Who should be next US target after Al Qaeda?

[NewsGuy]

Many think that the next major US offensive on terrorism will be Iraq, with the goal of removing Saddam Hussein.

Surprisingly, this report from Ha'aretz suggests that the next target might be Hezbullah in Lebanon.

Is it better to destroy Hezbullah or Saddam first? What does this mean for the Arab/Israeli conflict?

Here's the article:

U.S. informs Lebanon: Hezbollah will be next after al-Qaida

The U.S. has information that shows a connection between Iran and the Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Authority's weapons ship, the Karine A, says an international Arab newspaper.

According to Al Hayat, quoting official U.S. sources, the U.S. has its own information showing that Imad Mugniyah, head of operations for the Hezbollah, was involved in the weapons ship affair. This is in addition to the information provided to the Americans by Israel.

The report, which headlined the Arab newspaper yesterday, quotes the sources as saying that Palestinian officials and members of Fatah, who were involved with Hezbollah before the Oslo agreements, have renewed their relationships with the Lebanese organization.

The sources emphasized that if Lebanon and Syria believe that the administration's position regarding Hezbollah is intended for domestic purposes, they are very wrong. "The American position on the Hezbollah is determined by the highest levels in the White House," the newspaper quotes U.S. sources as saying.

According to those sources, Washington sent Lebanon a message that the U.S. regards the Hezbollah as the next item on its list after Qaida, and that it is aware of Hezbollah terror activities not directly connected to the organization's conflict with Israel.

On Monday, a congressional delegation visited Beirut, emphasizing the U.S. is "serious" about its demand to extradite Hezbollah activists who were involved in operations against U.S. installations.

[Solon]

Oh yeah baby!

I just love seeing my hard-earned US tax dollars going for such an excellent cause!

Can you say 'Lebanon- Kaboooom! Saddam-Kaaaaapow!'

:D

[takeo]

The administration has decided not to bomb Iraq another time for the moment because of too little international support for it. Finally the world starts to act properly.
And they will certainly NOT bomb Lebanon or Syria, parts of one of those countries still being illegally occupied by Syria. Even if they would like to or if the zionist lobby is pushing for it, they know such a move would aleniate the US from even the most moderate arab and Islamic regimes and would also be very harshly criticised by the other security council members, as it would be an open support for an occupiing force.
dream on.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by takeo
Even if they would like to or if the zionist lobby is pushing for it, they know such a move would aleniate the US from even the most moderate arab and Islamic regimes and would also be very harshly criticised by the other security council members, as it would be an open support for an occupiing force.
dream on.

Takeo is patrially correct. The world does oppose the US fighting Islamic terrorism, although not for the reasons takeo thinks.

Most of the world is nothing more than a pathetic slave to Arab oil and the dirty Arab money that flows from it.

These countries know that they will be rewarded handsomely by lucrative military and engineering contracts with the Arab dictatorships, if they help protect Islamic terrorist by opposing US action.

This is the sad truth.

However, if the US knows that it might be attacked again (or is in fact attacked again) by terrorists being harbored in Arab countries, then the US will do what it needs to do regardless of the EU and third-world allies of the Islamists.

No doubt that all it will take is just one more exploding plane, like Islamist "Richard Reid" attempted, or similar terrorism that is somehow connected to Hizbullah, and Southern Lebanon will be the next target, no matter what the Arabs and the EU think.

My guess is that even now the odds are still 50-50 that the US will go into Lebanon and Iraq. But less so Iran, which is unfortunately more of a problem than either of the first two I mentioned.

[takeo]

"Takeo is patrially correct. The world does oppose the US fighting Islamic terrorism, although not for the reasons takeo thinks. "

The world didn't oppose the clean-up in Afghnistan, because it was a fact that Afghanistan taliban and Al-Quaida terrorists are practically one and the attack on the US occurred without any attack against Afghanistan, so it wasnt self-defense either. Also Russia and China suffered from afghan terror.

"Most of the world is nothing more than a pathetic slave to Arab oil and the dirty Arab money that flows from it. "

BS, the Arabic states have nothing to say in the world, the US everything, otherwise Israel would have been destroyed long time ago. Most Arab regimes are pathetic slaves of US-imperialism and their anti-Israel vocabulary is mostly used for internal purpose only. But if the US goes too far (like bombing Syria) it would have to happen via Saoudi, jordan or Egypt support, and this would provoke such violent reactions that it would bring the regimes to an end. Bombing afghan terrorists is one thing, helping Israeli expansionism is another thing.

