What has Hebollah gained?

Hezbollah has proved to be no pushover for the mighty Israeli war machine which suffered heavy losses in its ground offensive.

Hezbollah was also able to attack with missiles much of northern Israel and to empty it of much of its population during the course of the ground invasion of Lebanon.

Thirdly Hezbollah still has the Israeli soldiers it captured prior to the invasion and Israel will almost certainly have to release large numbers of its Lebanese prisoners if it is see them returned.

Fourthly with Lebanese refugees waving Hezbollah flags returning to their wrecked homes and guerillas still present in the surrounding hills an Israeli force north of the border looks increasingly unlikely.

Olmert and the Israeli High Command look likely to go in the very near future as the scale of the misdventure north of the border becomes clear.The damage to Israel's reputation has been immense.It has slaughtered hundreds of civilians ,mainly children in its indiscriminate bombing of towns,cities and villages across Lebanon.

Hezbollah has gained a huge amount of support across Lebanon with christians,shias and sunnis acknowledging its prowess in blunting the Israeli offensive .....Hezbollah's standing has also increaed across the whole of the Middle East.

The   carnage in the Lebanon makes an imminent American and Israeli attack on Syria and Iran more unlikely ,although the mad neocon war gang still seemed intent on such an attack in the future.

Lastly Blair's reputation in Britain has been still further damaged in Britain because of his role in the invasion of Lebanon.
hugo