Who won the Middle East war?

So it’s over, for now. After a month of intense shelling, bombing and a ground offensive by Israel to reach the Litani River to prevent rocket attacks into Northern Israel, the bugle has finally sounded the ceasefire, which thankfully seems to be holding.

So who won? Nobody. They all lost, but there were a few political gains too, especially for the Hezbollah.

Israel:

>Lost their ‘invincibility’ aura.
>Failed to neutralize or destroy Hezbollah.
>Condemned by most of the world for inflicting enormous civilian casualties and excessive collateral damage.
>Islamist fundamentalists around the world now know that battle with a formidable conventional force can be dealt with and ‘won’. This may encourage them to become more aggressive and bold. Israel may be in for more trouble in future.
>Lebanon’s fragile democracy has started to teeter. A democratic country, Israel, has literally pulverized another fledgling democracy.

The only gain was to get the UN to deploy an international force on the Lebanese border to prevent Hezbollah from needling them.

Hezbollah:

>Their initiation of this conflict resulted in thousands of Lebanese civilians being killed.
>Resulted in vast damage to Lebanon’s infrastructure.

What about their gains?
>Exposed Israel’s weaknesses in strategic and tactical planning and intelligence gathering.
>Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief has shot to fame and has now become a ‘hero’ in the Middle East.
>This will result in many more volunteers for the Hezb, strengthening their rank and file, making it a formidable force, if they are not forced to disarm.
>Iran and Syria now know that Israel is not such a formidable force after all. (This may result in more saber rattling and defiance).

[Color=red] So all in all, I think Hezbollah came out slightly better.

In spite of its huge war machine, Israel failed to achieve its objective of destroying the Hezbollah or even weaken it by attrition.

Mike its not over yet. I have a feeling Israel is going to be going back for some more violence still. They want the Litani and this is not how they are going to get it by having an international force sitting between them. I wouldn't be surprised if you see major bombardment all over lebanon soon with an air strike.

This was more like a skirmish in the continuing conflict that goes on in the Middle East.
Nobody won, and nobody lost, and the imbroglio will continue until an all-out conflagration destroys one side or the other.

This has been going on for a long time, and it will keep going for the foreseeable future.

No one won in my opinion. I believe over 1,000 dead people in Lebanon would not say they won the war if they could speak. I believe it was over 100 people in Israel died as well. I don't see how they could argue they won either. I suppose if you wanted to look strictly at numbers, then Israel had less dead people. However, no one needed to die at all if this conflict had not even started. I wouldn't even be surprised if the two Israeli prisoners could have been freed by diplomacy rather than creating a country of strong Hezbollah supporters. If the goal of the war for both sides was to kill lots of innocent women and children, then both sides did win.

Originally posted by orionthehunter
I wouldn't even be surprised if the two Israeli prisoners could have been freed by diplomacy rather than creating a country of strong Hezbollah supporters. If the goal of the war for both sides was to kill lots of innocent women and children, then both sides did win.

I think you are spot-on. As its been done before. Israel has always taken "Bargaining Chips" for just such times. Which is always been how its played. Right now Egypt is brokering a deal for the Palestinians to release Cpl. Shalit in return for 600 Palestinian prisoners. If they take that deal after all this bloodshed, man, I'd say they deserve to have all support cut off, when that could have been done before they started killing innocent people. The parents of those 3 kids must be flipping out right now thinking that after all these dead people their kids are definitly going to be vengefully murdered/tortured or something.

I wouldnt really call this one a "Middle East" war...that in itself implies a much broader conflict. That war is coming, but thats not what this one was.

Who won the Middle East war?

The Global Elite.

Ps. It's not over yet.

This isn't over by any stretch of the imagination. Israel's enemies, and we know who they are, see the IDF's failure to destroy Hezzbollah as a sign of weakness. What they'll do is anyones guess (maybe El Pollo Diablo knows?...), but I suspect that pressure will mount on Israel to give up the various occupied territories, with much saber rattling, possibly even overt military action involved.

The perception of weakness is a fallicy to my view...Israel certainly seems to have underestimated Hezzbollah. That will never happen again.

So the question as to who won is still an open one. My money is on the bad-ass Jews.

lol, it'd be hillarious if any of Israel's enemies base what they think Israel's strength is by what just happened
But, unfortunately I'm sure they're much smarter than that.


The "war" btw, would be starting right about now had a cease fire not been agreed to.

[edit on 16-8-2006 by ThatsJustWeird]

Originally posted by mikesingh
Who won the Middle East war?

So it’s over, for now. ...... ceasefire, .....

Neither side has won, nor is either side winning. This is the same war that has been raging for generations now. And yet another "cease fire". The cease fires are not ends to the war, merely breaks in between the same war that both sides have been loosing for a long long time now.

No matter how many people are killed on either side, someone will always rise up from their respectfull sides to overcome their fear with the hate it creates. A cycle that has proved to be perpetual, at least since the beginning of history.

That is what i think.

Originally posted by ThePieMaN
Mike its not over yet. I have a feeling Israel is going to be going back for some more violence still. They want the Litani and this is not how they are going to get it by having an international force sitting between them. I wouldn't be surprised if you see major bombardment all over lebanon soon with an air strike.

Agreed, and Lebanons neighbors may intervien this time!

Its funny how Ishrael displayed less than 10% of its firepower and manforce yet folks think this means they can be taken. If anything, that may have been a planned trap for exactly that type of thinking!!!!

When did it end?
AAC