As for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as a member of the Olmert government, his main personal failure has been his inability to convince the Pentagon to approve Israel's requests to purchase refueling jets and bunker buster bomb kits, and to permit Israeli jets to fly over Iraqi airspace.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Israel's fateful choice

He recently admitted that his own country's new bunker-busting bomb, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP, pictured above being dropped from a B-52), needs an upgrade to take on the deepest Iranian bunkers.

ECONOMIST: Bunker-busting

Perhaps it was a bunker-busting bomb.

CNN: Holmes: Iraqi capital still tense

With every gully an almost impenetrable trench, and every boulder a bomb-proof bunker, it is very easy to defend and almost impossible to advance through.

BBC: Afghan fighters' shifting loyalties

Like the bomb makers of old, they will then retire to their bunker, press a button and blow the whole thing to dust.

ECONOMIST: Magnetism