"These countries know that they will be rewarded handsomely by lucrative military and engineering contracts with the Arab dictatorships, if they help protect Islamic terrorist by opposing US action. "

The EU don't care for the Arab dictatorships, which are pro-US and not pro-EU. the EU has a different approach than the US, tries to avoid violence as much as possible (many European countries also resisted to the Vietnam war) and want stability on their southern borders.


"However, if the US knows that it might be attacked again (or is in fact attacked again) by terrorists being harbored in Arab countries, then the US will do what it needs to do regardless of the EU and third-world allies of the Islamists.
No doubt that all it will take is just one more exploding plane, like Islamist "Richard Reid" attempted, or similar terrorism that is somehow connected to Hizbullah, and Southern Lebanon will be the next target, no matter what the Arabs and the EU think. "

Hesbollah will never be so stupid to attack the US, they know attacking Israel is somehow justified in world's eyes because of the occupation and the things we see every day on our television(destroying Palestinian houses, killing protesters, etc.) , attacking the US would be very stupid.

Iran has nuclear weapons and any attack on Iran might be VERY dangerous. besides iran doesn't conduct a terrorist policy against the US anymore and has russia as an ally (against the US and against the taliban terrorists and pakistan).
Any new attack on Iraq will be VERY unwellcomed in the entire world, the EU, china and Russia wants to see the sanctions lifted because Iraq hasn't conducted any terrorist attack or attack on its neighbours since more than 10 years. The arab countries see the striking discrimination of the US in dealing with Iraq and dealing with israel and they suffer massive economic losses. The uS has nowhere to launch its attacks, except some battleships.
And attacking syria or libanon would be the atmost stupidity, not only have they never attacked the US-territory, but as well these countries are struggling with Israeli aggression in which the US has never done anything to stop Israel. This attacks would probably provoke the most protests and reaction as they would be open support for israeli expansionism. It would be a deadly blow to pro-american arab regimes.

[L@mplighterM]

How about France.

[takeo]

try and see

[aid]

My candidates are France and Belgium.

Arab France will not fight. They are only good at pogroms.

Even when it was not yet Arab, it did not fight Nazis. Instead, it joined it.

The French can be taken when praying 5 times to Allah.

[takeo]

well, in 1940 France wasn't the thirth largest nuclear power yet...
Any country attacking France will be on a suicide-mission. we aren't defenseless Palestinians armed with guns and stones...
Today the whole world could see how sharon deals with people who could endanger his position, two days ago Christian militiamen Hobeida was ready to leave to Belgium to cooperate with justice about the involvement of Sharon and himself in the Sabra and Chatilla-massacre. today he died in a car-bomb that has a lot od similarity with the "targetted assasinations" conducted in the occupied territories. belgian and Frensh politicians as well as the whole Libanese society (christian and muslim) have already condamned Israel. Dutch (normally a good friend of israel) prime minister has publicly criticised Peres for the destruction of UN-funded projects. Peres could say nothing less ridiculous than '"the EU can continue to build new projects".
many politicians in the whole of the EU are talking about possible sanctions against israel, starting with a ban on the sale of weapons or even more far-reaching. sharon doesn't need much more to completely isolate Israel.

[NewsGuy]

"today he died in a car-bomb that has a lot od similarity with the "targetted assasinations" conducted in the occupied territories."

What's that supposed to mean? It much more resembles the "good old days" of the Arab vs. Arab exploding car bombs in Beirut. Don't forget that car bombs are a favorite Arab way of disposing of unwanted human baggage.

Of course, when there are no facts and Arabs get murdered in their third-world barbarian countires, who gets blamed by the Arabists? Israel of course. Standard procedure.

"belgian and Frensh politicians as well as the whole Libanese society (christian and muslim) have already condamned Israel."

Of course. These are countries that are pathetic oil-slaves and their Arab masters tell them what to think and what to say.

"Dutch (normally a good friend of israel) prime minister has publicly criticised Peres for the destruction of UN-funded projects. Peres could say nothing less ridiculous than '"the EU can continue to build new projects". "

Now I agree with you on this point that what Peres said is ridiculous. He should have told the EU that they should never waste their hard-earned Euros on investment in areas where terrorism is being harbored. All EU money has either gone to Arafat's personal bank account, which is of course in Europe, or it has gone down the drain, with its facilities used to support terrorism.

If the EU had half a brain they would spend their money on some good European food or some fine European automobiles and stop flushing their money down the drain in Islamic terrorist countries like Syria, Iran or the PA territories.

