Israel Vows No Let-up On Lebanon

[RebeldePorLaPAZ]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the attacks on Lebanon will be kept up until two captured soldiers are freed.

He also insisted Hezbollah guerrillas had to be disarmed and the Lebanese army had to control southern Lebanon.

"We are not looking for war or direct conflict, but if necessary we will not be frightened by it," he said.

More than 200 Lebanese people have died in six days of Israeli bombardment. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, killing about 12 people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5188420.stm

More than 200 Lebanese people have died, mostly civilains. How many civilains does it take to equal two captured soilders?


Eighteen Lebanese fleeing a village are killed when their vehicles are struck with missiles on the road to the southern city of Tyre.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5179434.stm

How do people think this war will shape the middle east, what view should the left take on this and what should we DO about it?



--Paz

[Severian]

I heard an interesting analysis of this on NPR today - from some Israeli ex-military officer, part of their policy establishment pretty clearly.

He claimed one-third of Hezbollah's rocket stockpiles had been destroyed so far, and Israel was carrying out a pre-made plan to destroy them all. The capture of these 2 soldiers created an opportunity to do this.

This explains the observed facts pretty neatly, and it implies a prediction we can use to test the analysis. If it's true, Israel will likely stop once it has destroyed Hezbollah's retaliatory capability - or found out that's not possible - and not before.

You might ask why the Israeli regime prefers to see those rockets fired at Israeli cities to having them stay stockpiled. Well, as a stockpile they're part of the relationship of forces. A factor that affects every threat and negotiation.

Whether Hezbollah's rocket arsenal can be destroyed from the air is questionable; by some reports Israel is already deploying for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

There's a significant parallel between what Israel's doing in its local neighborhood, and what the U.S., together with other imperialist powers, does more globally. Ballistic missiles and weapons that can be fired on them give Third World countries some ability to retaliate against imperialist attacks. If a regime - say, north Korea - has a strong enough deterrent capability, Washington has to become reconciled to its continued existence.

So Washington tried to prevent or pre-empt regimes it doesn't like from gaining that kind of weapons capability. (On the global scale, this usually involves missiles with much longer range than Hezbollah's WWII-design Katyushas.)

Washington Post: "Israeli strikes are part of a broader strategy" (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13884768/) Hints at something similar - but the Israeli interviewed on NPR was more straight-up.

What to do? If you're in the D.C. area, this rally seems to deserve support. (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=52852&st=0&#entry1292118111) There may be others elsewhere.

The right demands, IMO, include for Israel to stop bombing Lebanon, and release Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.

And more practically, to demand of one's "own" government, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, that it end all aid to the Israeli regime. Which could not launch this war without the tacit consent of its sponsors.

[A Suvorov]

Poland, 1939: A fake 'raid' by 'Polish forces' provides the excuse for Germany to annihilate Poland and, in short order, the remainder of Europe.

Lebanon, 2006: Israel sends troops into a Hezbollah zone known to be 'hot', with the predictable result of two soldiers captured and another eight killed...providing Israel with an excuse to annihilate Lebanon and, by extension, the Gaza Strip.

Parallels?

Israel KNEW its troops would be attacked and possibly captured; Hezbollah operatives went for the bait and WHAMMO the trap snapped shut. It is clear to anyone with half a brain the Israeli operation was planned far in advance, so the 'two soldiers' excuse just isn't kosher.

The reason? The US isn't moving on the 'Iran issue' fast enough for Israel, so they gin up a quick and dirty war and, oh by the way, blame EVERYTHING on Syria and Iran by accusing them of backing both Hamas and Hezbollah. Why do this? Because Israel knows it can't take on both Syria and Iran by itself, so once again they drag the US into it and get us to do their dirty work by taking out the larger countries while they slug it out in the streets of Beirut.

It's not a matter of 'will we intervence on Israel's behalf'- it's a matter of 'WHEN will we intervene on Israel's behalf'. Washington is so deep in Israel's right hip pocket that Bush and Co. can't- and WON'T- put America's interests before those of Israel. Might someone remind W that we don't have ANY formal treaties or mutual defense agreements with Israel? They have their own nukes- let them sort out their own wars.

