Putting it together
The US asks Israel to hold off on widening the ground assault:
The IDF General Staff postponed the expansion of ground operations in south Lebanon late Wednesday night, after the security cabinet earlier in the day approved a plan for a widened offensive that would take the army to the Litani River, over 20 kilometers from the border, and beyond, in an effort to prevent the incessant Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel.The troops were already rolling late Wednesday when they were ordered to halt. It appears heavy US pressure delayed the offensive to allow diplomacy to run its course. A senior minister said Wednesday that Israel might delay the expansion for 2-3 days for that purpose.
And then, a terrorist plot to blow up airplanes is disrupted:
A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.
It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft.
Let me draw the lines (not the ones Ace has noted):
- Israel is fighting terrorists
- The appeasement world calls them resistance fighters
- US asks Israel to hold off for a few days
- US and UK foil terror plot
Folks have been calling this the First Media War for a while. I'm glad to see our leaders have figured it out. An Israeli assault last night would have fought with this in the news cycle, and the "peace in our time" wing would have focused on that, or called the bombings a "natural reaction." Instead, we get to put, front and center on the world stage, very clear demonstration of the enemy that is radical Islam and its terrorist arms.
In a few days, Israel will begin her attack. She'll have the thirty days, uninterrupted by false diplomatic efforts, to deal with Hizb'allah.
For real coverage of the Londonistan plan, see:
Lorie Byrd at Wizbang (hey, Poli, regret driving her away yet?.
Ace of Spades.
Michelle Malkin wonders if the wandering Egyptians and the Dearborn terrorist supporters are tied in, and notes the spiral evolutionary cycle of Islamic terrorists and airplanes.
Lifelike Pundits takes the opportunity to skewer the anti-war-on-terror-or-anything-related-to-Bush left.
Brendan Loy, newly Orthogonal Moderate prognosticates that air travel will be FUBARed for a very, very long time.
USS Neverdock ups the count to 14 terrorist plots stopped and disclosed in 6 years, and realized that the BBC censors haven't caught up to the news cycle.
