Bush wants Israel to rout Hizbollah

According to Bloomberg.com, George Bush wants Israel to defeat Hizbollah once and for all in Lebanon.

The U.S. is banking on Israel achieving in Lebanon what years of diplomacy and conflict have so far failed to do: limit the ability of Syria and Iran to use Islamic radicals to undermine regional stability.

President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have signaled that Israel largely has a free hand in attacking the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. They have declined to set limits on Israeli action, and Rice says she won't engage in personal diplomacy until there is a clear path toward ending the extremist threat.

That would make this war work against Islamism the way the 1967 war did against Arab nationalism. Whether it will work this time is another story.