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War of the Rockets

[Washington Post] Jackson Diehl - For months now, Israel has been mired in an unwinnable war against Hamas and allied militias in Gaza, who fire missiles at civilians in Israel and then hide among their own women and children, ensuring that retaliatory fire will produce innocent victims for the Middle East's innumerable satellite television networks. A growing number of the militiamen have been to Iran for training, and some of the missiles they launch are Iranian-made. Their objective is to exhaust Israelis with an endless war of attrition while making it impossible for Israel's government to reach a political settlement with the more moderate Palestinian administration in the West Bank. Now U.S. forces have been drawn into a similar morass in Sadr City in Baghdad where Iranian-made rockets rain down on the Green Zone and nearby neighborhoods. It's not hard to grasp the common strategy at work here. The rockets fired from Gaza and from Sadr City are two prongs of an offensive aimed at forcing the U.S. out of Iraq, putting Israel on the defensive - and leaving Iran as the region's preeminent power. The third front, in Lebanon, is also the model. There the Hizbullah militia has armed itself with thousands of rockets and long-range missiles in preparation for a repeat of its 2006 war with Israel.
2008-05-06 01:00:00
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