From Juan Cole
Sunday, July 23, 2006
War on Lebanon Planned for at least a Year
Bush Administration's Grand Strategy
http://www.juancole.com/
Informed Comment
Matthew Kalman reveals that Israel's wideranging assault on Lebanon has been planned in a general way for years, and a specific plan has been in the works for over a year. The "Three Week War" was shown to think tanks and officials last year on powerpoint by a senior Israeli army officer:
"More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to U.S. and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail."
More on the flip
I knew it. There is much more more to this in the piece, and the SF Gate has the original scoop. Bottom line: the mad rush and the world war is on for the last drop of oil. But that aint all. . it gets. . worse, if such a thing were possible:
That this war was pre-planned was obvious to me from the moment it began. The Israeli military proceeded methodically and systematically to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure, and clearly had been casing targets for some time. The vast majority of these targets were unrelated to Hizbullah. But since the northern Sunni port of Tripoli could theoretically be used by Syria or Iran to offload replacement rockets that could be transported by truck down south to Hizbullah, the Israelis hit it. And then they hit some trucks to let truck drivers know to stay home for a while.
That is why I was so shaken by George W. Bush's overheard conversation with Tony Blair about the war. He clearly thought that it broke out because Syria used Hizbullah to create a provocation. The President of the United States did not know that this war was a long-planned Israeli war of choice.
There is so much more in between; this is a heads up diary and hopefully someone more skilled at this will diary and analyze the story fully.