Why Terrorists Make Lousy Leaders

Most terrorists are content to hide like cockroaches between their very public moments. Not Sheik Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon's Hezbollah. He coddles an image of himself as the leader of his nation.

Terrorists don't make such hot leaders though. Witness this AP report:

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 lead to such a war.

Hezbollah guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border raid July 12, which sparked 34 days of fighting that ended Aug. 14. Five other Israeli soldiers were killed as they pursued the militants back into Lebanon.

"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.

Ever wondered how a guy who wears floor-length robes backpeddles? Now you know. "Gee, we're sorry we wrecked the country, but we never, ever thought that would happen."

Note how Nasrallah attempts to focus the cause of the war on Hezbollah's kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers -- effective spinning, because it puts blame on Israel for over-reacting. That's much harder to do with the other cause of the war: Nazrallah's command that Hezbollah fire rockets by the hundreds into northern Israel.

One senses that Nasrallah's very capable media advisors see the tide of Lebanese public opinion swinging against the terrorist general-shiek whose adventurism cost so much destruction in their nation.

Related Tags: Lebanon, Israel, Nasrallah, Hezbollah, Hizbollah