Posted on 07/13/2007 10:17:28 AM PDT by Contentions
Who won last summer’s Lebanon war, Israel or Hizballah? A year after combat ceased that question remains hotly controverted. If nothing else, the continuing debate is testimony to the ambiguous nature of the outcome between one of the world’s most powerful armies and the rag-tag Islamic militia that it faced.
Since neither side suffered a knock-out blow, what indicators, short of total defeat and surrender, can be employed to evaluate the conflict? Because Hizballah was fighting a rocket war, firing a variety of projectiles into Israel’s north, one key question that must be posed is: how effective was Hizballah’s rocket campaign, and how effective was Israel’s response?
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
Considering the status quo a year later with Isreal not getting their soldiers back, the decision goes to Hezzbollah.
Hizballah, no doubt about it. Israel is going to rue their first defeat in battle.
Hezbollah ... first, they survived ... second, not only that, they emerged in a rather strong political position.
Israel, on the other hand, failed in it’s main objectives: 1) obtaining the release of it’s two catpured soldiers in the initial Hezbollah attack, 2) the disarming of Hezbollah, and 3) security in Southern Lebanon.
Neither had a “knockout” of sorts, but Hezbollah emerged in a stronger political position and has regained material and personel losses.
I disagree. I believe Israel won and my proof is the current situation in Lebanon. Olmert got what he wanted (minus the troops returned, he did loose in that respect). Olmert knew that there was absolutely no way that he could wipe Hezbollah of the map, but that wasn’t his plan (even if he did state). Olmert is a politician, and not nearly is thick as many describe him. I believe that the Prime Minister wanted the Lebanese government to be more responsible for the extremists gaining power in their country. He wanted the weak Lebanese government to be exposed, so that it could begin to rebuild. International troops were sent in to mediate the situation and currently the Lebanese troops are on the offensive against the terrorists embedded in their homeland. Israel did win and, more importantly, got what it wanted.
Of course, the country could have handled the war better, more objectives could have been achieved, but a victory is a victory.
As a bonus, they used probably room-temperature hostages to humiliate Israel, which is what Islamic terrorists do for a living.
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I doesn’t matter who won. What matters is that it was all Bush’s fault.
If nothing else, the “Green Helmet Guy” and Fauxtography being exposed did open some eyes.
From what I am reading in the local newspapers here in Jerusalem, it is viewed as a defeat. They are talking about how the reservists think another kidnapping in unavoidable.
What actual progress has been made in Israel in the development of anti-missile defense technology (especially against short-range missiles like Qassams) since the war last summer? Has that MTHEL technology been revived?
Also, it seemed as if there were problems last summer with vulnerability of Israeli tanks to Hezzie weapons, leading to more ground casualties than expected. Have the Israeli tanks been upgraded?
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