Posted on 07/26/2006 10:38:12 AM PDT by Sabramerican
Hezbollah is still launching 100 rockets a day at Israel, nearly as many as it did at the start of the war. Soldiers return from forays into Lebanon saying the network of bunkers and tunnels is more sophisticated than expected. And Iranian-made long-range missiles apparently capable of hitting Tel Aviv remain in the Hezbollah arsenal.
Israeli military commanders say they are not surprised. The struggle is so difficult, they say, because Hezbollah is an organized, well-trained and well-equipped force and is fighting hard.
“Hezbollah is organized more like an army than the Palestinian militias, and they are supported with some of the best weapons systems that Iran and Syria have,” said ..
“Never before in history has a terrorist organization had such state-ofthe-art military equipment,” from medium-range rockets and laser-guided antitank missiles to well-designed explosive mines that can cripple an advanced tank, General Amidror said.
At the same time, Hezbollah has no armor or easily visible storehouses or logistics lines, the Israelis say, and its members live among the civilian population of southern Lebanon, storing their weaponry in civilian buildings.
That is why Israel’s top commanders say this operation may take many weeks.
That is a judgment supported in Washington by Henry A. Crumpton, the former director of the C.I.A.’s campaign in Afghanistan in 2001-02 and now the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism.
Hezbollah has “been able to build pretty stalwart defenses, pretty elaborate bunker systems, and they are fighting hard right now,” he said Tuesday, adding, “So it will take a while for the Israelis to get in there and deny that space.”
At the Pentagon, senior military planners cast the conflict as a localized example of America’s broader campaign against global terrorism and said any faltering by Israel could harm the American efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Is it?
Losing what, turf? They will infiltrate back in. Casualties? I read this morning that the Israelis are only inflicting 5 to 1. That is a proportion that the crazies will take all day long.
How many miles do the Isralis have to occupy to get out of range of rockets with WMDs in the nose? How many casualties must they sustain in hand to hand fighting against hundreds of millions of Muslims?
Hizbollah is losing?
"Pat Buchanan has become a supremely ignorant old fool."
He is a bitter man.
GEts kind of hot under those hoods, I reckin...
Pat Buchanan is the 21st century Charles Coughlin.
The United States should provide Israel with military support, whatever it takes to kill the terrorists (Hezbollah, Hamas, any and all). At the same time we should start bombing Iran's nuclear sites, now.
Negotiating with terrorists is absurd. The only solution is to kill them as fast as possible.
"How many miles do the Isralis have to occupy to get out of range of rockets with WMDs in the nose?"
By this measure the Israelis would have to occupy territory as far as Pakistan.
"How many casualties must they sustain in hand to hand fighting against hundreds of millions of Muslims?"
The Israelis don't have to sustain ANY casualties in hand to hand fighting. There is another way, "reconnoitre by artillery", that is, flatten everything in your path.
The Israelis don't do that and suffer casualties because of it, but it is a mistake to think they can't.
Personally, I would tell all non-hostiles to leave, and use the "daisycutters", flattens everything, and sucks the air out of underground installations.
When Hezbollah doesn't hide among civilians, they get crushed quickly and effectively.
The number of civilian casualties in this conflict has been amazingly low considering that Hezbollah is using them as shields, and the number of strikes that the IAF has made.
It should also be noted the "officials" that are reporting the civilian casualties are "officials" in Hezbollah controlled areas. It is also difficult to tell the difference between a dead civilian and a dead member of Hezbollah since they do not wear uniforms, and Hezbollah attacks from within populated areas.
It's also notable that the reported number of dead Hezbollah members is laughably low.
The reporters are basically asking Hezbollah for reports on who was killed in IAF attacks and then presenting those numbers as unbiased facts.
All the pathetic demoraling, news that unfit to print. I HATE this paper.
Hezbollah is only a difficult foe as long as Israel pulls it's punches. The fact that Hezbollah is still fighting may work against them in the long run. It shows that more force will be required and it shows that stopping is not an option. I mean if they are firing 100 missiles a day during the fighting, what would they be doing if if Israel was not fighting back?
The Israelis should cut them off from the north and starve them out.
Dream on NYT. Israel is hardly having difficulty with Hezbollah. There only difficulty is in dealing with the international community and the slow pace they have to go in order to avoid civilian casualties. (interesting how noone condemns Hezboillah for hiding amongst the civilian population but they have plenty of criticism for Israel for accidentally hitting inncoent civilians) Israel is readily handling these terrorist thugs and could do so with even greater ease if they were to be unshaakled by the insane western notion of "fair wars" and proportional responses and other lunacies dreamed up by liberal psuedo-intellectuals.
We need a Nathan Bedford Forrest today!
Deo Vindice!
More interesting question is the source of their quality training. Neither the Syrian nor Iranian militaries have been known for particularly high quality.
It seems like the US needs to push Lebanon to move the civilians out of the border area. We can push this as a humanitarian move, but this will also help Israel defeat Hezbollah and begin the long process of ending support for Hezbollah within the Lebanese government. Physical seperation of the Lebanese civilians from Hezbollah will promote the concept of political seperation of Lebanon from Hezbollah too. Ultimately of course, it is essential for a regime change to occur in Iran so that Iran is no longer trying to dominate Lebanon and the Middle East through terrorist groups like Hezbollah.
That's a very good idea.
I suspect that the Lebanese government will object with a variety of reasons.
They will say that they shouldn't have to force their people from their homes so that Israel can more easily destroy their homes and cities.
They will suggest that it will cause a civil war, which it very well might do, but since we are trying to get the Lebanese to disarm Hezbollah what we are demanding is basically a civil war.
They will say that their military is too small and too weak to protect their people while they are evacuated, and that there must be a cease fire first so they can plan the evacuation and get people moving.
The real danger is that they might trap the Israelis into committing to a cease fire so the civilians can be removed, but not actually remove the civilians and keep making excuses for the delay so that it is difficult for Israel to restart the offensive.
Am I the only one who hopes that there's an inbound IDF bomber whenever I see rallies, news conferences, and demonstration with numerous thugs dressed like this?
I don't think the NYT is a reliable source for winning or losing.
In any event, suppose (for the sake of argument) Israel were losing, are you suggesting they stop fighting?
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