"Hezbollah Vows To Increase Its Involvement..." Topic

… In Syria's civil War.

"Hezbollah is fighting across all of Syria alongside the army of President Bashar al-Assad and is willing to increase its presence there when needed, the leader of the Lebanese Shi'ite movement said on Sunday.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of supporters via video link that the fight was part of a wider strategy to prevent groups like al Qaeda's wing in Syria, Nusra Front, and the ultra-hardline Islamic State from taking over the region.

"Our presence will increase whenever it should… Yes, we are not present in one place in Syria and not the other. We will be everywhere in Syria," he said during a celebration to mark the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from south Lebanon in 2000…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

Well … they are a better alternative than Daesh overruning the country … I guess …

I dunno.

Best thing is that they're busy killing each other.

Yeah, Hezbollah has become Assad's "fire brigade" of sorts whenever he's in a pinch…

Legion – Hezbollah have the rather progressive habit on not killing people because they disagree with them.

Lebanon is a multi-faith nation and Hezbollah seem to operate within it without annoying anyone ovemruch.

Or at least not organising massacres.

Which is a lot more than you can say for ISIS – or a number of organisations which have operated in Lebanon.

Actually Stu, Hezbollah's assassination of Rafik Hariri with a really big car bomb got a lot of press at the time. But the last time they assassinated a Lebanese opponent was 2013:

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Legion – Hezbollah have the rather progressive habit on not killing people because they disagree with them.

Sorry stu but I'm going to have to disagree with you again. I still see Hezzbollah, Daesh, Assad, etc. … as "bad guys" … I have to agree with cwlinsj …

Best thing is that they're busy killing each other.

I'm with CW on this, and sorry Stu, but you are wrong.

The differences are purely in degrees there are no good or bad guys in the region and anyone who wanders in with good intentions gets dragged down to the local level.
The original anti Assad alliance maybe were worth a bet but theyre a thing of the past. Best of a bad bunch might well be Assad himself.

The thing about wanting to be kingmaker in hte world is that you get to select the king from the existing pieces, not make your own.

Sometimes all those pieces aren't very good ones.

I don't think it's ever been proven Hezbollah conducted that assassination, and it's not like in Lebanon Hezbollah are the only practitioners of that art.

I'm not saying they're choirboys. Merely that they're a lot more releasable than ISIS.

And they don't kill people because they have a different religion – which is actually what I meant.

And, unlike the SLA, they've not massacred anyone so far as I can remember.

Stu,

I think the Jews in Israel would disagree with you over "don't kill people who have a different religion".

True enough but that knife cuts both ways, as does talk of assasination and massacre.
Lets not go there again…

Good and bad are relative and in the eyes of the beholder …

Yup – all shades of very dark and muddy gray round that neck of the woods, I wouldnt like to live next door to any one of em.

I think the Jews in Israel would disagree with you over "don't kill people who have a different religion"

The targeting of Israelis has nothing to do with their religion, in the case of Hezbollah. Hezbollah show little sign of giving a damn about the faiths of their enemies, given they've also attacked Arab-Israeli villages.

Villages which, for some reason, don't have bomb shelters like other Israeli settlements…

Let's remind ourselves that their backers, Iran, legally protect their Jewish minority.

The issue Hezbollah has with Israel, aside from it existing as a perceived colonial imposition, is that Israel still occupies a tiny bit of Lebanon.

Hezbollah also claims the gas fields offshore of Haifa:

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I really don't care whether the Hezbos are anti-Semitic. What I care about is that they repeatedly attack me and mine. The enemy of my enemy's second cousin once removed on his mother's side is…a matter of total indifference to me.

Your Friend, Li'l Satan!

I really tried not to go there, latto. Really. You don't have to come if you'd rather not.

When did Hezbollah attack Ohio?

They repeatedly attack one nation and one nation only. and, whereas I totally disagree with them for doing so, it has to be said the mess concerned is of Israel's' making.

But you can talk to them, you can negotiate with them and they don't make videos of burning people alive. They don't bomb Churches, or murder hundreds of people for being the 'wrong' sort of Muslim.

So, nothing like ISIS in fact.

Ummm, there was that pretty substantial incident in Lebanon in 1983, where they conducted a suicide attack on the US Marines trying to provide peace and stability there, resulting in 299 people killed (granted, they weren't killed for being the wrong sort of Muslims – they just killed them since they were American and French, and they didn't want them competing for power in their little Islamic-controlled fiefdom).

Seems to me their methods are pretty much the same, e.g. kill people by the hundreds, when and where you can, but the measures used are slightly different, e.g. suicide bombers instead of beheading people with swords.

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Of course, Hezbollah and their Iranian backers deny any responsibility, and yet Iran has erected a monument in their country to celebrate the attack.

So, Stu, that's people from at least three nations they've attacked in the region, e.g. the Israelis, Americans, and French.

They don't bomb Churches, or murder hundreds of people for being the 'wrong' sort of Muslim

But they kill Muslims all the time.

Hezbollah has killed plenty of Lebanese muslims (and Christians) for disagreeing with their domination of Lebanon. They blew up Rafic Hariri because he defied their Syrian overlords. They've bombed muslims in Egypt, Turkey, Kuwait, Cyprus, Bulgaria… and always choosing to go after soft targets due to ease and to spread terror.

The fact is, Hezbollah kills anyone who doesnt agree with their views, their faction, or who was born in a country or religion that they dont like.

