Thank goodness for British criticism of attacks on Lebanon

Foreign office minister Kim Howells has said about the attacks on Lebanon:

"The destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children and so many people: these have not been surgical strikes. If they are chasing Hizbollah, then go for Hizbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation...I very much hope that the Americans understand what's happening to Lebanon."

I could not agree more. I cannot understand why viaducts, mobile phone masts and roads need to be blasted, and children and innocent civilians need to be killed in scores, to find the terrorists who have captured two soldiers. Mossad have been specialists in surgical assasinations over the years, how come their skills have suddenly deserted them?

The destruction of the Lebanese infrastructure is even more depressing because the Lebanese have spent years rebuilding their country after it was flattened in the 1980s.

Of course, the attacks on Israel by Hizbollah are disgraceful but the Israelis seem to specialise in destroying their own case through over-reaction.