<div>On 7/27/06, mike larkin <<a href="mailto:mike_larkin2001@yahoo.com">mike_larkin2001@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> This is the part in the conflict where Fisk predicts that the U.S. (or Israel) is losing. A sure sign Israel is about to prevail.</blockquote><div> Mike, I am not sure why you say this.  Is it simply a matter of cynicism about Fisk? In my opinion he is one of the best journalists alive today, no matter how elitist his politics. I suppose I can understand the cynicism but I am not quite sure what you are trying to say.  So I guess I am hoping for an explanation. There is a sense that no matter what happens Israel is going to declare victory.  And the press in the United States in its doctrinaire way will half-way go along with any declaration of victory.  In this sense Israel's leaders are often "smarter' than U.S. leaders.  Win or lose they always declare victory.  Perhaps this is because they can't afford a defeat.  In the U.S. our leaders never learned how to declare victory and then cut and run.  Is this an indication of inflexibility among our childish rulers? Seriously, I think Israel has already lost.  They believed that they were going to wipe out most of Hizbollah's military capacity quickly.  It is not obvious that they won't and can't do this without a massive ground invasion which they have ruled out for internal political reasons. The Syrian regime's position has been enhanced by Israel's war.  From the point of view of the "Arab street" (I hate this cliche phrase but will use it as shorthand) the predictions that the Syrian leadership made upon its withdrawal from Lebanon were confirmed.  </div></div>I realize your remark was in the manner of an off-hand joke.  But I just wanted to point out that Israel's leadership seems surprised that they are suffering only a partial victory - which of course means a partial defeat.  Jerry