Retired Israeli military intelligence chief, Gen. Uri Sagi, got the same treatment that his U.S. colleagues received: a cold shoulder from the neo-con

Sagi joins Shinseki, Zinni, and other U.S. generals among the ranks of those who said, "I told you so."

July 27, 2006 -- U.S. faces military involvement in Lebanon. Just as it has occurred in the United States, the Israeli government disregarded advice from its former top military and intelligence officials about engaging in a bloody invasion and occupation of Lebanon. The neo-cons in the Bush administration similarly ignored advice from retired senior U.S. military and intelligence officers about invading and occupying Iraq. According to Haaretz, Israeli Major General Uri Sagi, the former chief of Israeli military intelligence, stated that a 1992, he and other military officers warned Chief of Staff (and later Prime Minister) Gen. Ehud Barak not to attack Beirut when Israel faced attacks by Hezbollah units. Instead, Sagi, Barak, and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin decided the best course of action was to open up discreet negotiations with both Hezbollah and Syria to defuse the crisis. The policy of secret Israeli talks with Hezbollah through Syria continued until Rabin's assassination by a right-wing Israeli extremist and the policy was personally supported by President Bill Clinton.
However, under the neo-con "Clean Break" initiative, Rabin supporters have been largely purged from the Israeli military and intelligence establishment and the current Kadima government unwisely adopted the policies of the Likud Party's chief provocateurs, Binyamin Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky, both of whom maintain close ties with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and such neo-con facilitators as Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, and Elliott Abrams. Abrams accompanied Condoleezza Rice on her window dressing trip to Lebanon and Israel.

Word from the war front is that Israel has bitten off more than it can chew. Facing 100,000 battle-hardened Hezbollah militia members, now reportedly being reinforced with U.S.-armed volunteers from Iraq's Shi'a militias, including Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Brigade, Israel is already talking about a temporary face-saving disengagement from Lebanon until U.S. military reinforcements arrive to bolster Israeli forces. The Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians and UN peacekeepers has resulted in strong diplomatic pressure being applied on Israel from a number of nations, with the notable exception of the United States, Britain, and Canada, all infiltrated at the top levels with neo-con agents of influence.

Former members of Israel's intelligence community have also criticized the Ehud Olmert government for acting too hastily in the attack on Lebanon. For example, Israeli intelligence was unaware of Hezbollah's possession of Chinese-made C-802 anti-ship missiles, one of which took out an advanced SAAR-5 missile boat off Lebanon's coast. There is also word that Israel was not aware that Hezbollah may possess longer-range missiles capable of reaching deeper inside Israel, some as far south as Beersheba and the Israeli nuclear weapons facility at Dimona.
Guess whose coming to dinner with Hezbollah in Lebanon? U.S.-armed Mahdi Brigade from Iraq.

The Israeli attack on Lebanon already involves joint U.S-Israeli war rooms and the involvement of U.S. military logistics and intelligence personnel operating from U.S. airbases in Israel. It is expected that U.S. military involvement will grow as Israeli forces continue to face stiff resistance from Hezbollah and its allies arriving from Iraq. >>>cont

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