Orde Kittrie, who is a professor of international law at Arizona State University, and a former State Department employee, examines the Iran connection with the Hezbollah-instigated war in Lebanon/Israel.

The big winner thus far in the clash between Hezbollah and Israel is Iran. Through attacks by its proxy, Hezbollah, Iran is deftly succeeding in distracting the world from the rapidly progressing Iranian nuclear weapons program. Iran's success brings it one step closer to one of its ultimate goals. That goal is America's destruction. As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has starkly put it: "God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States. . . . This goal is attainable, and surely can be achieved."

Read the whole thing.

The Iranians also say Israel is 'doomed to destruction'.

The New York Times reports that the Israelis are going to depend on airpower to defeat Hezbollah. If true, it will be a terrible mistake.

The NYT also reports that the U.S. is trying to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran. I hope that is true, because that would be a big win against the Iranian mullahs.

Benjamin Netanyahu explains why a cease fire makes no sense.

This is all about the wider war between the West and the Islamists. The Islamists are simultaneously fighting a civil war within Islam, and the Iranian mullahs are also maneuvering for regional advantage against the U.S., the Israelis and the Sunni Arab governments in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the like. But the major war is between the Islamists, both of the Sunni and Shia variety, and the West. Whether it is trying to terrorize Western nations into retreating from the Middle East or terrorize them into changing their laws at home, it is all the same war. I fear that our people do not have the stomach for it and that, therefore, all our technological advantages will do us no good in the long run. I hope I am wrong. I hope the fighting spirit that made the West the dominate culture on Earth has not drained away.