Even though it has strongly denied it, the Bush administration, notably Vice President Dick Cheney, was "closely involved" in the planning of Israel's invasion of Lebanon - planning that started well before Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers July 12.
In fact, the US told Israel it would be better to attack sooner than later so that the Pentagon has more time to learn from Israel's tactics to aid its own contemplated assault against Iran before Bush leaves office January, 2009.
According to several former and current US government officials, Elliott Abrams, a deputy national security advisor, and Cheney backed the Israeli plan, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker, an American magazine that closely tracks events in the Middle East. (A spokesman for Abrams denied his involvement.)
Both Bush and Cheney believed a successful Israeli aerial attack on Hezbollah's underground command-and-control centers in Lebanon "could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preemptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground," Hersh wrote. Cheney reportedly was enthusiastic about an opportunity to learn from Israel's attack for future US military operations against Iran.
As far back as spring, "under pressure from the White House to develop a war plan for a decisive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities," ranking US Air Force officials met with their Israeli counterparts. What's more, early last summer, before Hezbollah crossed into Israel to capture the two soldiers, Hersh wrote, several Israeli officials made separate visits to Washington "to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear."
A consultant to the US government stated, "Israel began with Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the
National Security Council," Hersh wrote. The Israelis outlined a major bombing campaign to start after the next Hezbollah provocation.
Israel believed that by targeting Lebanon's infrastructure, such as highways, fuel depots, bridges, and the Beirut airport, it could get Lebanon's Christian and Sunni populations to turn against Hezbollah, the magazine said. The plan was held to be "the mirror image of what the United States has been planning for Iran," a former senior intelligence official told Hersh.
US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps leaders are arguing a like plan against Iran carried out by the US Air Force will not work. They claim it will lead to sending in ground forces, just as the Israelis did in Lebanon.
Richard Armitage, deputy Secretary of State during Bush's first term, told Hersh: "If the most dominant military force in the region - the Israel Defense Forces - can't pacify a country like Lebanon, with a population of 4 million, you should think carefully about taking that template to Iran, with strategic depth and a population of 70 million." He added the only thing Israel's bombing accomplished was "to unite the population against the Israelis."
"The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits," a US government consultant said to have close ties to Israel told Hersh. "Why oppose it? We'll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran."
The New Yorker further reported that important intelligence being gathered by the US at White House insistence is being funneled "directly to the top" with little or no analysis by the National Security Agency in violation of its strictures. The source for this information, a Pentagon consultant, said Cheney "had a strong hand" in this development.
"The long-term administration goal was to help set up a Sunni Arab coalition - including countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt - that would join the United States and Europe to pressure the ruling Shiite mullahs in Iran," Hersh wrote. "But the thought behind that plan was that Israel would defeat Hezbollah, not lose to it," a consultant with close ties to Israel said.
One Middle East expert is quoted as saying Hezbollah's military showing "is a massive setback for those in the White House who want to use force in Iran. And those who argue that the bombing will create internal dissent and revolt in Iran are also set back."
"Strategic bombing has been a failed military concept for 90 years, and yet air forces all over the world keep on doing it," observed John Arquilla, a defense analyst at the Naval Postgraduate School. He told Hersh, "The warfare of today is not mass on mass. You have to hunt like a network to defeat a network. Israel focused on bombing against Hezbollah, and, when that did not work, it became more aggressive on the ground. The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result."
Source: IraqWar
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