There are others who think Hezbollah didn't win

In a recent blog, I said

I'm not completely disheartened by the recent Israeli campaign in Lebanon. ... ...Yes, the Israelis were overly concerned about civilian casualties. I would have loved to see the Hezbollah destroyed. ... ... I criticize the Israelis for their modern loss of moral certainty,... ... I also do not think that the better thing would have been to fight no war at all.

As much as I would love to see Israel execute a clear, ruthless and decisive campaign, I also know that isn't going to be. I therefore view what happened as one step in a long series of steps. According to an op-ed by Amir Taheri in the WSJ (Aug 25th), there are signs that Israel's prodding of Lebanon in the recent campaign is having some effect. it is definitely worth a read.

Meanwhile, Kofi Annan is being predictably unhelpful. He says that U.N. troops "will not be used along Lebanon’s long and porous border with Syria to stop any shipments of arms reaching Hizballah" and "Troops are not going in there to disarm – let’s be clear.” The Israeli's need to nip this in the bud. They should ask the U.N. to hold off deploying until the U.N. can stop talking about all the things they aren't going to do, and instead explain what they plan to do. They should say: "don't come here unless you're serious about U.N. resolutions". The U.S. also needs to back them up.

It is important not to take the pressure off the Lebanese. They should understand that Israel expects a regular (if not uniform) improvement in their handling of the Hezbollah and is willing to help if they stay on track and hurt if they do not.