Note also that the deliberate targetting of civilian facilities (power stations, the airport, residential suburbs, etc.) is, by definition, a crime against humanity. Israel herself is violating the very laws her founders used to convict scores of Germans after WW2.

This entire incident was never about being a 'rescue mission'- it's all about being a precedent for A) a land grab by Israel, and B) setting the US up for an attack on Syria and/or Iran.

Referring back to the opening statements, perhaps it's not too far off the mark to say that Israel has become the New Nazi state.

[bayano]

to suvorov, i really think that youre perspective is a classic 'tail wags dog' theory. israel doesnt have the usa in the pocket, its the other way around.

but to severian, you miss one of the fundamental issues of both israel and the usa- the need for an enemy. for israel, the need for an enemy provides them with a plethora of great benefits:
keeps the truckloads of aid coming from the usa
keeps the population conservative and fearful
keeps some parts of the world unduly sympathetic
keeps the war economy going
keeps militarism as the national lifestyle and policy
keeps security as the phantom lead issue
covers-up/provides the need for ethnic cleansing
and more!

its not simply either a desire to see eventual US entanglement with syria or iran (much more likely a proxy war to prove that they can be shunted if need be), nor is it about pre-empting or eradicating "retaliatory capability". israel's lifeblood is war, and this helps up the ante, if only for a little while or even if it possibly threatens to widen the conflict toward sides that can actually hit back (like hizbullah has the chutzpah to try to do)

[bcbm]

Originally posted by A [email protected] 18 2006, 12:38 AM
Referring back to the opening statements, perhaps it's not too far off the mark to say that Israel has become the New Nazi state.
Fascist, maybe (but not really), but NAZI?! No, absolutely fucking not.

[bayano]

cmon, bbbg, everytime someone is faced with a fierce enemy they resort to the only
nazi slur. and its virtually never true. lets get this straight:
bush, sharon, blair, putin, uribe, olmert, none of them are hitler
the usa, israel, russia, britain, none of them are the fourth reich/nazis
that doesnt reduce their evil, their systemic oppression of others, but calling them that makes us sound like idiots. i wasnt gonna say it, but bbbg's comment made me need to elaborate on it. israel sucks, but it isnt nazi germany. not even close

[Severian]

Originally posted by A [email protected] 18 2006, 12:38 AM
Poland, 1939: A fake 'raid' by 'Polish forces' provides the excuse for Germany to annihilate Poland and, in short order, the remainder of Europe.

Lebanon, 2006: Israel sends troops into a Hezbollah zone known to be 'hot', with the predictable result of two soldiers captured and another eight killed...providing Israel with an excuse to annihilate Lebanon and, by extension, the Gaza Strip.

Parallels?

Besides what other people have pointed out (the problems with knee-jerk Nazi comparisons and conspiracy theories about Israeli control of the U.S.):

In fact, these Israeli soldiers were captured in Israel. This is something Hezbollah made clear long ago it would eventually do - if Israel insisted on holding on to Lebanese prisoners. They decided to take some prisoners to have leverage to force a prisoner swap, as they have successfully before. Hezbollah isn't denying it for a second, and there's no reason why anyone else should deny it either.

(Their timing may have something to do with the collective punishment underway in Gaza....but if it's an attempt to help Palestinians, it's likely misplaced.)

*****

Bayamo wrote:

nor is it about pre-empting or eradicating "retaliatory capability". israel's lifeblood is war, and this helps up the ante, if only for a little while or even if it possibly threatens to widen the conflict toward sides that can actually hit back (like hizbullah has the chutzpah to try to do)

The explanations aren't mutually exclusive. Often multiple factors, motivations, and goals are involved in wars.

I made the point in another thread that this likely has something to do with domestic Israeli politics and very likely a lot to do with the simultaneous Gaza offensive. Israel often has dealt blows to Palestinians under the cover of its conflicts with the Arab states from '48 to the first Gulf War.

