Air raids promote terrorism

I hate being put in a position of criticizing Isreal but this is what worries me about their ill-advised aerial assault on Lebanon.

TEHRAN, July 31 — The Israeli onslaught in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s daily victories in the regional public relations war over the conflict threaten to claim a victim in Iran: whatever hope remained of resurrecting the political reform movement. [...]

There are pockets of people who say they want to go to Lebanon and fight for the Islamic cause, and as the fighting spreads, their enthusiasm has grown. The war in Lebanon has also fueled a growing anti-American sentiment, which barely existed on the streets of Tehran before.

The problem in Lebanon, (and Iraq and to some extent Afghanistan at this point), is that our militaries are being commanded by old men who don't understand how to fight a guerilla war. It's interesting to me that so few seem to notice the mightiest armies in the world haven't been able to take out a few thousand zealots, even with ridiculously greater troop numbers and far superior weaponry.

The frightening thing is all these extremist groups have to do is survive to fight another day in order to be considering winning and everything "the West" has done so far in attempting to destroy them, has only made them stronger. That's a great outcome for the war profiteers. For the rest of us, not so much.