Dear Editor,

I think it is too early to say that Israel is facing a "quagmire" in Lebanon. We can only wait to see how things develop. Quite frankly, an Israeli quagmire in Lebanon would not be so bad. One of the reasons that Israel is so fast to resort to force is because it has overwhelming amounts of force that it can use - with relative impunity - against its far weaker neighbors. If attacking Lebanon has a real price, Israel may consider diplomacy and political action to be more viable options in the future.

One thing: the young Israeli solider quoted in the article indicates that Hezbollah's fighers are "cowards" who know that they would lose in any face-to-face confrontation with Israel. So, they attack in stealth. How is this tactic, in any way, "cowardly"? It sounds pretty smart and fair to me. If you are a badly outgunned army, fighting a war on the terms of your far-more-powerful enemy is suicidal and foolish. Hezbollah is playing by its own rules - that is not cowardly, it's commonsense.

Sincerely,

Shaun Narine

Lest we forget, the U.S. used terrorist warfare tactics of the day in the Revolutionary War. The logic then was the U.S. forces were outgunned, underfunded and facing a highly professional British army so it was "by any means necessary". Does this sound familar because it should. It's the same logic an outgunned and underfunded Lebanon is using against a highly professional and well-funded Israel.

People may not agree with Lebanon's position but given the disparity in force and funding it's laughable for people to think anything is fair let along use it as an argument. The concept of "fairness" in war is always bought on by those who have the poltical power and the thinking they can and should control it. Fairness and war don't work that way. Not during the Revolutionary War, not during Viet Nam and not with Lebanon and Isreal.

With the IDF having jumped into this foray of slap-a-around with the Hezbollah

militia on cause that this border area has worked through otherwise many times

before on much more humane terms who have they to blame but themselves?

It is too bad Hezbollah is not really stupid and lining up tanks and flying

helicopters around and streaking overhead in multi-hundred million dollar

fighterjets. It is too bad they dont maintain nice little forts with a nice

yellow and green flag flying clearly out in the open. It really sucks when

the "bad guys" just won't be stupid. And as Israel very much wants itself

portrayed as the victim over and over in these Middle East death dances it

must really be maddening to have live film coverage of Lebanese children on

CNN showing the after effects of Israeli bombing attacks. It clearly is a role

reserved for the Israelis alone to be the victim of ethically challenged terrorists.

Having invaded Lebanon to create what is being described as a buffer zone in

southern Lebanon the Israelis sure are busy bombing parts of Lebanon and killing

Lebanese civilians,creating a large homeless population and wreaking ruin on

Lebanon that will take lots of money to replace. So Israel just can't figure out

any other way of addressing Hezbollah? Well of course not. What point would it

make to engage a third party mediatior and work out an exchange of prisoners

and engage in further talks with the Lebanon government to bring about better

outcomes? And why not create the buffer zone on the Israeli side of the border

going south. No need then to beat the shit out the Lebanese then seemingly one

reason. Of course when you are the victim you are empowered to defend yourself

and all moral clarity and ethical validity is yours alone. Funny thing is what

happens when much of the world concludes you are not the good guys but much more

like the bad guys? That must really infuriate many Israelis that they should

lose their cherished victimhood. And to some lousy,no-good terrorists fighting

to protect only what any red-blooded Israeli would do likewise in the same

position. Where is the stupidity when you want it? Same question Americans have

been asking in Iraq for the last three years. Why dont they just become stupid

and try to fight like us. You know, with tanks and fighterjets and laserbombs?

What the hell is with all this shoot and scoot,IED and blending in and with

the civilian population? It just isn't fair...

In the Star Wars movies we all knew who the bad guys were early on. Who ran

the big Corellian Starcruisers, who could build one DeathStar and then go ahead

and try building a second. Who were the ones to not screw with because they

could literally blow your world up. But your heroes are the underdogs. The guys

who by rights should just be giving up and giving in to Darth and that most

evil Emperor. But you know they won't. And that makes them very human and you

very glad they didn't. The sooner this business of who is a terrorist and who

is simply fighting back becomes more clear and less propaganda mongering the

better. No one has done nothing wrong in the Middle East. Everyone is the

victim. And being the good guys means behaving and thinking like good guys.

You may have to suffer for it plenty but that is part of being the good guys

code of honor. When you no longer play by the good guys code you are no longer

able to be good guys. Americans know that. We wrote the book on how to do it.

And we know what happens when you fall short of that code. You can't be the

underdog anymore. Because good guys have to play by the rules. Otherwise the

story just can't have a good ending. So Israel...you want to be the good guy

in the Middle East you will have to play by the good guy rules. Fair and square.