Mr. Saleh:

Thank you for sharing your interesting views.

I am afraid that what you said is exactly Israel's strategic goal.

Most of this wanton destruction has no military value whatsoever. It also hard to argue that Hezbollah wanted all of this. It seems to me that Hezbollah only wanted to exchange prisoners like they did in the past. Had Israel swallowed its pride accepted it, all of this would have been avoided.

Israeli are trying to tilt Lebanese opinion to the other side, and they are well aware of the sectarian tensions that exist in Lebanon.

I am not Lebanese (I am from Morocco) but I believe it is up to the Lebanese people to avoid such post-war disaster. You guys in America need to do something for your people, don't stand still and watch.

Hezbollah should of course be criticized for initiating the conflict, but people should understand that it is Israel that is bombing them in a brutal manner, not the other way around.

Lastly, don't count on Arab governments or that shameful Arab league.

Our Arab governments are not capable of anything in face of US pressure. In the end they will do whatever their masters in the US decides (or else, you know...blackmail).

Regards

As a Lebanese-American who often travels to Lebanon and experienced the first years of its 1975-1990 civil war, I am actually more worried about the aftermath of Israel's onslaugt on the country than about the current situation. For the time being, Israel's attacks against the Lebanese overall infrastructure is creating a somewhat united domestic front. Yet, given Lebanon's sectarian dynamics I feel that many of the non-Shia groups will eventually be fed up with the economic and humanitarian toll created by the Shia-based Hezbollah, although for the time being many do not dare express their grievances too opently. Following the usual Moslem-Christian rift, and especially nowadays the Shia-everybody-else rift (or the March-14th anti-Syrian movement versus the Shias-Syrian front), a renewal of sectarian strife would not surprise me once the Israeli bombs stop raining down and a cease-fire is declared. The cost of whatever putative victory Hezbollah might claim in terms of prestige would look ridiculous for most people given the enormous destruction and human tragedy that visited the country.

Moreover, in order to avoid a too dominant Hezbollah, in case it is not disarmed, the other religious groups might want to acquire heavy weapons under one pretense or another, such as the the right to resist actual or potential enemies, be they Israeli, Syrian, Iranian or others. Using Hezbollah's logic, it will be enough for each group to claim that it is a resistance movement to justify the rearmament of its militias.

Anyway, from what I have read and seen, non-Shias seem to increasingly resent the fact that the Shia-based Hezbollah has hijacked the political agenda to suit most likely some foreign Iranian and Syrian interests while ruining the country, while these tyrannical powers have not lifted a finger to help militarily Lebanon, despite their long-standing militant and radical rhetoric. The other communities may become even more resentful as the Shias have become too powerful, too numerous and too militant for comfort. Their outsize birth rates and their militant ideology may not sit well anymore with the other Lebanese groups who may simply want to live in peace and make Lebanon economically viable and prosperous, especially that, with their rapidly expanding numbers, the Shias will represent an even greater threat in the future to the other communities.

It seems thus that two contradictory and possibly irreconcilable forces will inherit the post-conflict domestic scene, possibly leading to a major internal clash, especially if regional and international powers will try to incite one group against the other. At any rate, the post-war sectarian tensions and recriminations may become so intense as to lead to such destructive and bloody civil war as to make the partition of Lebanon look as the lesser-evil solution for all, unless the Superpowers and the Arab countries decide that a better solution would be to simply hand Lebanon once more back to Syria as a guarantor of domestic and regional stability under the banner of the Pax Syriana...

Accept the new cease fire terms offered by the Lebanese Governmet, and agreed to by Hezbollah, fast. Otherwise you will see a further degrading of the Israeli deterrent, and a strengthening of the Iranian position in the region. Do not wait until Israel makes the final disastrous move of full scale re-invasion and re-occupation. That will be a repeat of Lebanon I, and Iraq.

History will hold USA responsible for the destruction and murder of Lebanese people.

"At the end of the day"...