Is Lebanon Saudi Arabia Ir Ir US

Col. Sam Gardiner/Brian Lehrer Show Tues 07/25/06 WNYC/New York, NY
1) Israel and the United States planned the Lebanon attack for several months and were simply allowing the oportunity to arise
2) they knew about the Hezbollah plan to kidnap: intel of the Syrian/Iran/Hez meeting in Damascus establishing the plot
3) noting the original Israeli annoucement of the Leb. campaign to last a week[now 11 days ago], with subsequent annoucements that it will be another 2 weeks indicates the unforseen difficulty of achieving it's original objectives
4) part of the change in the time frame is the level of entrenchment of the Hez, the level of weapons being used, and the level of stockpiles; there were appox. 12-14 occupied positions by the Hez, and Tyre was much more entrenched than had been estimated
5) the nature of the proxy war: Hez supplied by Syria and Iran, the weapons/ammunition being supplied by the US, and the US political support for the incursion
6) the sychronization of attacks in Bagdad up 40% over the same time period
7) Moktadr al Sadr threatened any attack on Iran will end his militia support in Iraq
8) Saudi Arabia announcing any furtherance of Israeli aggression will get Saudi Arabian support against Israel
9) Israel has annouced they will occupy southern Lebanon until a peacekeeping force is ready to take over
10) the mission of Israels aggression was to change the military/political landscape of the MiddleEast by effectively elimanating the Hez

[The questions remain of the bigger picture, that is with the destruction of Leb and a $1b gift from Saudi Arabia for reconstruction, how will the cards fall; has the Hez been sactified by the global Islamic population(and others); has Israel lost the tacit support Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia first offered in condemnation of the Hez; has Israel gained the security it wanted with the elimanation of the Hez as a military threat? Has the United States gained any position in Iraq or any other country in the MiddleEast?]