is responding to a continuous aggression by bloodthirsty terrorists who want to destroy Israel and, for that matter, much of Western civilization, including us. This is not a new conflict. This is just the latest round.

The media has painted Israel as an overreacting superpower. Take a look back at the history here and you will see a pattern. It is common knowledge that terrorists use civilians as human shields and for fodder all the time, especially in recent years as the media coverage has become so graphic.

In Iraq yesterday 52 Arabs were killed by other Arabs and this is after 60 days of constant bloodshed there. No one protested. No one blinked in the Arab world. The U.N. made no comments or demands. This was not considered a tragedy? Israel is not the problem. Extremism, fundamentalism and Islamofascism is the problem.

So quick to mourn are those who lose children to the Israeli air strikes yet those same mourners are so proud to send their children as suicide bombers.

Any critical thinking person who has basic knowledge of the history behind this conflict will reason that there is NO OTHER OPTION BUT TO DESTROY THE TERRORIST THREAT in this world. These people - Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Queda, Islamic Jihad - are not freedom fighters or revolutionaries. They are not oppressed by us or the Israelis. These people are fanatics driven to murder and destruction. Israel is leading the fight against them.

The anti-sentisimn on these comments is absolutely insane. Some of you act as though Israel should fight some type of "Fair" fight in order to stop the rocketing, capturing, and killing of their own people. You people are appauling in your views. Peace should be given every chance as some of you have indicated. However, don't you think that after several hundred years Peaceful terms Have been given a chance by now? And yes, Iran and Hezbollah have publically stated they will not be happy with until they see Israel pushed into the sea. How is that Peace? Last, the Lebonese people are responsible for their government. That is the definition of government. The Lebonese allowed the Hezbollah in to their country; and went so far as to elect them into key ministry offices. You think the Lebonese are innocent? You best look again. Only the children are the innocent ones in this fight. Their parents are the ones responsible for their deaths by allowing Hezbollah to fire rockets from their homes.

I want to know why everyone that is israel wants to get rid of is labeled a (tewowist)group. If it were not for
Hezbollah they would have been deeper into Lebanon years ago. Since when does defending your land make you a terrorist. They are the reason israel left in 2000. I'm sick of what israel has done to those children over 2 soldiers.

Israel needs to decide if it wants to live in peace with its neighbours, or kill them. It can't do both. Being Irish I'm aware from our history in the early 20th century, that urban guerrilla warfare depends on the presence of civilians in order to succeed. The conventional wisdom being that that the attacking army will be moral enough not to bomb indiscriminately. Because if they do, then they've lost already, particularly with modern television news. The only solution is a political one, and a realisation that even "terrorist" have grievances that can be solved through negotiation. Hezbolla's stated goal of wiping out Israel sounds more like the rhetoric of an angry, disempowered people. Given some hope and a life worth living and they'd be a shade more agreeable.

this is a proxy war between the US and Iran... furthermore, Hezbollah should be destroyed, but the way Israel is handling it is horrendous. terrorists are not a state's army. they can move in small groups, and as Hezbollah does, they hide in the general population. firing bombs and rockets into civilian areas just to take out a few terrorists, but kill tons of civilians is ridiculous. the rules of war are changing. get used to more urban fighting. but my guess is that won't happen, and eventually the US and Israel will just end up nuking the entire middle east before they have a chance to fire at us.

THE U.S. FAILURE IN IRAQ HAS OPENED THE DOOR FOR SYRIA TO ATTACK ISREAL AND IRAN TO DEVELOP A NUCLEAR BOMB. BOTH COUNTRIES KNOW THAT WITH THE U.S. BOGGED DOWN IN IRAQ THE U.S. WILL NOT ATTACK ANOTHER ARAB COUNTRY. IN FACT, THE U.S. WILL NOT EVEN CONTRIBUTE PEACE KEEPERS TO A U.N. FORCE IF SUCH FORCE IS PLACED ON THE ISREALI LEBANON BORDER. THE FIRST STEP TOWARD PEACE IS THE U.S. WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ. YOU CAN NOT WIN A WAR IF YOU CAN NOT WIN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLE; AND ISREAL AND THE U.S. HAVE LOST THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE IN THE REGION.

I don't know, But if Hezbollah would have just let those 2 soldiers go .....I don't think it would have gone this far...do you?

Think about it, would London meakly accept Buzbombs raining down without retailiating? Unlike the USA which ran when the barracks were blow up and the Cole was attacked. Also 6 million Israelies are surrounded by 340 million hostile Arabs. Now take a persentage of hurt populace and do your sums. Would Syria have withdrown from Lebanon without leaving it's proxies behind?

