Just now, ilostmypassword said:

While it is the case that Israel has been offering medical assistance to some Islamist fighters, I think it's a huge exaggeration to say that these fighters are in any sense the agents of Israel. It's more a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Whether rightly or wrongly, Israel is a lot more scared of Hezbollah than of Sunni Islamist fighters.

Medical assistance, field hospitals on the Golan, air support, training. Of course Israel is afraid of Hezbollah. They are better fighters. 

Just now, ilostmypassword said:

Lots of bad things are happening in the Middle East. Not all of them are because of Israel. 

And your point is?

37 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Does that caveat apply to all parties or just to Hezbollah?

All parties.  And we know who started the violence here. Assad.  That's well documented.

13 minutes ago, jgarbo said:

Hezbollah, Iran & Russia were invited by Syria to defeat the CIA/Mossad backed ISIS terrorists, which they are doing. The US has invaded Syria, while Israel continues its illegal occupation of Syrian land. Do some research.

I don't need to do research, but thanks for the suggestion.

 

I think you're partly correct BTW.

12 minutes ago, jgarbo said:

Medical assistance, field hospitals on the Golan, air support, training. Of course Israel is afraid of Hezbollah. They are better fighters. 

Please stick to the topic.

7 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

The issue was whether non governmental military organizations have the right to ask for foreign intervention. I was just pointing out that if one poster felt that if  rebel groups in Syria had that right, why not Hezbollah also?

 

I will try to make my position clearer.

 

Unless mistaken, justifications used in such cases tend to rely either on challenging sovereignty or a credible and serious threat to a specific group. Another common condition is that the organization asking for support will be a credible representative of the opposition or the group under threat.

 

In the case of the Syrian rebels, the first two did apply, whereas the third was doubted and eventually mostly fizzled away. Had the rebels been able to maintain a better degree of unity, both their invitation and the USA's presence would have been on more solid ground.

 

With regard to the Hezbollah, things are different. Hezbollah does not openly challenge Lebanese sovereignty, and there is no concrete threat to Lebanon which isn't directly associated with Hezbollah's own actions. Further, the Hezbollah does not represent a specific group being persecuted. While it doesn't represent Lebanon, it carries out policies which make Lebanon as a whole deal with the consequences.

20 minutes ago, jgarbo said:

Hezbollah is a legitimate political party of the Lebanese govt. Do some research before wasting time.

Political parties cannot usually initiate military agreements on their own. They do not normally have armed militias at their disposal as well.

4 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

When the American skies start being filled with assassination drones and jets targeting the President, then your comparison would be a valid one. Until then, it's really not too bright. I remember when Bill Maher made himself very unpopular by pointing out that, despite what was being widely said, the the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards. They sacrificed themselves for their cause. That's not the hallmark of a coward. They were despicable, but they werent' cowards. But calling your enemies cowards is the hallmark who are too overcome by emotion to think clearly. And it leads to believing that they will run away at the first sign of danger. That kind of thinking didn't work too well in Iraq.

I miss watching Bill Mahar and John Oliver on HBO. 

And here I thought that this is one Terrorist group just trying to say something bad

about the USA to make another terrorist group look okay. And the war criminal

leader of Syria deserves jail  and eventually death. In my opinion at least.

Geezer

1 minute ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

And here I thought that this is one Terrorist group just trying to say something bad

about the USA to make another terrorist group look okay. And the war criminal

leader of Syria deserves jail  and eventually death. In my opinion at least.

Geezer

Pretty much can guarantee Assad will never travel far outside his country any more.  France is working on prosecuting Assad for war crimes.  Fantastic!

3 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Pretty much can guarantee Assad will never travel far outside his country any more.  France is working on prosecuting Assad for war crimes.  Fantastic!

 

Assad wasn't big on traveling abroad even before the civil war. Most dictators do not trust their henchmen to hold the fort all that often.

 

Edit: Might be harder on his wife, though.

 

Just now, Morch said:

 

Assad wasn't big on traveling abroad even before the civil war. Most dictators do not trust their henchmen to hold the fort all that often.