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August 27, 2006
Nasrallah: Oops! Our Bad

Hezbollah admits that the war they provoked caught them by surprise in a television interview today. Hassan Nasrallah also told the Lebanese that he would not have ordered the operation had he known of the potential Israeli response:

"We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," he said in an interview with Lebanon's New TV station. ...

Nasrallah also said the United Nations and Italy already had initiated "contacts" about beginning negotiations on a prisoner swap. Israeli officials have been refusing to comment on the record about the prospects of a prisoner exchange, citing the extreme sensitivity of the issue.

But military officials said earlier this month that Israel is holding 13 Hezbollah prisoners and the bodies of dozens of guerrillas that it could swap for the two captive soldiers, but would not include any Palestinian prisoners in such a deal.

Nasrallah gave this interview while remaining hidden; he says he will not come out in public because the Israelis would assassinate him if he did. The interview also sounds rather strange -- a terrorist leader having to explain his actions to the people of his nation. Winners do not have to give explanations. Winners do not have to live the rest of their lives in hiding. The notion that Hezbollah won anything in this conflict seems less believable every day.

The Israelis appear more resolute than the initial reports indicated this morning. Israel appears to be holding a hard line on exactly which prisoners they will trade for their soldiers. If all Nasrallah can get back are the bodies of his own men and the handful of jihadis who got captured during the fighting, the Lebanese people will see who really won this war -- and they will not take very kindly to Hezbollah's destruction of the nation just for the sake of their Syrian and Iranian paymasters.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at August 27, 2006 3:54 PM

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» Oops! from Old War Dogs
Hezbollah head didn't foresee such a war BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would [Read More]

Tracked on August 27, 2006 6:18 PM

» Nasrallah: Can I Have a “Do Over?” from Cranial Cavity
The head of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, speaking from his secret hideaway, has admitted in a broadcast speech that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to a full scale war.“We did not thin... [Read More]

Tracked on August 27, 2006 6:55 PM

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