John, as you well know, and as I have said before, Islamic extremism takes many different forms. Much as I detest Hezbollah and its crimes (and I do), you cannot make a simple equation that sees them as exactly the same as Al-Qaeda, although, to be frank, what is going on in the Lebanon at the moment is likely to narrow what differences there are between the two groups. As I shouldn’t need to point out, the struggle against Islamic extremism is extremely complex (and it needs to be waged on many fronts, military, ideological, counter-terrorist, you name it) and, as I’ve said before, it stretches across quite a bit of the planet and it involves a bewildering range of groups (where, for example, do you stand on the Chechens, John, a good number of whom are Islamic extremists?). When the US decides how to act, it should always have that wider picture in mind, something that I would think is uncontroversial. If we can agree on that, we can then surely agree that the US can look at the current situation in Lebanon as it should, as part of that wider picture. But unfortunately when I do that, I cannot see how it is developing to America’s advantage. A quick, effective, punitive raid across the border by Israel could well have been a very positive development, but this is something different, and if I had to guess, it runs the horrible risk of ultimately strengthening, not weakening, Hezbollah. I will be delighted to be proved wrong.

But rather than me repeating my concerns (as it happens, I’ve never laid out a ‘plan’) yet again, why don’t you tell us about your cunning plan, John? Is it to radicalize what’s left of Lebanon (we would do well to remember the circumstances that made an opening for Hezbollah in the first place), or is it to stir up still further the Shiites in Iraq? Or perhaps you are merely looking for the Iranians (and their proxies) to be given an ideal opportunity to sidestep traditional Sunni/Shia antipathy and pose as defenders of the entire ‘umma’. Or perhaps it’s simply that you do not think that there are enough extremists out there looking for an opportunity to turn the disaffected Muslim youth of Europe into the suicide bombers of tomorrow. Somehow, I suspect that it’s none of those things, but why don’t you tell me what you think the US should do and why you think that it will work out? I’m curious