Photo of the day...week...year

Media wars are important - in some ways the most important part of modern warfare. Perceptions of who wins wars can be more important than on the ground results. That's how Egypt won and Israel lost the Yom Kippur War. I've written how Israel has been looking to redeem itself after the demoralizing results in Lebanon. I think this picture on CNN.com shows that whatever diplomatic blowback Israel will get - it has reestablished its goal of restoring the supremacy of its military capabilities.



The caption below reads: An Israeli soldier holds up an Israeli flag after leaving Gaza on Sunday.


You can't fake pictures like this, no matter how good your PR efforts are. Israel is leaving this conflict confident. Before I felt that Hamas would be able to claim victory no matter what happened; now I'm not so sure. This was clearly not a replay of 2006.


Whether or not this will actually have a postive effect on the Middle East probably depends on what your definition of postive is. I don't see how this victory fits into a long-term postive for Israel.