Yes, Israel does rely on frequent war. That doesn't mean it likes having adversaries, especially non-state actors with the "chutzpah" of Hezbollah (as you put it), in possession of the means to freely retaliate inside Israel. The opposite, if you think about it: how can it be free to go to war at need, if it has to worry about retaliation?

***

Incidentally, the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19mideast.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ei=5094&en=65495bba6c0c243b&hp&ex=1153281600&partner=homepage) claims "The outlines of an American-Israeli consensus began to emerge on Tuesday in which Israel would continue to bombard Lebanon for about another week to degrade the capabilities of the Hezbollah militia, officials of the two countries said. Then, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would go to the region and seek to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon and perhaps an international force to monitor Lebanon’s borders to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining more rockets with which to bombard Israel." But that could easily be wishful thinking by the NYT and its sources inside the Washington bureaucracy.

And AP says the Israeli regime says (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060719/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel) "What is going on at the moment is a number of Israeli ground troops very near to the border on the Lebanese side, trying to destroy some Hezbollah outposts"

[thebeautyofrevolution]

Can someone clearly explain the true reasons for the attack on the Lebonese?

[Janus]

Intimidation against the Lebanese and a chance to destroy Hezbollah which has always been a thorn in Israel's side.

[thebeautyofrevolution]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19 2006, 04:04 PM
Intimidation against the Lebanese and a chance to destroy Hezbollah which has always been a thorn in Israel's side.
Is everybody thinking what Israel did is a bad thing?

[Phalanx]

Killing so many civilians is never a good thing. I have no sympathy if Israel decided to completely wipe out Hezbollah, but this current action against Lebanese civilians is absolutely dispicable. It should be treated like the crime that it is.

[Wash Me]

i don't understand why israel is the only coutry that has the right of owning
mass-destructive weappons in the middle east...


if they are worried about the damn violence..then they shold keep ALL PARTIES without any of those weapons...


...





btw, anybody knows the names of the captured israeli soldiers?

[PRC-UTE]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19 2006, 08:08 AM
Can someone clearly explain the true reasons for the attack on the Lebonese?
As I said in another discussion, I don't think this has that much to do with getting Hazbollah, who are pretty small. Like Severian said before, it's more significant that Israel upgraded a cross-border raid into a full scale war than the raid itself.

No one expected this scale of reaction. It doesn't make sense as a retaliation with what triggered it, in fact it will likely inspire countless more people to want to strike back at israel. The action by the guerillas in taking hostages for exchange was essentially logical; the israeli reaction in that context is not.

I think at the heart of the Israeli response is the US determination to destabilise the whole Arab region as a buildup towards more war, probably with Syria and then Iran. Israel's very existence lies in its alliance with the USA and its actions have to be viewed in that context. Bush basically implied that the violence was aimed at Syria when he didn't know he was being taped in a conversation with Blair - read about it here. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13901209/)

[RevSouth]

People in the U.S. don't get the real story. American news media is extremely biased towards Israel. Someone posted a great documentary about it a while back. Anyway, many Americans support Israeli action simply because they do not get a neutral point of view. THe government has set it up as to where favoritism is almost always directed towards Israel, and the Palestinians are portrayed wholly as bloodthirsty terrorists.

The captured Israelis are Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

[Janus]

Is everybody thinking what Israel did is a bad thing?
Yes, "bad" and unnecessary.

[thebeautyofrevolution]

Pee Shaw. Israel did not intend to attack citizens. The largest use of their weapons was focused on roads leading from north to south. They also attacked an airport runway, though they could have easily attacked the actual airport. I am not in favour of senseless violence, but still it makes more sense than many of the attacks we have pulled off.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19 2006, 08:08 AM
Can someone clearly explain the true reasons for the attack on the Lebonese?
Israel in itself is an appendage of US imperialism. In the current situation in the middle-east, the US imperialists are dissatisfied with the situation of the middle, which they developed in opposition to the revisionist Soviet Union. Originally the US armed and developed anti-Soviet-imperialist groups and puppet governments all through out the middle east.

However, since the fall of Soviet-revisionist-imperialism, the US imperialist bloc has been trying to repartition ALL of the middle east into more openly subservient oppressed countries. The US is now the worlds sole imperialist super-power, and it is trying to repartition the world accordingly.

