Did you happen to see Col. Ralph Peters on Bill O'Reilly tonight???
I just saw him..and he said that Israel has made a lot of mistakes..and the worst one is not hitting Hezbollah harder in a surprise attack at the beginning..in air and by land.
AND, he took a shot at Weasley Clark..by saying "With all respect to Gen. Clark, an AIR WAR just doesn't cut it..and talking won't do any good."...
He says that Israel, by not hitting them hard, and pausing, has lost the advantage..and even though Israel could take down Syria easily....Hezbollah is a different matter.
Now...having posted what Peters said...I think I remember hearing that the Hezzies had buried thousands of mines along the border....and so any ground forces would be slaughtered...
I don't know how ya'll on this thread feel about Ralph Peters' expertise...I just posted what he said...and I certainly am NOT qualified to agree or disagree.
CNN has a military general on now - saying the same thing - there must be a ground attack.
"Now...having posted what Peters said...I think I remember hearing that the Hezzies had buried thousands of mines along the border....and so any ground forces would be slaughtered... "
LOL! That's a good one! :)
Have you seen the videos of the Isaeli tanks?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T-GKplzI0k
Something you may notice is that military types tend to only look at the military picture, and only that part of the picture which falls into their area of responsibility.
I have nothing but the greatest respect for General Tommy Franks, for General Fred Franks, for the military record of Barry McCaffrey and Norman Schwartzkopf, but time and again reading their memoirs or hearing them speak, you can't help but notice this...nearsightedness...if you will. You can even tell roughly what rank a given officer retired at, McCaffrey, for example, rarely exhibits his military genius above division level, while Fred Franks tends to stop at Corps level and below.
It may be that such focus is part of the package, and that alternatives would result in less than sterling protection for those under their command, but when these people try to advise others, above their rank, on operational level or political levels, this limited way of thinking can be downright dangerous.
Israel has a professional military organization, one the whole world learned a lot from during the 1973 war. They may not have corps scale maneuver experience since then, but they are closely allied with the US military, partners in training in fact, and I consider significant blunders to be highly unlikely.
That said, it is a widely held belief that ground operations are required for winnowing out dismounted infantry, especially guerrilla forces. If, repeat, if, Israel decides against a large scale or any ground incursion into Lebanon, it will be because of valid military concerns, in the larger view, not incompetence.