Olmert has shed new light on what is meant by the sharing of common values with the United States. According to Olmert, last year’s war with Lebanon was a success.
During his tour, Olmert acknowledged last summer’s 34-day war exposed problems in Israel’s military capabilities and said his government was fixing ”weaknesses” revealed by the fighting.
Still, flouting the popular perception that the war was a failure, he said Israel is better off today than it was at the outset of hostilities on July 12, 2006.
Given that the only thing achieved was the deaths of 1,300 Lebanese, 120 Israelis, the destruction of much of southern Lebanon’s infrastructure, and the elevation of Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah’s standing in the Arab world, one has to wonder what Olmert would regard as a failure.
Meanwhile, Olmert’s counterpart in Washington is preparing to tell us that progress is being made in Iraq, even though according to Bush’s scorecard, progress on eight of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress in May has been “satisfactory,” on another eight it has been “unsatisfactory,” and two are too close to call.… Furthermore, Al Qaeda has regrouped and is back to pre-911 strength.… …
Heckuva job, Dubya.