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www.politico.com

Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials.

Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the U.S. agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad strategy to shift Israel’s military focus to the north against Hezbollah in order to convince the group to engage in diplomatic talks to end the conflict, the officials told POLITICO.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
    6·
    3 months ago

    I was a teenager and not following the news when the US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Did it feel this shitty?

    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
      91·
      3 months ago

      This… Feels worse.

      Much worse.

      Iraq and Afghanistan were not, at the time, nuclear powers.

      Iraq had no real allies in the region.

      Afghanistan was also relatively isolated.

      That’s not the case with Lebanon. As proxy for Iran. A friend of Russia. A friend of north Korea. A friend of China.

      Iran won’t just shoot some rockets.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      42·
      3 months ago

      Demands on how high you were on your own ultra-nationalist supply. I remember hearing the news of the US invasion of Iraq and just thinking “It’s Vietnam all over again, fuck.”

      • ceenote@lemmy.world
        4·
        3 months ago

        All the same, I would think there was less a feeling of “we/they are over there to expand our territory and drive the residents out with unbearable bloodshed.”

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          4·
          3 months ago

          We had an excuse to be over there bombing their cities and butchering their citizens

          Didn’t you see the video at the UN? Aluminum tubes! That’s an existential threat to the United States. We had to invade.

          • ceenote@lemmy.world
            3·
            3 months ago

            I’m not disagreeing with you: both wars are/were unjustified. I’m speaking more to the difference in intent that’s on display. Nobody in the US ever intended to drive all the Iraqi people out, move white Americans in and make it the 51st state. That kind of ethnic cleansing is clearly Israel’s intent with Gaza, and seemingly with Lebanon.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              31·
              3 months ago

              Nobody in the US ever intended to drive all the Iraqi people out

              De-Ba’athification was intended to remove Iraqis from positions of power. And, to a certain extent, whole populations in the Sunni Triangle were being forced off the most valuable plots of oil producing territory.

              Similarly, in Afghanistan, Americans built up these Green Zone territories where native Afghans were not welcome.

              We never got to the point where we could just start homesteading enormous tracks of territory for European or American migrants. But that wasn’t for lack of trying. It was because civilians weren’t desperate enough to try and stake claims in the middle of an active insurgency.

              That kind of ethnic cleansing is clearly Israel’s intent

              Israel is much smaller than Iraq. And they have a large community of settlers ready to risk their lives for a piece of someone else’s land. Even then, it has taken them decades to reach this point.

              You can find large American expat communities in Mexico, Japan, Germany, Korea, Honduras and El Salvador… Anywhere we’ve sent soldiers in the last century really.

              The Israelis just happen to be more genocidal than our proxies in Okanawa or Taipei

  • SemioticStandard@lemmy.world
    41·
    3 months ago

    The situation escalated further Monday when Israeli special forces moved across the border, targeting Hezbollah’s tunnel network and other command centers, another U.S. official told POLITICO.

    If it were strictly this, then I would support that. But they haven’t shown any interest in avoiding civilian casualties. I haven’t seen any reporting that contradicts this stated goal as it relates to what they’re attacking in Lebanon. The US and IDF claim they’re going after Hezbollah tunnels and command centers, do civilians live in those places as well? Is this going to be like what’s happening in Gaza, or are they really only hitting terrorist targets? Anyone have any links to further reporting on that?

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
    3·
    3 months ago

    Looks like Iran fired off 4 salvo of ballistic missiles, ~400 total. Large number overwhelmed defenses a bit and they scored some hits. Vids are a bit terrifying. Jordan and US hit some of them. No injuries reported so far. Now we wait for the next move.