Mephisto’s Captured Souls

Unbelievable – after the costly, stupid invasion of Iraq that is now drowning the US and Iraqis in blood, GW Bush is fiercely promoting the extension of the Israeli war on the Palestinians and Lebanese; not only promoting it by standing in the way of cease fire, but furnishing Israel the armaments that slaughter Arab civilians at a rate 100 non-combatants to one so called terrorist...

US stands against the world alone on this one – not even a US bought and paid coalition-of-the-willing-to-act-as-mercenaries to help, as in Iraq. European public opinion is outraged; a Greek mob even tore down poor Harry Truman's statue a few days ago. If you thought European man on the street was anti-American over the invasion of Iraq, try walking now down the Champs Elysées or the Kurfurstendam with a Chinese made enamel American flag pin displayed on your body.

Even before Bush's most recent pathetic Danse Macabre in Palestine and Lebanon, many American tourists out of fear, pretended they were Canadians to hide their nationality. Recently, a national US soccer team in Germany was afraid to mark their transport vans with an American flag or logo.

About the only people who believe GW Bush is on the right path are born again Christians who have a perverse death wish and blissfully march to Armageddon, and American Israeli Firsters who gladly sacrifice American Interests for those of Israel. Call this last group a conspiracy – these people have far exceeded acceptable boundaries as a lobby.

Confusion is king in Bush foreign policy. Condoleezza has not got it right since her inept tour as NSC Chief when she booted 9/11, then... the Iraq fiasco, then... burning the Palestine road map, followed by the election of Hamas. The latest jewel in her crown of disaster is her failure to prevent the destruction of democratic Lebanon, disgustingly standing by the slaughter, because that is what the Israelis desire. She wants to preserve Lebanese democracy by encouraging Israel to destroy it.

Right now most military experts agree that the Israelis are using ammunition, missiles and bombs at a world record expenditure rate. They manage to kill Palestinian and Lebanese civilians like tin ducks in a shooting gallery, but so far they have been unable to stop the Hezbollah rockets or break the Shiite backbone in Lebanon. The US has shipped bunker busting bombs to Israel last week so more Arabs can be killed and soon will face a tough logistical decision: whether to replenish scarce war materials to Israel or American troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, let us not forget the equipment requirements for standing up the Iraq Army..... Heard that troops in the US can use ammunition for live fire training only on the eve of departure to Afghanistan or Iraq – otherwise it is pretend, bang bang your dead.

So far it appears the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are fighting yesterday's war today – tank heavy armored units tailored for battle in mobile desert tank warfare are now being employed, road bound, in hilly terrain in Southern Lebanon against concealed dug in positions. If the IDF penetrates deep into Lebanon, it will have a tough time protecting logistic trains. The Israel air forces bomb everything – mostly civilian targets, but madly throw in UN Observer bunkers and Lebanese Army bases for good measure.

IDF combat experience since their departure from Lebanon six years ago has been limited to shooting up urban Palestinians and assassinating Palestinian leadership in wheelchairs, in cars, in buildings, and attacking refugee camps. Hetzbollah is a different problem as Mossad had packs of Palestinian informers, but Hezbollah agents are hard to recruit. For example, Israel intelligence missed badly on stockpiles and quality of rockets and anti-ship missiles – time will tell whether bombing of Lebanese infrastructure and civilian targets was a miscalculation that recruits more Lebanese to the Hezbollah standards. Could be a variation of how the US enhanced the strength of al Qaeda in Iraq.

IDF miscalculations on the dreadful impact of their SHOCK and AWE air war and failure to provide sufficient forces for the ground war make me think American neo-conservatives like Wolfowitz, Perle, and Feith had a hand in the operational planning. If true, there is sweet poetic justice afoot.

Cost of this war in resources for Israel is enormous. The fact that the war goes on unrelenting with IDF commanders extending their estimates on duration of the war daily, makes the war open ended. Apparently IDF planners recognized they sent insufficient forces on the ground into Southern Lebanon. Yesterday Israel called up three more reserve divisions of 30,000 troops. Mr. and Mrs. America, get your check books out...

Israelis are accustomed to 8-day wars when the enemy is quickly and soundly defeated with minimum casualties. Land is seized and occupied, and captured people politically strangled – that is true except for Hetzbollah, which remains the only regional Islamic force to defeat Israel.

Pompous US Senator John Warner, Republican, VA, assured a skeptical HARDBALL Matthews that the US is even handed in its dealing with the Arabs and Israel – oh yeah, Senator. Why not also quote Groucho Marx: YOU GONNA BELIEVE ME OR YOUR EYES? Later NY Democratic congressman Engels said on TV that the US must favor the Israelis over the Arabs, because Israel has no friends internationally. Too bad the interviewer did not ask Engels why this was true. The congressman could have started his reply by citing the obnoxious Israeli ambassador to the UN as an example to make his point.

Mephisto the demon is famous for capturing souls. He certainly has been busy in the Holy Land as he manipulates all sides into carnage – think he has even ensnared born again GW Bush, otherwise, how can you explain US policy that results in the scorn of the world. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA RET