Lebanon: The Myth of Hezbollah’s Victory
Amir Taheri

Was it Tacitus who said, “Defeat is an orphan while victory has a thousand fathers”? Whoever said it, the dictum now applies to the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert boasted of a tactical victory, a day after the United Nations Security Council ordered a ceasefire. President George W Bush has also claimed another victory in his own global war against terrorism, without telling us how or why this was the case.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah went further by claiming “a strategic victory” which, taken literally, means that his movement is now in a position to crush not only Israel but also “Global Arrogance”, i.e. the United States, in the near future.

Taheri, writing in Asharq Alawsat provides this analysis of the recent conflict in Lebanon. He notes that each party can claim some sort of victory and that, with the sole exception of Lebanon, each also was far from losing. The people and the nation of Lebanon were the big losers.

[Thanks to Dave Schuler for noting a broken link to the original story. Link is now corrected.]