The US has always existed to carry out the will of US imperialism, and that's precisely what it is doing now.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20 2006, 06:25 AM
Pee Shaw. Israel did not intend to attack citizens. The largest use of their weapons was focused on roads leading from north to south. They also attacked an airport runway, though they could have easily attacked the actual airport. I am not in favour of senseless violence, but still it makes more sense than many of the attacks we have pulled off.
Kind of like how the USA didn't mean to kill over 100,000 Iraqi civilians?

[thebeautyofrevolution]

can you prove intent of killing lebonese? not necessarily.
can you prove selfish intent on our part and killing many iraqis? yes

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20 2006, 12:25 AM
Pee Shaw. Israel did not intend to attack citizens. The largest use of their weapons was focused on roads leading from north to south. They also attacked an airport runway, though they could have easily attacked the actual airport. I am not in favour of senseless violence, but still it makes more sense than many of the attacks we have pulled off.
There's a certain grain of truth in this, and I gotta point out that opposing imperialist war solely on the basis of civilian casulaties is rapidly becoming....an insufficent and even obsolete argument.

Most of Washington's bombs and missiles are now guided, and they make a point of how they don't "deliberately target" civilians. (Which ain't much consolation to those who are hit, or for that matter those who are killed by the hunger or disease accompanying war.)

But it's easy for them to appear to be carrying out a more "civilized" war than their opponents, at least when their opponents are bourgeois regimes or bourgeois nationalists.

The same is even true to a limited degree of Israel, despite that regime's fondness for collective punishment.

Israel could be carrying out a more indiscriminate slaughter than it is, anyway. A fair bit of its bombing is at least trying to hit military targets. Unlike Hezbollah's inaccurate rockets, which can only be aimed in the general direction of cities. Let alone Hamas' suicide bombers, who often openly target civilians.

On the other hand: Israel did shut the airport. They are carrying out a naval blockade. What is that, if not collective punishment of the entire population of Lebanon? The same is probably true of much of its bombing.

But back to my point here: it's necessary to oppose these wars on the basis of their goals, not just their means. Any means is wrong when it's used for an evil goal.

Like, say, perpetuating imperialist exploitation of the majority of humanity.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Israeli bombs kill hundreds in Lebanon and Gaza: Only international class struggle can turn back Israeli aggression, prevent full scale war!

Since early July, ostensibly in response to the kidnaping of 1 Israeli soldier by Hamas militants, and the kidnaping of another 2 Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, Israel has launched brutal attacks against the Gaza Strip and Lebanon that have lasted days, leaving hundreds dead or injured.

Only months after withdrawing its occupation forces from the region, Israel has sent soldiers, tanks, armored bulldozers, armored personnel carriers, helicopters and rockets into Gaza. Many Palestinians, armed with sticks, rocks and small arms have resisted the invasion. Over 100 Palestinian resistance fighters have been arrested and detained by Israeli forces.

In the north, Lebanon lays in ruins. Israel has bombed the international airport in Beirut (twice), dozens of homes and businesses, bridges, ports, fuel-tanks, factories, communications equipment, and several roads. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has called Israel a “terrorist state ... that commit[s] terrorist acts everyday,” saying that Israeli bombs have caused billions of dollars in damage. Israel’s attacks on Lebanon alone has left at least 210 innocent women, men and children dead and another 500 seriously injured.

Since the attacks on Lebanon, members of Hezbollah have responded by sporadically firing rockets into Israel, killing several Israelis.

As a part of its all out aggression, the Israel’s Zionist government has also enforced a full military blockade of both Lebanon and Gaza.

As this article is being written, there are now plans being made by Israel to launch an all out ground invasion of Lebanon, which will only lead to more carnage and further the slide towards full scale war in the region.

Israel’s colonial ambitions
The claim that these vicious attacks against innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon are being carried out to free three captured soldiers – or that the kidnaping of two Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the north by the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah was “an act of war by the state of Lebanon against the state of Israel in its sovereign territory” – are as absurd as they are alarming.

ust as ridiculous are the claims by the Israeli government, its imperialist allies, and their parrots in the mainstream bourgeois press, that the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah were “unprovoked,” or that Iran and Syria were behind them.

