[Abcdxxxx]

Yeah, I'm of the opinion that "buffer zones" are a cop out. My guess is that Koffi Annan's stunt worked, and Israel's new government were never 100% resolved to complete the job in the first place.

There's been a fair amount of "what the fuck are they doing?" to the entire operation. "Why are they hitting Lebanon?" became a lot less of a question once Lebanon started to declare a less transparent unity with Hezballah.

Israel secured their main water source today, which might not matter on the World peace meter, but it's huge for the sake of Israel's own security. Other then that, there's too much talk of what Israel hasn't or can't do. Too much talk of Israel's failures in this response. Partly because they're not staging reports for CNN, and they actually release information to the press. There may be something to showing the Israeli army as human, since a huge criticism against Israel has always been that they are the ones who wield power in the region. This is the first time since 1973 that people are connecting the dots between small proxy armies and their huge State sponsors to show that it's Israel not versus a small downtrodden people but Israel vs. the rest of them. Note the Holy War talk is also back in fashion, so I think this war has helped to clarify the situation for the World. I doubt that's all by Israeli design though... so I haven't really answered your question...because we really don't know yet, and unfortunately, you make some good points.