Israeli Leaders Admit Lebanon War Was a ‘Failure in Judgement’
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under fire from Israeli leaders who have concluded he took them to war with Lebanon “hastily” and without a solid plan.
From the BBC:
Retired judge Eliahu Winograd presented the findings of the six-month investigation at a news conference.
He said the decision to launch the war without a well thought-out plan showed “a severe failure in judgment, responsibility and caution”.
The aims of the war – to crush Hezbollah and force it to hand back two Israeli troops captured in a deadly cross-border raid – were “overly ambitious and impossible to achieve”, Mr Winograd said.
Some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the 34-day conflict, while the two captured soldiers remain in captivity.
Israel was almost universally criticized for the invasion, though some right-wing observers still defend the action. US officials, like former UN ambassador John Bolton, rushed additional weapons to the Israeli army, blocked an attempted cease fire and prolonged the conflict. For their part, those US officials say they are “damned proud of what they did”.
By admitting that misconduct and failures in judgment occurred, the Israeli government takes a definitive first step toward correcting the errors of the attack on Lebanon.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the US learned something from Israel here?