The cross-border attack by Hezbollah fighters that lead to the capture of two IDF soldiers in the north occurred only after Israel’s attack on Gaza that left more than 60 Palestinians dead (which itself came after calls from Hamas for a cease-fire!). As well, both Hamas and Hezbollah captured the IDF soldiers with the intent of releasing them in exchange for the freedom of only some of the 9,000 or more Arab prisoners (mainly Palestinian resistance fighters) being held in Israeli dungeons. Although we don’t support the reactionary Islamacist ideology of Hamas and Hezbollah, when all of this is combined with Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestine and parts of Lebanon and Syria, it becomes obvious that their actions were hardly unwarranted.

Indeed, Israel has a long history of using small scale attacks on its army or officials as a pretext to launch major attacks. In 1978 it launched a full-scale invasion of Lebanon “in response” to the assassination of the Israeli ambassador to Britain by Palestinians. Much later, it became known that the invasion had been preplanned, and that Israel was just waiting for an excuse to carry it out!

All false claims aside, the truth is that the Israeli government’s actions are spurred largely by its colonial ambitions in the region – mainly in Lebanon and Syria.

Israel still controls land it captured in attacks on Lebanon and Syria in 1967 and 1973. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon another time, sacking Beirut and murdering at least 18,000 people. It remained in Beirut until 1983, but even then, it continued to occupy southern Lebanon while carrying out air raids and a war of attrition (supposedly aimed at defeating Hezbollah) for 18 years. Israel was finally forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon in May 2000. Though, it has never given up its quest to expand its borders and seize new land and resources.

With these attacks, the Israeli government also hopes to destroy the popularly elected Hamas government in Palestine, and if possible, draw its opponents in Iran and Syria into the conflict.

The entire situation is inflame by U.S. imperialism’s reckless adventures in the Middle East and full support for anything their Israeli partners-in-crime do, including attacking neighboring countries and continuing their decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people.

Full scale war looms
With all that is going on, there is a very real threat of a full scale war in the region. This could result in an especially horrible outcome for the people of the region and the world.

The U.S.-backed, and armed, Israeli government controls stock piles of nuclear weapons, and as it has shown in these ultra-aggressive attacks, will stop at nothing to achieve its aims. Also, because of the vast resources and strategic value of the area, an all-out war in the region could very well draw the imperialist countries into the conflict.

Soon after the first Israeli bombs fell on Lebanon, the U.S. government gave its express backing to its ally’s actions. It has also sent 2,200 Marines to land near Beirut under the pretext of protecting the 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon. It is important to note that the U.S. has used the excuse of “protecting American citizens” to launch attacks before, like in its invasion of Grenada (to oust that country’s revolutionary government) in 1983.

The possibility of separate or joint U.S. and Israeli air strikes against Iran and Syria and/or a full ground invasion of Syria also exist. The continuing blame placed on Iran and Syria for the current conflict by the Republicans and Democrats (with a former head of the CIA under President Clinton even calling for open war on Syria) in the U.S. government, as well as by the mainstream bourgeois media in the U.S., seems to be building for exactly that.

Notably, The Wall Street Journal, the mouth piece of a section of the capitalist ruling class in the U.S., published an editorial on July 14, called for military action against both Syria and Iran.

But the U.S. military remains bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, prompting the smaller imperialist powers like France and the UK to draw up their own plans to take advantage of the situation in any way they can – militarily or otherwise – if the opportunity arises. Of course, these states cannot match the U.S. militarily, and so we may also see some of them piggy-back on any U.S. military action in the region in hopes that they can grab a few crumbs that will fall from U.S. imperialism’s plate.

It’s obvious then, that the possibility of full-scale war in the region poses enormous dangerous for us all. This threat requires a class struggle response on the part of the workers and other oppressed people of the world.

International revolution is the solution!
The interests of all oppressed people (including the workers and other oppressed people which make up the majority of the U.S. and Israeli populations) are the same, and are directly counterposed to the interests of the capitalist elites.

