Isreal had been planning this war for a year.

Remember when I said that the Israeli military action was so rapid that it looked pre-planned? Well, it was. All they needed was an excuse.

Both sides had been building up to this. The capturing of the two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah ( I guess that's the new standard spelling ) was merely the catalyst.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...

Israel's military response by air, land and sea to what it considered a provocation last week by Hezbollah militants is unfolding according to a plan finalized more than a year ago.

In the years since Israel ended its military occupation of southern Lebanon, it watched warily as Hezbollah built up its military presence in the region. When Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers last week, the Israeli military was ready to react almost instantly.

So they'd been planning to bomb the crap out of the whole country of Lebanon for more than a year? Remember that Bush said that all that had to happen was Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit" and it's over. Well, if you plan for a year for a war on the slightest of provovations, surely you'll look for any excuse to set it off. The capturing of the soldiers isn't an excuse. Israel should definitley try to get their soldiers back. But even the Israelis know that bombing Lebanon back into the Dark Ages won't get those 2 men back. They're destroying an entire country and killing hundreds of people to retreive 2 soldiers? Hardly. Were the Pentagon and the Bush administration caught off gaurd by this war? Hardly.

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. Under the ground rules of the briefings, the officer could not be identified.

If this had been in the works for a year and US officials knew about it, why wasn't an evacuation strategy in place for a year? If the Israelis were ready at a moment's notice to launch an all out offensive upon a country where 25,000 Americans are, and US officials (and journalists?) knew about that, what kept them from having a rapid evacuation plan in place ready to go?

This whole thing smells to high heaven. And if this Wayne Madsen Report (scroll down to July 20) is true, these "Americans" who were in the know are equally responsible

Update:

U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.