Ummm, there was that pretty substantial incident in Lebanon in 1983, where they conducted a suicide attack on the US Marines

legitimate military target IMO…

I'll agree with Stu on this one, guys who employ targeted killings (albeit often with collateral damage) are still leagues ahead of ISIS, who consistently slaughter entire towns as soon as they occupy them.

"and where they make a desert they call it peace." -Tacitus

When did Hezbollah attack Ohio?

The Krauts and Japs never attacked Ohio … I was not a real big fan of them either …

Mako – the bombing to which you refer wasn't done by Hezbollah…..

And why are truck bombs any worse than, say, a cruise missile?

The point, which you and others fail to understand, is that their violence is political, not religious.

Which was my point. ISIS ar einto violence for its own sake.

Hezbollah, like the USA, uses it as a tool.

ISIS ar einto violence for its own sake.

Of course not. ISIS also uses violence as a tool, but in a different way.

We tend to demonize ISIS. They want to look demonic, they embrace shrecklichkeit as a tactic. Their goal may or may not be to bring on the apocalypse. But really, whether an enemy wishes to kill just me personally or the entire world, the difference to me personally is small.

You want me to negotiate with the Hezbos, Stu? What do you think I should ask for, that they will grant me?

Given they've never attacked America, why bother with them at all?

Answer my question with your question. Typical. Maybe you should shut me up with another doghousing. I hope you don't think you won that argument.

You make this game too easy. The Hezbos have sympathizers and operatives world-wide, certainly in Ohio:

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Possibly in Wales. No, I didn't say you were one, so don't touch that button!

The Hezbos have not yet staged an attack in Ohio. They are one of the security threats that local law-enforcement has on their radar. They have attacked Americans and others world-wide. They are plainly an enemy of the United States.

Here's my minimum demand for negotiation: Stop calling us Big and Little Satan. My name is Irving.

Well…. if they have absolutely no interest in you, one way or the other, perhaps you'd tell me what you could possibly negotiate about?

your link shows Hezbollah are raising funds in America. So did the IRA.

So it what way does it show Hezbollah are a threat to you again?

Are you worried about Kashmiri separatists hiding in your garden?

The Basques kidnapping your dog?

We're done here.

Yeah … I'm afraid … we are at an impasse. Regardless, the bombings of the USMC and French Para Barracks in Lebanon '83. Were support by Iran and Syria and the perps of those attacks were the precusor to Hezzbolah. Look it up, I've posted links many times previously on this topic. And we don't look at states taking precedent over the nation since the ACW, generally. But I'm sure Marines from Ohio were killed in that bombing. Regardless, they were all Americans. That is enough to keep and put Hezzbolah, Iran and Syria on my target list. For Heaven's sake, many in the region still call the West "Crusaders" ! And the USA was not even in existence during the Crusades !

I suspect the people responsible for that atrocity are Iranian backed and possibly have subsequently been associated with Hezbollah, but Hezbollah themselves have never been proven to have been involved.

To be Devils Advocate – if you spend you time fighting an IDF equipped entirely with US weapons, which is in receipt of massive US aid then it must be difficult NOT to regard the fortuitous arrival of several hundred US troops in your parish as a God-sent opportunity for payback.

Less excuse to hit the French, but someone should really have seen that coming.

Either way, you were poking your nose where it wasn't wanted, that's slightly different from attacking Ohio…

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Aftermath[edit]Search for perpetrators[edit]At the time of the bombing, an obscure group called the "Islamic Jihad" claimed responsibility for the attack.[113][114] There were many in the U.S. government, such as Vice President Bush, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane (who was formerly Reagan's Mideast envoy), who believed Iran and/or Syria were/was responsible for the bombings.[115][116] After some years of investigation, the U.S. government now believes that elements of what would eventually become Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, were responsible for these bombings[114][117] as well as the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut earlier in April.[118][119] It is believed that Hezbollah used the name "Islamic Jihad" in order to remain anonymous. Hezbollah eventually announced its existence in 1985.[120][121] To date, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have continued to deny any involvement in any of the bombings; even though, in 2004, the Iranian government erected a monument in Tehran to commemorate the 1983 bombings and its "martyrs".[17]

Lebanese author Hala Jaber claims that Iran and Syria helped organize the bombing which was run by two Lebanese Shia, Imad Mughniyah and Mustafa Badr Al Din:

Imad Mughniyeh and Mustafa Badr Al Din took charge of the Syrian-Iranian backed operation. Mughniyeh had been a highly trained security man with the PLO's Force 17 . . . Their mission was to gather information and details about the American embassy and draw up a plan that would guarantee the maximum impact and leave no trace of the perpetrator. Meetings were held at the Iranian embassy in Damascus. They were usually chaired by the ambassador, Hojatoleslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi, who played an instrumental role in founding Hezbollah. In consultation with several senior Syrian intelligence officers, the final plan was set in motion. The vehicle and explosives were prepared in the Bekaa Valley which was under Syrian control.[122]
Two years after the bombing, a U.S. grand jury secretly indicted Imad Mughniyah for his terrorist activities.[123] Mughniyah was never captured, but he was killed by a car bomb in Syria on February 12, 2008.[123

Again, Ohio is a state … not a nation … I was in the US ARMY … Not the US Ohio Infantry …

Nonetheless the only attack you can come up with is when the US Army went poking its nose into someone elses' war…

It could easily be argued the troops concerned were a legitimate target given its interest sin the region.