Iran Uses Lebanon As A Gambit

A couple days ago, we saw the Iranian President, Ahmadenijad strutting on the border shared between Lebanon and the Jewish State of Israel and boasting about what he hopes will happen to Israel. This display and rapturous applause given and received by the Iranian Leader are testaments of the difficulties those in the region and the rest of the world face in this internecine conflict. This epochal visit and the tacit provocation by the representatives of the Mullahs basically sacrificed Lebanon as the gambit in this historical battle. Let us be fair, many Lebanese did not support this overt forced alliance and the rhetoric that were on display on their shared borders between Lebanon and Israel, but this put Lebanon once again in the cross hairs of the pending conflict between Hezbollah and the Jewish state… in essence making it a gambit. The situation in Lebanon is akin to the mob or drug dealers who run the proverbial neighborhood and harm the collective – of course, eventually, the collective will have to ban together and stand up to the miscreants who have usurped its authority or suffer the consequences….

The last time there was a war between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon was bombarded because the rockets and gunfire were emanating from the Lebanese territory. As is the wont, many Lebanese and the world blamed Israel for responding in kind… saying that Israel’s response was disproportionate. Some even intimated that Israel had no right to even respond to the repetitive bombing, incidentally, which were tallying up massive casualties of Israeli civilians. Now what would you, as an individual do if I (Hezbollah) kept attacking your family (Israel)… causing lethal harm to said family, then I (Hezbollah) taking refuge in a supposed neutral neighbor’s home (here Lebanon). Are you telling me, you would not retaliate with like force, notwithstanding that those willingly or unwillingly providing shelter to your attacker were taking casualties?

Think of the military precedent this would set if Israel did not defend itself when it is being attacked and its enemies take refuge in a supposed neutral neighbor’s home – are we to believe that said enemy (Hezbollah) would cease attacking Israel? There are also practical reasons for the rest of the world to sue for peace in the region; no one wants war because of the potential spread… an all out war between Sunnis and Shiites would cause. This would affect the world’s economy… whereby the oil supplies, which normally traverse the relative peace of the Strait of Hormuz… would cause the oil tankers to make the more difficult trek around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Think of the long gas lines and the havoc a wide spread war would cause and the inflated cost of every day items, which are borne out of oil energy? Yet, I, personally sadly see war on the horizon because of the resolve of the combatants… my coming to the sobering conclusion and knowing that no less than a Carthaginian Peace is the solution.