an israeli panel has found prime minister olmert responsible for israel's failings during last summer's war in lebanon. there shouldn't be any surprises there, he was the one who decided to attack.
i'm glad to see that the report seems to blame olmert for the decision to attack, rather focusing on the conduct of the war. i have plenty of problems with individual decisions the israeli military made during the conflict, but the bottom line is that there wasn't any way that the military offensive could succeed no matter how it was conducted. as i said when the war began, there didn't seem to be any plausible scenario where the war would come out favorably for israel (see also: "i still don't see how this offensive can possibly serve israel's interests in either the short or long term...").
sometimes it's not the conduct of the war that is the problem, it's the decision to go to war in the first place. that's basically what i think about this country's decision to go to iraq. sure, the u.s. did lots of stuff wrong that made things worse, but no matter what the u.s. did, there wasn't anything that would have made it come out well. and that's why i have so little tolerance for all the politicians who are now going with the "the war in iraq was mismanaged" line.
sometimes the only way to win is not to play the game.
