For some weird reason, the previous post on this topic was drawing spammers like flies to Michael Moore before his semi-annual bath. So if you do have any comments on it, post them here.

Leland: "Round two will find a stronger UN force caught in the middle, and a news media alert to being manipulated."

Really? I've always thought that most of the media knew they were being manipulated and just didn't care, so long as they could crack on Israel.

My perspective is colored by my Israel-centric perspective, which considers an Israeli failure far more significant than a Hezbullah failure.

What failed was the strategic response to Hezbullah, and ultimately the concept behind Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon. The IDF had promised Olmert a lightning air war. They failed to deliver. As at Tet, the "Summer Vacation War" revealed an underestimated enemy.

The difference, though, is that unlike Vietnam, withdrawal is no option. The war isn't over. So Israel will fight the next battle with lessons learned from this one. Hezbollah learned that (1) its bunkers etc were well-planned, and (2) thousands of missiles produce less terror than two dozen suicide bombers.

I'd say the analogy is less Tet, than the Yom Kippur War and the failure of the Bar Lev Line.

Reb has perhaps drawn the correct analogy for the Hezbollah war.

As long as Israel had total military supremacy it had no urgency to
peace settlements. As long as Egypt had no honor it had no
internal constiuency for a settlement.

Perhaps this will lead to an optimal outcome. Hezbollah
having an internal constituency to live with Israel,
Israel having a desire to make a peace settlement happen.

nasrullah has admitted to making mistakes. That was a big one.

Cecil, some still have a certain level of pride and don't like being a fool. If you want to be real, many reported efforts at being manipulated during the recent battles. I saw several stories that included a comment about how journalists were not allowed to film armed Hizbollah soldiers and threats that journalist would be killed if they provided photos of certain scenes. Much of the failure in catching fauxtography was by editorial managers that were far from the battlefield accepting whatever tidbit sent to them as fact.