Israel will not attack Lebanon unless it is itself attacked by Hezbollah from Lebanon. So, how can Hezbollah's attacks on Israel be stopped?

1. Hezbollah could be militarily crippled, and prevented from rebuilding. This cannot be done from the air. It requires a ground war, and then an effective occupation force, which could be Israeli, international, Lebanese, or some combination.

2. Hezbollah could be denied the weapons necessary to attack (rockets) or defend (anti-tank weapons, etc). They primarily get these weapons from Syria and Iran. Weapons imports could be blocked or reduced. Syria nor Iran could be influenced by international demands. Israel or the US could take direct (military) action against Syria and Iran.

3. Hezbollah could be deprived of the motivation to attack. This is complicated and I don't fully understand it - I believe they are motivated to attack Israel partly by Syrian and Iranian instructions, partly because it gains them popular/political support in Lebanon, and partly for their own ideological reasons.

4. Hezbollah could be deprived of its popular support and thus its ability to hide in Southern Lebanon. Again, this is complicated since to the locals, Hezbollah provides social services and other desired things, in addition to doing the popular thing of attacking Israel.

And

5. The other option is to persuade the Israelis to tolerate rocket attacks and raids across the border. To some degree, they have tolerated some level of this, without taking a great deal of action, in the past.

Anyway, I would think along these lines. If none of them lead to an answer, then I would say there is no solution and a war will go on at the Israel/Lebanon border for a long time, occasionally interrupted by temporary ceasefires and peacekeeping efforts.

Options 1 and 2 along with the dramatic and devastating application of force, total, overwhelming force, force that ammounts to total destruction, and possible ellimination of all Hesbollah, will work. But does anyone have the balls to implement a real solution?

In the long run, this destructive, ruthless, approach, may be the most humane of all. As to effectiveness, its tried and proven, over the millennia. all other so called peaceful approaches have failed and so far resulted in far more death and destruction than the ruthless solution. The way to end war, is to win.

Who was it in the other thread that suggested turning the entire region to glass? Oooooh, shiny...........

how about listening to what the other side say they want

as I recall the hezbo's want their guys back
over a thousand people jailed by the jewish state in their invasion of lebanon more then ten years ago
as these people were prisoners of war and the war was over
for some time now
this doesnot seam a radical idea
but instead now the jewish state is off on a mission to round up more people and kill or inprison them
that hardly is the cure to the problem long term

I realy donot think there is a good side bad side in this mess
both are religion based nuts
and god is not a real estate agent for eathor
but as long as the west sees one side as gods choise
and the other as evil we may get cease fires but never a real peace

That would go to #3. Would a prisoner release remove Hezbollah's interest in attacking Israel? I am doubtful.

BTW I am not saying which is the "good" or "bad" side, and I am not much interested in that issue.

Ah yes, the old "give em what they want and they will turn peaceful" idea.

Israel pulled out of the Gaza strip, even forcibly removed their own citizens from their homes and turned it over to the Palestinians. For that they got increased suicide attacks inside Israel. Great idea.

OK, I shouldn't listen to the news, but Fox or CNN aired results of a poll of UK Islamics taken last month. More than 50% considered themselves Islamics first and Brits second, and a fairly large number thought that the west causes the terrorist attacks because of their poor treatment of Islam.

If true, we're in deeper than we thought...

Religion trumps civility.

Drop the bomb on Iran. They are the ones who are financing/backing Hezbolah. Just a couple of days ago, Iranian regulars were found among the dead in southern Lebanon identified by the iranian military i.ds they were carrying.

It's easy to start a war, there are enough nutzos on both sides. It's easy to end one, there are enough weapons on both sides. Is there any way to keep this one from going global?

In my best Marvin voice, "I am so depressed". :(

Yor are spot on. If we could end this by dropping the big one on Iran and kill many innocent people in the process (as long as they are not americans) I would say go for it. Only problem is that no one knows how this would really end. Secret treatys between Russia and Iran could result in a very nasty response that would not be to our benefit.

But Iran is taking a very big gamble, the ruskies may not actually honor such a treaty, the US may get to the point where we say damn the consequences and go for it. Who knows? No one.