The Truth About Lebanon’s Cost Of War

A great deal has been said, shown and written about the damage Israel inflicted upon Lebanon. By all accounts, the estimated cost to rebuild all that Israel destroyed in this war which was caused exclusively by Lebanon is several BILLION dollars.

Now this sounds like a great deal of money. And to the likes of you and me, it is. But, on a national or international scale, it is really nothing more than pocket change.

To put it into perspective: Egypt receives several BILLION dollars every year from the USA as part of the Jimmy Carter bribe to bring Egypt to the peace table more than a generation ago.

Montreal must spend several BILLION dollars just to repair its antiquated and damaged underground water system. And the Big Dig in Boston cost $14.6 BILLION and still counting.

So, in perspective, a few BILLION dollars isn’t such a big deal to rebuild an entire country. So how much damage is there?

With a tight camera shot, it is easy to make a few collapsed buildings look like a destroyed city block. And a destroyed city block look like a city in ruins.

It’s not as if the media hasn’t done a hatchet-job on Israel in the past.

Like – as in just yesterday.

We hear and read about all the bridges Israel took-out.

What’s a bridge?

The Golden Gate is a bridge. But so are 50 foot expanses which straddle wide creeks and little rivers.

And if Israel took-out dozens or even hundreds of those – so what?

To me, it’s not what the media says about the destruction. It’s what the accountants estimate the cost of what the repairs will be. And if it all comes down to several BILLION dollars, Lebanon got off pretty cheap.

Then there’s the deal about the Lebanese civilian deaths.

How do we know who was a killed civilian, or a killed member of Hezbollah, since Hezbollah hides amongst civilians and wears no uniforms?

How do we know that of the 1,000 “claimed” Lebanese deaths, most of them weren’t Hezbollah?

Better yet: How do we know that 1,000 Lebanese even died as a result of Israeli attacks? It’s not as if the Arabs have never lied about their casualties or staged the outrages they wanted to show the world.

The truth is we don’t know. And we never will because that’s the nature of the Arab Middle Eastern Beast. They lie, cheat and invent truths for their own benefit.

But an uncontested estimate of ONLY several BILLION dollars to repair all that Israel broke tells the story.

And if ONLY 1,000 people died as reported by the Lebanese, as a result of all that bombing, Israel deserves a humanitarian award for fighting the most civilian careful war ever.

Then there’s the other part of the story people don’t write or speak about, such as:

Who gives a damn about what happened to Lebanon? I don’t.

Given the chance to overrun Israel and drive the Jews into the sea or to their Jewish graves, the Lebanese people would be dancing in the streets along with Arabs, Moslems and other assorted Jew-haters worldwide.

So, why should I care about the beating Lebanon took for starting and supporting a war against an innocent neighbor?

The world is focused on the Big Bad Israelis and what they did to poor little Lebanon, even though it was Lebanon which started the whole damned thing.

What about Arabs and Moslems murdering other Arabs and Moslems throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa? Hardly a whimper.

But, when it comes to Israel defending itself in the least aggressive manner possible, from an unprovoked attack, the world can’t pile-on fast or hard enough.

As I wrote in the preceding; Lebanon got off lucky.

Had there been a real Prime Minister and a real Defense Minister in the Knesset, the cost to rebuild Lebanon would be in the hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars and not just a few.

And instead of crying about a thousand (or probably less) casualties, the Lebanese would be digging themselves out of a whole new definition of hurt.

They REALLY can consider themselves lucky.