I am inclined to believe him as well, since he is usually (although not 
always) reliable. Actually, I read much of the article, and most of it is 
pretty common sense. Israel has never had pleasant a relationship with 
Hezbollah, and it had intercepted communication about the upcoming 
escalation on the part of Hezbollah and Hamas. I would imagine it had 
prepared response plans, as any decent military would do, even beforehand, 
but this communication gave additional reasons for concern.  It seems that 
US involvement in this was quite minimal: it so happened that Israel's 
security interests coincided with US interests in weakening Hezbollah.	I 
also have little doubt that US military has nuclear response plans for 
Iran.  Typically, military would have a number of alternatives 
pre-planned, so that when the crunch-time comes, they have many viable 
choices.  Just like football has set plays, so does the military... if 
it's at all sensible, that is.

Eugene

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006, Anthony Nicholson wrote:

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5eBrfrWoTk
>
> If you don't know who Seymour Hersh is, he exposed the Abu Ghraib scandal via

> an article in the New Yorker, citing insider govt sources. The same sources 
> have been feeding him info about how the administration is obsessed with 
> regime change in Iran.
>
> The link above is an interview with Wolf Blitzer about his article in the 
> upcoming New Yorker, alleging that the US and Israel pre-meditated the 
> Lebanon war months ago, waiting for any excuse to destroy Hizbollah, so Iran 
> wouldn't have their missiles as a deterrent against the eventual US invasion.
>
> Comments? I'm inclined to believe him, based on the extensive past track 
> record of his sources panning out.
>
> -anthony
>
>
>
>