Lisa, I wouldn´t say the war was a *complete* failure. 1. Hizbullah were either unable – because the IAF destroyed them -, or unwilling – because they feared the consequences – to fire their long-range rockets. 2. They were also completely unable to fire rockets in barrages. Had they been able to do this the casualties and chaos in Israel would have been infinitely greater with blast effects multiplied and the emergency services under immense pressure. 3. Referring to the first two points; while the limits of airpower were definitely shown, its capabilities were too. There wasn’t a hint of a challenge to Israel’s dominance in this area. 4. No conceivable Israeli government is going to let Hizbullah back to the dominant position on the northern border that it enjoyed before the war. All that said, it’s obvious that many aspects of ground operations were seriously misjudged and that many lives were thrown away for no good reason. Even here though it should be remembered that Hizbullah possessed a critical technological advantage; shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons with two stage warheads capable of defeating the Merkava´s armour. So the wake up call about Hizbullah and what it means has been received, albeit late and at a terrible price in blood. And remember we have been here before. The IDF did very badly on a number of occasions in the immediate post-1948 period, Sharon nearly came unstuck at the Mitla pass in 1956, then there was Karameh in 1968, the war of Attrition didn’t exactly go all Israel’s way and the Yom Kippur War was a walk in the park by comparison to what happened last year. The IDF hasn’t always been invincible and won every conflict without breaking sweat and Israel’s Arab enemies have often fought well. The Six Day War was an exceptional event. So we should try to keep a balanced view of this. The war was a failure because a lot of lives were needlessly lost but let’s not get carried away with the wailing and gnashing of teeth. PS. Olmert, if he has a scrap of honour, should go. PPS. Isn´t it ironic, to quote a compatriot of yours Lisa, that Nasrallah is gleefully quoting from the Winograd report. Too many layers of irony to unravel here for sure. And I wonder when we are going to have the Leabanese Winograd report….