Israel's Barak: Hezbollah Has 42,000 Missiles, Is Three Times Stronger Than 2006

My first question after reading this article at Nasdaq was, "How the hell did you let this happen, Barak?!" The report on the firepower buildup of Hezbollah by Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak is ominous, to say the least. Here's the details of what Barak revealed:

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told parliament Monday that the Shiite militant group Hezbollah is three times stronger now than it was during the 2006 Lebanon war.
"The firepower of Hezbollah has grown threefold since the second Lebanon War," he told lawmakers.
"It has missiles that can reach the towns of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona ( in southern Israel more than 200 kilometers from the Lebanese border). Today Hezbollah has 42,000 missiles."
Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at communities across northern Israel during the 34-day war in the summer of 2006, killing more than 40 civilians and sending another million fleeing south.

As to my question of Barak, I guess you could say he more or less hinted to the answer by this admission from the article:

Barak rejected calls by cabinet colleagues, including Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon and Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai, for a major ground offensive into Gaza to topple the Hamas administration there.
"To all the warmongerers I say: you have nothing to teach me about war or peace or my duties," said Barak, a reserve general and former army chief.

In other words, Barak is admonishing those that want to finally take an action against Hamas in Gaza but Barak is sitting on his hands. Just like he has sat on his hands for two years and let Hezbollah rearm to this degree.

I mean, seriously, this is no different than Western world leaders having to report to their peoples in a year or two that Iran now possesses a half doze nuclear warhead missiles. Won't there be millions, like me, who will ask again...."what the hell were you doing a year or two ago to stop this?!"

It's my contention that this all stems from the way that Olmert and Barak let the world media get to them concerning the 2006 War in Lebanon. The world media painted a despicably erroneous picture of Israeli operations against Hezbollah in that war and Olmert was so worried about his place in history, that he has decided to sit back and let all of the rearming of Hezbollah commence since then. And now, Israel is looking at the biggest regional threat to its welfare ever.

Hezbollah Now Three Times Stronger Than In 2006 War - Israel

JERUSALEM (AFP)--Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told parliament Monday that the Shiite militant group Hezbollah is three times stronger now than it was during the 2006 Lebanon war.
"The firepower of Hezbollah has grown threefold since the second Lebanon War," he told lawmakers.
"It has missiles that can reach the towns of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona ( in southern Israel more than 200 kilometers from the Lebanese border). Today Hezbollah has 42,000 missiles."
Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at communities across northern Israel during the 34-day war in the summer of 2006, killing more than 40 civilians and sending another million fleeing south.
Barak renewed warnings issued by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this year that in any new war Israel would take tougher action against civilian infrastructure than it did in 2006, when a power station and Beirut airport were hit and more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
"The integration of Hezbollah into the Lebanese state exposes Lebanon and its infrastructure to in-depth attacks in the event of a new conflict," he said, referring to the formation earlier this year of a national unity government in Beirut that includes Hezbollah and its allies.
The Israeli defense minister also renewed his support for an extension of the six-month Gaza truce with the Islamist Hamas movement that went into force on June 19.
"I do not regret any of the months of calm," he told lawmakers.
"In the months preceding the entry into the force of the truce, we were recording as many as 500 mortar or rocket attacks a month in southern Israel against just a dozen in the months since the truce."
Barak rejected calls by cabinet colleagues, including Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon and Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai, for a major ground offensive into Gaza to topple the Hamas administration there.
"To all the warmongerers I say: you have nothing to teach me about war or peace or my duties," said Barak, a reserve general and former army chief.