Hizbollah have plenty of bunkers where civilians could be protected. Instead they put the civilians on the upper floors above the bunkers while brave Hizbollah terrorists (oops I mean militants) sit protected below them with their missiles.

If Israel had not evacuated the northern half of the country sending civilians (mostly children) south, Hizbollah would now be decimating the Israeli population. Even in this senario our TV screens would not be filled with pictures of dead Israeli children. Jewish law does not allow the dead to be used in this way and the Israel government respects this.

The other day Hizbollah hit a hopsital, luckily the patients were in the bunkers underground. If it had been a hospital in Hizbollah controlled Lebanon hit by Israel, believe me there would have been many deaths and many pictures of the bodies in the international press. Thankfully Israel does not respond proportionatly and hit a lebanese hopsital in return.

Hizbollah wants the high death toll:

• To prove that the civilians there "need them" to get revenge against Israel (for this war Hizbollah started)
• To get international support for a cease fire that recognises Hizbollah has a right to exist... something NOT recognised by the security council, Israel and Lebanon before this conflict.

In June of this year (just before the current conflict) The Military Balance reported that "Hizbullah is under increasing pressure to disarm from international and, increasingly domestic groups".

This war was started by Hizbollah for political reasons and to prevent the realisation of the international communitys expectations that Lebanon would control ALL its teritory and not have a Syrian proxy controlling half the country. Had this not happened, and had Lebanon been able to dislodge the Hizbollah based Syrian occupation... perhaps we'd be hearing about peace treaties right now and not the Lebanese children Hizbollah are using as human shields as they fire at Israeli children.

Lebanon with an army of 72,000 isn't strong enough to tackle Hizbollah... people outside the middle east need to re-evalutate estimates of Hizbollah's strengths. Add in the Syrian officers who are assisting them and the Syrian missiles that have been given to them. Then remember that Syria's armed forced are the 3rd largest in the region (after Iran and Egypt) and that their budget is US$1.5 Billion. For Hizbollah they can always spare a little.

The Syrian connection to Hizbollah must be stopped (which Israel has done by cutting off roads preventing resuply), but to prevent more Lebonese dead, Lebanon with support from friends needs to take over the task over cleaning out Hizbollah... as the UN security council agreed in resolution 1559. Only when the Syrian backed Hizbollah is out of Lebanon can the Lebanese people be safe. Other wise we will get a short respite as Syria rearms Hizbollah, then Hizbollah will attack Israel again, hide beneath Lebanese children again, and wait for them to die - again. If we want a better future we must hope for a long term solution and stand united against terrorists who use children as human shields as they wish for their deaths in order to make more impressive statistics.

Related story: Photos that damn Hezbollah