In article <SHAIG.93Apr15220200@composer.think.com>, shaig@composer.think.com (Shai Guday) writes:  |>    [snip] |>    imagine ????  It is NOT a "terrorist camp" as you and the Israelis like  |>    to view the villages they are small communities with kids playing soccer |>    in the streets, women preparing lunch, men playing cards, etc..... |>  |> I would not argue that all or even most of the villages are "terrorist |> camps".  There are however some which come very close to serving that |> purpose and that is not to say that other did not function in that way |> prior to the invasion.   The village I described was actually the closest I could come to describing mine.  I agree there may be other villages where the civilian population has deserted because it is too close to Israeli lines and thus gets bombed more often.  In such villages often the only remaining  inhabitants are guerillas and some elderly who have nowhere else to go. But for the most part the typical South Lebanon village is more like mine.  One where civilians and guerillas live together.  They are often inhabiting the same house.  Many families are large, some have members of the families involved in Hizollah, most others are not.  That is what is so hard of South Lebanon, Israel is not fighting an army with well drawn battle lines, but a guerilla tyoe resistance which by definition and necessity blends with the local populace.  Not because they are evil cowards that use women and children as shields, but because that is the only way one can fight a more powerful better equipped occupying army.  |> Some of the villages, and yours might well be among them, are as you |> describe.  Not all are.  There are a large number of groups in the area, |> backed by various organizations, with a wide range of purposes.  Hizbollah |> and Amal were two of the larger ones and may still be.  Hizbollah and Amal are now the main two militias.  Though Hizbollah people tend to be more committed to resistrance operation and better motivated by religious conviction.    As to retaliation, |> while mistakes may be made, that is still a far cry from indiscriminate |> bombing, which would have produced major casualties.  It may be a mixture of what we both say.  Sometimes Israel chooses its targets carefully.  At other times it just sends its pilots on sorties aimed at a town in general since it only knows that the  attackers came from that specific village but has no further intelligence.  On several occasions Israel retalliated against  civilian refugee camps, even in North Lebanon, just to show that it will not sit idly after its soldiers have been attacked. Most of the time it directs the SLA to do the dirty work and indiscriminately shell some Lebanese villages on the other side. I have experienced this shelling myself on several occasions, this is why the SLA militia is sometimes even more despised than  Israeli troops.  | |> Well, here we disagree.  I think that Israel would willingly withdraw if |> the Lebanese gov't was able to field a reliable force in the area to police |> it and prevent further attacks.  I hope you are right on Israeli willingness to withdraw, but I still contend that withdrawal would be the better course for Israel's security, since it would reduce its  military losses, and I claim that the Lebanese and Syrian gov'ts would be able to prevent any  further attacks on Northern Israel.    |>    There seems to be very little incentive for the Syrian and Lebanese |>    goovernment to allow Hizbollah to bomb Israel proper under such  |>    circumstances, and now the Lebanese government has proven that it is |>    capable of controlling and disarming all militias as they did |>    in all other parts of Lebanon. |>  |> No, the Syrian gov't is more than happy to have Israel sink into another |> Lebanese morass.  I could elaborate if necessary.  Hmm...  Here we disagree on what serves Syria interests better. I think Syria wants to have Lebanon all to itself.  It would be willing to guarantee Northern Israel's security in return for Israeli withdrawal.  I don't think Syria wants Israel to be involved in its protectorate of Lebanon.  Syria is sitting at the negotiating table because it has come to accept that and wants to get a political resolution.  A renewal of hostilities along the Lebanese front could put the whole ME peace negotiations back in question.   |>    I agree, only in the case of the Isareli soldiers their killing |>    CANNOT be qualified as murder, no matter what you say. |>  |> No, but it is regretable, as is the whole situation.   I agree that the loss of any human life is deplorable and regrettable.  |> -- |> Shai Guday              | Stealth bombers, |> OS Software Engineer    | |> Thinking Machines Corp. |	the winged ninjas of the skies. |> Cambridge, MA           |