So many of us agree that Iraq is actually a mess right now. Insurgencies are getting more sofisticated, more tactical, more thouroughly carried out and for that matter they are getting more deadly. Until now, Iraq has been a complete failure and it's hard for me to admit it since i am a republican, and had envisioned it as the actual fall of a dictatorship and the rise of a true democracy.
What really scares me, is that my homeland is being transformed to a similar battle zone. Today was the deadliest day for the IDF (9 dead, 27 wounded). Hezbullah is gathering more support from shiia around the world everyday. Last i checked people were gathering up around in Iran and getting ready to cross turkish and syrian borders to join Hezbollah for what they are calling "the holy war" against Israel. creepy isn't it? What is even more remarkable is the backing that Hezbollah is gaining everyday a civilian is being targetted. I won't deny that Israel is actually advancing in its invasion of the south, but the more they do, the harder it is to keep ground. While they are doubling their efforts, the IDF is facing more atrocious resistance, losing more soldiers, killing more civilians, and most importantly, losing international support. As we saw today in Rome, the U.S. was the only country that was trying to defend Israel's position. And for that matter the U.S. is losing its patience specially after the targetting of the U.N. post that killed 4 observers (even though they won't admit it publicly).
I ask myself, is it Israel that underestimated Hezbollah, or Hezbollah that miscalculated Israel's response? well if you look thouroughly, you will find out that both didn't have any idea of the deamons they were facing. Hezbollah thought that they would do a prisoner exchange similar to the last one that occured couple years ago. Israel believed that after a week of bombardment, the resistance would lose its support and be faced with only one solution; its disarmament backed by the majority of the lebanese citizens. But unfortunately, they underestimated the power of hatred that the shiia always had for them thus underestimating the power of Hezbollah.