Indiscriminate rocket launching from civilian areas? You say they hide behind civilians? do they really? guess what, thats not working,is it? The Isreali military does not give a rats petunia about sending an overwhelming amount of american made (our tax dollars) weapons at these innocents,long after the MOBILE rocket launcher has left the area,these folks are just testing the weapons systems,it is a *cough cough* war ya know.The Isrealis are the agressors,and because they own most of our media,or control it,we will only see what gets filtered by these folks....much like the 'good news' out of Iraq...does not matter the 'good news' was sent from a bunker buried 3 floors below the middle of the insanely fortified 'green zone'....good news abounds with the proper flak jacket on......

peace

I read blogs that make me shake my head in disbelief. So, someone actually thinks that the U.S. gov't destabilized the Middle East! And another believes that Hezbollah is more innocent than Israel, despite their tactic of hiding among civilians and using them as human shields. Have we lost our minds? If Israel really delights in killing children (like we know these thugs called Hezbollah do) they would have had this thing wrapped up sooner. Do people not read the news anymore? Hezbollah is NOT an Arab country. They are a bunch of militia thugs supported by Iran and Syria (and who knows who else), operating in a sovereign state without the hapless citizens of that state (Lebanon) being able to rein them in! Do we see a problem with this scenario? And for those who simplistically say "Just stop the killng", I reply that it will be irresponsible of any state to fail to protect its citizens. The Arab world, too, needs to show that it is willing to stop this killing. True, "there is enough land to go round", but how do you share the land with a "neighbor" who is out to destroy you? Sometimes, the only way is to fight back. While I feel sorry for the hapless innocent children that are caught in the crossfire, let us not forget that Hezbollah and others like them don't care a whit how many of their own citizens get killed as long as they succeed in casting Israel in bad light. Down with those thugs of Hezbollah. If the rest of the West had half the guts that Bush has shown in dealing with these thugs, the Arab world would have reined them in by now. Our reluctance to confront this specter of Islamofascism is doing us in.

Israel has completely lost my support. There is absolutely no justification for the slaughter of tens and hundreds of Lebanese citizens. To everyone who agrees with me -- let us take action and contact our congressional representatives and share our thoughts regarding the current conflict. Let us pressure them to take a stand against the Bush administration, as Nebraska's Senator Chuck Hagel (R) has so bravely done, and salvage whatever reputation the United States has in the Middle East.

As always, it appears that the terrorists are winning the PR war. The entire Middle East thinks that Israel is inhumane war criminals. Hezbollah is portrayed as victims. If there's one thing we can contribute as a country, it's some money to wage a PR counterattack that exposes the truth about Hezbollah and all other Islamic fascists. It won't be easy, but someone has to start changing radical views over there.

Nothing ever changes: Missles have been fired on Israel from Hezballah over the years, Israel does nothing, Hezballah (being supported by the people in southern Lebanon) crosses the Israeli border, kills its soldiers and kidnaps others and Isreal is supposed to accept it like good little Jews. Well, never again, whether you like it or not.

This war has been going on longer than you kids can remember. It's not just about the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers..it's a much bigger conflict that has all built up to this point. You can't blame this administration when this conflict started in the early 80's. Just plain stupid.

All of this is sad.I wonder when will it all come to an end.A couple more countries fighting.And I believe.The end is near.Where we go from here.We are able to find cures.for cancer. and send satilites in space to probe the outer regions of or solar systems. But we cant find a way to live in peace, Here on EARTH!!

Does everyone have memory loss? Where were you in 1983 when hezbollah bombed the marine barracks? Or any one of a number of attacks on american soldiers in saudi arabia. Don't take your eye off the ball. These people are fascists. Plain and simple. they want a taliban world and they will kill you and everyone you know to get it. Israel is doing a lot of countries a favor. That's why you don't hear much more than grumbling from world leaders. i couldn't care less if they have become some kind of benevolent organization to their people. They have never answered for their crimes. Now they are getting one in the teeth. I also think that syria and iran need to be dealt with too. We can't afford to let up now.

I'd feel a lot better about this whole situation if I thought the US was supporting Israel because it was in our best interests or because we thought it might lead to a greater ME good. Or because it was the "right" thing to do.

Unfortunately, I have this queasy feeling that the Bush administration is either (1) fulfulling a destiny they decoded from the Bible or (2) taking the PNAC/neocon strategy that's failed in Iraq and trying desperately to make it work somewhere else, anywhere else - even if through a proxy army - before their remaining time in the White House is played out.