What Lebanon needs is such a commission to issue an impartial review that condemns guilty parties for all of the unsolved political violence that has taken place in Lebanon over the last few years. And if senior people are involved - majority or opposition - the report tells it as it is without fear of reprisals by the affected parties. Seems to me that a democratic country should be able to attain that level of conduct. Is Lebanon also able to publish its gross errors for all to see? And then do something to make sure the guilty are punished and the same mistakes are never made again?

Good post, Mustafa. The Israelis failed to achieve their objectives. Did Hezbollah achieve its objectives, though? What were their objectives? To see Israelis embarrassed? If Israelis were embarrassed, then Lebanese must have been absolutely humiliated, for the powerlessness of their government and their Army to be exposed for all the world to see. Was that also a Hezbollah objective? I’m sure that it was, but I’ve never heard them bragging about that one. So who benefited from Hezbollah’s “victory”? Not Lebanese.

We need our own Winograd report, to perhaps hold Hezbollah responsible for starting that war against “the strongest army in the region”, and causing 1200 deaths, and billions in material losses.

We need to stop worrying so much about what our neighbours do, and start cleaning our own house. Until we have our own house in order, we have absolutely no right to criticize anyone else.

What Bronx-man said. I only wish the same level of accountability was present in Lebanon.

The Israelis are master propagandist as is HA. Given how negatively this war was perceived by the western public, this report is nothing more than another propaganda to demonstrate ‘accountability’.

What is bemusing is whenever Nasralha or the HA airheads rush to use Israeli reports to further proof that HA won this war. According to Nasralha this was a “divine victory”. If he truly and sincerely believed this divine b.s. why rush to use your sworn enemy’s testimony to validate your claim? Unless off course he’s full of it, which he seems to demonstrate over and over again.

NO. who gives a shit? How does it change anything?? Only HA can use it to guide its Sheeple!!!

Muslims been getting their ass kicked by non-Muslims for the last 1000+ years, why Allah has denied Muslims such “divine victories” all this time? I wonder if those that drink Nasralha’s cool-aid ever ponder this question. Where was Nasralah’s revered Allah?

Nasralha has his own version of Allah, a god that condones terrorism, treason, lying, deception, and every evil whim you can think of to achieve his twisted agenda. (not to forget his latest stunt of trading body parts!)

Just like all fanatics, irrespective of their twisted misunderstanding of ‘faith’, seem to evoke God or divinity to advance their aims and to continue to subdue their herds.

WAIT a MINUTE!!!
Israel lost the war in that it did not achieve its original objective of wiping out HA, but it did score other points.

Israel kicked out HA from its southernmost border and replaced it with the UN and lebanese army. HA never wanted to leave that area and was forced to. So I consider this to be a HA loss and an Israel win. How many times have we heard in the past that HA will never let the lebanese Army move to the south? Now the Army is in the south and that’s a lebanese win situation.

Here is why Israel had a 600 pages report of why they failed the war, They need to explain to their public and their supporters ( USA ) that there was some wrong decisions during this war and thats why we failed.

The truth is that they can’t except the fact that Lebanon is not weak anymore, and the Lebanese soldier is stronger and has a stronger will, Hezbullah is not from Honolulu, it is from the heart of Lebanon, we were occupied by Israel for 18 years, we went threw a lot and thats why a resistance group was founded.
They fought for all these years while we (lebanese) were watching, they gave the whole world lessons in sacrifice.

They started while everyone gave up , all the Arabs gave up and they called them crazy and no one can defeat Israel until this war change everything and proved everyone wrong, Israel can be defeated and fail.

Its the mentality that changed ( the army that can’t be defeated) and thats what we call DIVINE ViCTORY . Its a victory for every mom who lost her son in the 80″s and 90″ fighting Israel.

Look where they started and see what they accomplished, and all of us should keep in mind that they were defending Lebanon, not Iran and Syria , Lebanon Lebanon Lebanon.

A very insightful and excellent analysis by Michael Young..
http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=88544

Lewaa @ 9,

“Look where they started and see what they accomplished, and all of us should keep in mind that they were defending Lebanon, not Iran and Syria , Lebanon Lebanon Lebanon.”

This is exactly what gets me confused.

I asked (on-line) one of HA supporters few month after war was over: “What did HA win?” He proudly replied: “We survived.” In response I asked: “Was your survival endangered before the war?” I got no answer.

Please, could you help me understand?

Lewaa New York, no one is questioning the bravery of HA fighters, but rather the labeling of such unnecessary war as just and ‘divine’.

Proper training and adequate military equipment, sound defensive strategy, INDIVIDUAL bravery, and the determination and discipline to execute under extreme pressure what allowed HA fighters to withstand and survive the Israeli attacks - not some divine intervention.

For someone who’s presumed to reside in NY, an epicenter of free thinking and open ideas, one hopes you have the foresight to objectively see thru Nasralha’s mehdi-wanna-be mantra!

They fought for all these years while we (lebanese) were watching, they gave the whole world lessons in sacrifice.

Did they? I must have missed that. Isn’t the point of “sacrifice” to give of yourself to help others? To give something UP, to help others? It seems to me that the only people in Lebanon who are better off as a result of Hezbollah’s acts over the last 25 years are… Hezbollah.

What kind of sacrifice is that?

[...] Aucun blog francophone libanais n’a pour le moment fort malheureusement abordé, juste peu de blogs anglophones comme BeirutSpring à ma connaissance mais ce rapport ne contient pas d’éléments nouveaux que l’on sache déjà, il y a eu une série d’erreurs stratégiques aux échelons politiques et militaires et il n’aborde pas comment les résoudre sauf par une nouvelle violence. [...]

Not a failure a all

Hez’b'allah wont be bothering Israel anytime soon

leo @ 10
I would like to answer your question.
We survived is not the right answer . The main goal that HA had when they kidnapped the two soldiers was to release our prisoners from Israeli jail threw negotiations . Israel is known not to leave any of their soldiers behind , that means they will have to negotiate with HA and swap .

Lewaa @ 16,

How many Lebanese prisoners Israel holds and do they worth 1200 Lebanese lives?

Didn’t Israeli get even more prisoners during course of the war?

What about territory HA lost to LA and UNIFIL?

What about Nasrallah being afraid to show his face to the light of day?

Basically, as I understand you, nabbing two Israelis outweighs all HA losses by far.

It must be very flattering for Israelis to know.