Israel vs. Hezb'Allah

[WyrreJ]

Jeezes what facts have you seen that these people are not complete bastards?

Slow down.
Read carefully.
Think.

I said they are not madmen. I did not say they were not abusive and responsible for a lot of pain and suffering. There is a HUGE difference - they can be counted on to act rationally, if you understand the environment in which they operate. Same thing goes for most of Hezbollah. Certainly the ones running the show.

I guarantee that the CIA and other intelligence reports on Hezbollah and all of those people that I listed do not say, "they are madmen." Instead they try to understand their motivations, goals and constraints in order to better predict their future actions.

Sun Tzu said, “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” Dismissing your enemy as a madman is a surefire way to lose the battle. In fact, Sun Tzu also said, “Let your plans be dark and as impenetratable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” In otherwords, if you can't figure out what your enemy is thinking and simply decide that they are crazy, then chances are, he's going to kick your ạss.

You might want to stop watching Al-Jazeera and maybe tune into main stream new agencies.

Mainstream? Mostly regurgitated press releases. I don't need to be told how to think and you don't either. Stop watching tv news completely. Stop reading McNews like Time Magazine. The internet gives you access to all kinds of resources. If you were taught how be a critical thinker, you can learn a lot about how the world really works.

For example - did you know that the USA was, until just recently, the largest donor to north korea? If Kim Jong Il is such a nutjob, what were we doing supporting him? Do you think he might miss all that free stuff? What options do you think he has to try and turn that spigot back on? What do you think the military arm of the government wants to do?

Another example - do you know where Hezbollah came from? What event caused the formation of the group? Israel's bombing of Lebanon in 1982 directly lead to their organization as a means to resist the attacks. Deja vu?

Or, how about, this one: Why did Hezbollah kidnap those israeli soliders? To torture them to death? Behead them on tv? Perhaps the 2004 prisoner exchange between Hezbollah and Israel - 1 abducted businessman and 3 soldiers' bodies for ~350 palestinian and arab prisoners - might have had something to do with it? Did you know that Hezbollah wanted 3-4 prisoners from israel in exchange for their men back alive?

Is it right that hundreds of lebanese civilians had to die, and hundreds of thousands have to suffer the destruction of most of the infrastructure in their communities because Israel won't do a prisoner swap like they did just a year and a half ago? Or was kidnapping those men part of the total annihilation of Israel?