Dare we call it "lebensraum"?*

Hate to say "I told you so," but, with minor variations, I told you so:

Almost two weeks into its military assault on Hezbollah, Israel said Tuesday that it would occupy a strip inside southern Lebanon with ground troops until an international force could take its place.

The announcement raised the prospect of a more protracted Israeli involvement in Lebanon than the political and military leadership previously signaled or publicly sought.

And how long with the "international force" have to be there? Until Lebanon wises up and refuses to democratically elect Hezbollah to its Parliament? (No, that wasn't the provoking cause of this, but let's be realistic: this "solution" won't make Hezbollah go away).

How many other countries on Israel's borders will they want the same solution for? And does this mean the "two-state solution" for Palestine is deader than the dodo?

Magic 8 Ball tells me "Signs point to yes".

By the way, it's not an occupation, because:

They said the zone would be much smaller than the strip of southern Lebanon roughly 15 miles deep that Israel occupied for nearly two decades before withdrawing in 2000.

Anybody remember who forced Israel to leave even that much of Lebanon in 2000? Why should an "international force" have more luck staying there? Or more reason to?


*I realize that title is grossly unfair, but this entire situation has reached such a level of absurdity, I wonder if the entire world hasn't gone mad.