Rah-Rah IDF!

Cheerleading Israel does not an American foreign policy make

Jeff Taylor | July 21, 2006

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And second, the Israeli operation in Lebanon may create more terrorists than it destroys, or at least create opinion in the Muslim world more useful to Iran strategically than an ongoing low-level conflict along Israel's border. There is certainly historical precedent for a Hezbollah-Israeli clash in Lebanon inspiring Muslim terrorists the world over.

Back in April 1996 Israeli artillery hit a U.N. compound in Qana crowded with Lebanese refugees;106 people were killed. Israel said it was trying to hit a nearby Hezbollah mortar site and mistakenly used old maps; a U.N. investigation found the attack was "unlikely" to be completely in error. Take your pick, but that is what happens in war fought among civilians—murderous mistakes. By August of that year Osama bin Laden cited "the massacre of Qana" prominently in his first fatwa against the U.S government.

The current round of fighting is certainly grim, horrifying even, for the civilian population, but there has been no singular Qana-like incident. Yet.

We are left then with two distinct areas where U.S. interests might diverge with those of Israel. First, it makes U.S. goals in Iraq harder to achieve. Second, it may give Iran something more valuable than a guerilla force in Lebanon while increasing the total population of persons motivated to do harm to do Americans and American interests.

These things are not certain to transpire and may, in any event, be considered second-tier concerns when weighed against the chance to take out Hezbollah as a military force. Fair enough. But it is past time to put down the pom-poms and think hard about what comes next.