Posted on 07/30/2006 5:03:30 AM PDT by frankjr
POUND for pound and pounding for pounding, the Israeli military is one of the world’s finest. But Hezbollah, with the discipline and ferocity of its fighters and ability to field advanced weaponry, has taken Israel by surprise.
Now that surprise has rocketed back to Washington and across the American military.
United States officials worry that they’re not prepared, either, for Hezbollah’s style of warfare — a kind that pits finders against hiders and favors the hiders.
Certain that other terrorists are learning from Hezbollah’s successes, the United States is studying the conflict closely for lessons to apply to its own wars. Military planners suggest that the Pentagon take a page out of Hezbollah’s book about small-unit, agile operations as it battles insurgents and cells in Iraq and Afghanistan and plans for countering more cells and their state sponsors across the Middle East and in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
To attack Israel, Hezbollah dispersed its fighters with no distinguishing markings or uniforms or vehicles. Fighters access the weapons only at the moment of attack, and then disappear. This makes preventing the attack all but impossible. It is a significant modernization of classic guerrilla hit-and-run tactics. Israel has been unable to significantly degrade the numbers of rockets because of this approach. Hezbollah fired more than 100 a day at the start of this conflict; they are still firing more than 100 a day, despite Israeli bombardment.
Hezbollah still possesses the most dangerous aspects of a shadowy terror network. It abides by no laws of war as it attacks civilians indiscriminately. Attacks on its positions carry a high risk of killing innocents. At the same time, it has attained military capabilities and other significant attributes of a nation-state.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Looking at the Hezbollah tactics of using rocket fire on Israeli civilian population centers (not the Israeli military) and Israeli counter fire upon Hezbollah fighters -- this war will soon reach a point where the Hezbollah civilian population centers will have to be destroyed to ferret out the terrorist-tactic fighters who hide amongst their people.
Notice how Shales (and by extension his masters at the NYT) relishes the supposed success of Hezbollah.
From their description it is plain to see that Hezbollah, is glorious in their eyes. I hope and pray that the NYT continues to lose readers and rots.
Oh, no! The sky is falling!
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)
Civilians who consent to be under the protection of Hezbollah are combatants.
Why can't we make out "finding" efforts easier by using drones to unleash huge amounts of sleeping gas over swatchs of Lebanese territory, to render every person unconscious for 6-20 hours (this is possible), and then have troops safely move in to sort out the wheat from the chaff, as it were. Air and troops campaigns are so obsolete. We have such technology and must put it to use.
Hezbullah has had years to build up its weapons supply. Syria and Iran have been providing them with arms for years. Hezbullah's supply is not infinite. They cannot fire 100 a day forever. More than likely, they are close to exhausting their supply. We need to follow the Bush doctrine. Go after the terrorists and the states that harbor them.
unless and until the east want to stop it, the only way this will ever be resolved is the final east-west war
it is Islam that we fight, every denomination of it
for them, it is everyone who is not islamic
U.S. military worried? Only if it causes an escalation in the war, which is probably inevitable anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, the hezbollah are indiscriminate, murdering guerilla fighters that now are being further coached by Syria and Iran with more technically advanced weapons systems. Does that make them worse, yes, both for the Israelis (temporarily; as long as the Israelis continue their defensive war against them) and for the general civilian population they hide among, even more so. The free world has to come to grips with the fact that the very nature of this kind of fighting (cowardly by western standards) will require mass indirect killing of civilians. There is no way around it, as horrible as that may seem. It's war and people are going to die. I suppose if the Lebanese government had some testicles, it would've attempted to rid itself of this cancer years ago, but it too is afraid to take on this scum being supported by Syria and Iran. I assume that until those who want some kind of lasting peace in the Mideast (won't happen given the nature of islam) understand that Iran and Syria need also to be destroyed, that this type of fighting will continue and arise from time to time, as it always has. Israel is doing the right thing; it has to if it wants to survive. It's enemies once again are trying to use the MSM and their own self-created victim status to sway world opinion to their favor; I pray to God the West sees these vermin for what they really are; enemies of free peoples everywhere in the world. They are the new nazis and communists, using similar tactics, except guised in a religion. A religion that is not one of peace, but of constant war against all those not of it's own.
Agreed. Amen.
Take Beirut, annex Lebanon, saturate with IDF.
Rinse and repeat throughout ME until clean.
BUMP
That new enemy is the New York Times, but contrary to the headline, it does abide by the laws of war - propoganda is an effective weapon, and the leftists at the NYT know how to use it.
Hardly...
Many are held there against their will, prevented from leaving as "human shields" for either preventing Israel from hitting them or if Israel does strike, their dead bodies serve as propaganda tools.
They are expendable pawns being used by Hezbolloh in their goal to destroy Israel and kill all Jews.....
No, I didn't notice any "relishing" on the part of Shales. I did notice a pretty good description of Hezbollah's techniques.
We are witnessing the greatest anti-freedom, anti-individual collective in the history of mankind.
Bald-er-dash.
Hezbollah isn't much different than the Japanese or the Hitler Jugend. The difference is the ruthlessness with which we are willing to prosecute war against them.
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