The continued actions of Israel and the U.S. in the Middle East threaten to drive thousands, or even millions, of our oppressed brothers and sisters in the region into the hands of religious fundamentalists. Despite all their talk of opposing the status quo, these reactionaries either fight in the interests of capitalists (with or without knowing it) or seek to set themselves up as new capitalist rulers.

A Jewish Israeli worker has much more in common with a Muslim Palestinian or Lebanese worker than with a Jewish Israeli capitalist, despite the nationalist rhetoric of the capitalist and his media and the religious fundamentalists. A united Arab-Israeli struggle against Israeli aggression is possible – which, despite the flood of pro-war propaganda in the Israeli media, was illustrated by a recent march in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv by thousands of people demanding an end to the attacks on Lebanon – and can be victorious!

Manal Amuri, from Jerusalem, who was one of the people that attended the march in Tel Aviv understands this perfectly. “What Israel is doing now has resulted in the deaths of civilians, innocent children, and it serves no purpose except for the government’s vindictiveness. I think it’s good we’re showing that there are Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel who oppose the war,” he told the Israeli website Ynet. Hundreds of others at the march, who chanted “Jews and Arabs, Refuse to be Enemies!”, equally understood the need for a united struggle.

The oppressed of the world, from Washington to Bogota, from Kampala to Jakarta, must unite with their brothers and sister in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Iran and Israel to stop the actions of the Israeli government, by any means necessary!

As a part of the same fight – and as a necessary precursor to any hopes of peace in the Middle East – we must also fight in the same manor for a complete and final end the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and of U.S. aggression against Syria and Iran. Down with imperialism! U.S. out of Afghanistan and Iraq; hands off Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba!

The struggle of the oppressed against imperialism in individual instances can – and if fully carried out, will – bring us into open conflict with the capitalist system itself. Because, to bring an end to the capitalist system of war, oppression and misery once and for all, we must unite in the fight for socialist revolutions across the globe. For an end to all wars, international socialist revolution!

http://freepeoplesmovement.org/fpm/page.php?154

[Janus]

Unsuprisingly, the US President has fuly supported this as well as the House of Rep.

House overwhelmingly backs Israel in vote (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060720/ap_on_go_co/us_mideast)

Also, it seems that the Israelis may be planning a full-scale invasion. :angry:

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Don't forget that U.S. Marines are also in Lebanon now..

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20 2006, 08:22 AM
I gotta point out that opposing imperialist war solely on the basis of civilian casulaties is rapidly becoming....an insufficent and even obsolete argument.

...

But back to my point here: it's necessary to oppose these wars on the basis of their goals, not just their means.

...

Like, say, perpetuating imperialist exploitation of the majority of humanity.
HOLY SHIT! Sevarian got something right! :lol:

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by Lennie [email protected] 20 2006, 08:21 PM
Don't forget that U.S. Marines are also in Lebanon now..
Really? I was unaware of that development comrade. Could you elaborate on the extent of the direct involvement of the US imperialists?

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Yeah I seen it on CNN at like 4 am.. it was on in the background, but I'm sure they said U.S. Marines were in Lebanon to evacuate U.S.ians... all I could think of was the Marines sent to the DR and Grenada to 'protect U.S.ians'.

[Amusing Scrotum]

British forces are there too: Mass rescue for Lebanon Britons (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5197584.stm). Whether that's a pretext for wider action or not, isn't clear at the moment. It doesn't seem so, as, as far as I can tell, only the Naval divisions have been deployed. And you'd expect units with the capacity to intervene on the ground if the British Government was going to pursue a policy of Military intervention....though I wouldn't rule out some of Her Majesty's fleet firing a few missiles. Just for shits and giggles.

[Janus]

I doubt that there will be any wider action as the troops sent in are too small in number to do anything except help with the evacuations.

Marines helping with evacuation in Beirut (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060720/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_evacuations;_ylt=AnpIoN3QYOEVLMSN a5HTWNpvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--)

[MeTaLhEaD]

Someone needs to stop these NAZIonists.

so discusting no ones does nothing to stop these guys