i can't believe israel is doing this! just think of all those poor leb pop-tarts! with the blockade, how are they going to get vital shipments of cosmetics and ill-fitting clothing? think of the expat scum that relies on daily doses of leb-slut tv! the horror the horror!

in all seriousness, after israel's soldiers were snatched, i wasn't surprized one bit. i was surprized, however, that hizbullah would be stupid enough to go snatching people when gaza proves such an excellent recent example of why people shouldn't fuck with israel.

It is a bit of a surprise that they're hitting all the way up to Pop Tart City.

Expected that they would go for the launch zones, but whacking the airport and burbs, and engaging in acts of war (naval blockade) that's going to backfire.

i'm not surprized at all in terms of the scope of israel's response. the USA put out a very nice "blow shit up" doctrine along with the preemptive strike doctrine that israel has taken to with some zeal (well, okay, symantics. is israel the aggressor or is it hizbullah or ??? was hizbullah's raid an act of war or not? etc etc etc).

also, im not surprized that ibn bush isn't pressing israel to stop with the bombing and start with the talking. israel's actions are entirely too lucrative. just think: an american company might get that power plant contract in Gaza or an airport runway contract in lebanon or a bridge building contract in any of those places! and that's not even considering the positive economic impact using american-made weapons has on the defense industry. let's face it: war is good for (certain kinds of) business.

Well, again, hitting north of Hizbullah's typical zone of influence is surprising. Not surprising the Israeli bombings as a general matter. Hitting Beirut airport...

again, not surprizing at all. israel took out the main power plant in gaza and most of the important bridges. if gaza still had a functioning airport, they'd have blown that up too.

i'm just waiting for syria to get involved.