@ nhojsmith
i would look at the conflicts in tandem instead of separately. there is no doubt in my mind that Israel could destroy lebanon. There is no doubt in mind that the US could simply destroy Iran...but at what cost? all of the muslim world would converge on israel!!! this isnt checkers this is chess. just because a king can kill a pawn doesnt mean you will win the game. israel is hesitant to annihilate hezbollah because of the unknown backlash that would result, the same with US and Iran. Israel already knowds its not wanted in the middle east, thats not a question, but we are looking at timing and political consequence, risk vs reward, and slowly killing people and accepting your own casualties (back and forth between israel and palestinians) looks like a better option now than launching global jihad.
Total destruction of a country runs contrary to the objectives of conventional war.
The objective of war is not to destroy the enemy but to gain a strategic result.
Israel or the U.S. could drop nukes tactical or otherwise on a country and obliterate it, but that isn’t a victorious war.
Body count wasn't a good idea in Vietnam. It still isn't. Destruction of the enemy is never more than the means to a strategic end, not an end in itself.
Israel isn’t hesitant to destroy Hezbollah; it was their objective in waging that war. They failed. They lost. They were embarrassed on an international and domestic political scale. Annihilating Hezbollah does not mean annihilating Lebanon nor does the U.S. wiping out Iran’s Islamist government necessarily constitute the annihilation of Iran.
The strategic objective may in some cases to destroy the enemy's army and occupy his capital, but more likely, what we really want to do is something else. Keep enemy armor from massing. Halt an invasion. Take away the enemy's ability to command and control his forces, etc.
It was this type of goal that Israel held in the Hezbollah war. Not necessarily to invade and occupy or destroy all of Lebanon. Rather just to incapacitate or totally destroy Hezbollah. They couldn’t even halt the rocket strikes let alone diminish the command and control of forces. It has been a goal of the neo-conservative movement and the Israeli government to wipe out Hezbollah for years now. It is public; they don’t deny it. And when they tried at it, they failed. They got Syria out of Lebanon and they figured that was their opportunity to take out the weakened Hezbollah and they couldn’t. Imagine if they would have tried while Syrian troops were in there!
this is nonsense about the US not being able to beat Iraq. There is a difference between "beating" them and accomplishing dubya's one man mission. We are there trying to install our own brand of government, which isnt working, this isnt the same as "beating" them, we are more than effective at bringin pain and death and suffering.
Take World War II, for example, our real objective was not destroying Germany and Japan. In fact, as soon as the war was over, we turned our energies to helping them rebuild. Our goal was to stop their aggression, defend their victims, and restore order.
There was a similar attempt made at Iraq. The point was to remove sadam, the bathists, and eliminate the fighting ability of those who ran counter to US objectives. The point was to rebuild and create a model middle eastern society to serve not only as an example to others but as a template for further attacks.
The US’s inability to even provide for the most basic of infrastructural surfaces is enough to deem the Iraq war a failure all together. The successful guerrilla war waged on US forces just ices the cake. Once the “Tet Offensive” type event takes place (the one McCain is publicly worrying about) it will be the naked girl jumping from the cake telling everyone it’s over.