According to the Wall Street Journal, the Bush administration slowly seems to be realizing that Israel’s offensive in Lebanon isn’t going to accomplish much besides leaving a lot of civilians dead and stir up a lot of potentially deadly resentment towards both Israel and the United States:
A senior administration official said the U.S. believed Israel would have only a matter of weeks to strike Hezbollah before international pressure for a cease-fire forced an end to the fighting, especially if civilian casualties climbed. Now, the official said, the U.S. is beginning to fear that it could be left both with mounting regional fury and an emboldened Hezbollah that has withstood the initial assault without losing its ability to inflict casualties on Israeli troops and civilians.
No kidding. Perhaps the next step is for administration officials to realize that the same goes for the war in Iraq. An overwhelming air war is completely counterproductive when it comes to defeating insurgent groups that have broad civilian support. Kevin Drum has a number of good posts on this very subject, especially this one.