[takeo]

The US should stop waisting its money in funding Israel, a country that deliberately damages the US-interests in the Middle-east and doesn't wish to comply to the rules of the UN.
So you consider the palestinian state radio and television, the Palestinian airport(controlled by israeli soldiers since the beginning, no way you can convince anyone that destroying this airport would stop terrorism), and palestinian police-offices and prisons, to be terrorist institutions?
The EU paid for this infrastructure in the context of the Oslo-agreements, because Palestinians had nothing at all before 1993, Israel did nothing in the occupied territories except destroying, killing and building settlements.
The EU should demand from Israel to pay back the EU for this useless destruction, if not the EU should freeze all Israeli accounts in Europe.
about Hobeida, there hasn't been a car-bombing in libanon for years and this happened only a few days after he publicly made the assesment that he would go to Brussels to testify against Sharon, this got a lot of attention in Libanese, Israeli and European media. This raises some suspitions to say at least...

[takeo]

deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure is considered a war-crime in international law. it has as the only purpose to punish the palestinians as a people.

[aid]

Absolutely not.

Quite the contrary.

Enemy's infrastructure in time of war is the most legitimate target.

This is exactly what the NATO airforce was bombing in Yugoslavia.

One of the targets bombed was the building of the Yugoslav television where there were casualties - three were killed - janitors and night watchmen. The TV station was destroyed because it was a propaganda tool in hands of the Yugoslav government.

Another memorable episode was the bombing of a railroad bridge - exactly while a passenger train was crossing it. There were dozens of casualties.

Speaking of the bridges, most of them were destroyed in Serbia.

Takeo, you have probably forgotten your Marxism-Leninsm for a moment: legitimate everything that serves our interests.

[aid]

About "Hobeida" you are ignorant enough not to even know his name.

It is "Hobeika".

Your English is baby-like, OK, so you are a Frenchman, and no Frenchman has ever been able to speak decent English.

But this is not a matter of language.It is simple ignorance.

How can one with the baby grasp of politics make judgements regarding anything and everything?

On the other hand it is quite a familiar phenomenon: the less we know the more absolutist and extreme our judgement is.

[takeo]

"One of the targets bombed was the building of the Yugoslav television where there were casualties - three were killed - janitors and night watchmen. The TV station was destroyed because it was a propaganda tool in hands of the Yugoslav government.

Another memorable episode was the bombing of a railroad bridge - exactly while a passenger train was crossing it. There were dozens of casualties. "

This actions were illegitimate, as was this whole war against Yougoslavia. You won't win a war by destroying the television channel, destroying clinics, cloth and car-factories and infrastructure. the leader of NATO-troops general Wesley Clark said in an interview that he knew this was not legitimised in a real war but that it was necessary to break the spirit and economy of the yougoslavian people in order to win a war from above against a whole people. Hitler tried to to the same in the Soviet-Union, and israel in the occupied territories. if propaganda is a legitimate target of war than you won't mind of course if the next palestinian action will be directed against Israeli television channels, right? So according to you this won't be terrorism, right?
in comparisation with the Palestinians the Kosovars (both Islamic and using violence as a mean of liberation) had a lot of rights (they could vote, were not legally discriminated from Serbs, and Serbian settlements weren't build in the middle of albanian towns, ...) Kosovo was a recognised part of Serbia, palestine is not, and in the Rambouillet serbs agreed to leave the area for an international peace-force (however not nato). Even more so the Serbs were not able or allowed by NATO to fight back against militant groups(aided by Islamic extremists), if they did so they would have to face NATO-support for the albanian terrorists.
israel can do exactly what it wants, on land that isn't recognised as part of Israel.
that's what is called "double standard"...

[takeo]

yes, sorry, Hobeika.

"On the other hand it is quite a familiar phenomenon: the less we know the more absolutist and extreme our judgement is."

this is true. Your knowledge of any reality that isn't brought to you trough Israeli or zionist propaganda is very little to non-existant. Everything that isn't zionist propaganda is "bought by the Arabs"(sounds quite childish to me...). it is not just being ignorant, it is refusing to accept or to face any information that doesn't fit in your ideology.

[aid]

Double standard is yours: Israel is not allowed to defend herself.

In fact, by your standards Israel has no rights at all, even to exist.

That's the end of the road. Anti-Semitic road.

[takeo]

blabla
Israel can defend itself, but not on the expense of another people.
Occupation, building settlements and repression isn't self-defense.

[takeo]

by your standards the palestinians have no rights at all, even to exist.

[icarus5]

i am very sure that the next target of al qwida will be the pope at rome..
after all :for my point of view bin laden is at south west algeria...but for diel this issue i has to open a new thread,hope to do that at the futhure when i could do that...


icarus5

[icarus5]

sorry i made wrong:i read this wrong:i thought that how al qwida next target is...you are thinking..??
anyway this is very late at night,and i need to sleep,so good night


icarus5