Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Israel learns fast

Since the cease-fire putting a halt, at least temporally to the hostilities between Israel and the Hezbollah, I have been perusing the news services reading quite a few conflicting views pertaining to the future for Israel.

Contrary to the opinions of a few journalists and politicians, Israel did not suffer a defeat from this engagement, but they did break a cardinal rule of combat, they underestimated their enemy. Israel failed to take into consideration the ample time the Hezbollah had in which to obtain the proper military resources and financial backing to build, equip and train an military capable of fighting Israel. It is well known that Israel studies the tactics of the U.S. military as well as in-depth studies of our wins and losses, but they failed to remember a major lesson; if the opposing guerilla force has the full cooperation of the population it requires totally different strategies to overcome them.

Israel’s initial plan was to overcome the Hezbollah, destroy their infrastructure then upon their capitation disarming them and their abilities to further threaten the people of Israel. Battle plans change as does the means of battle and Israel quickly saw their initial goals were impossible to achieve without the total invasion of Lebanon and its total destruction, plans changed and although many feel they should have continued, they agreed to the cease-fire.

There are still many problems facing this situation in Lebanon, one of the primary being that most sources agree that the Lebanese Army, comprised of the Shiite Muslim faith and open supporters of the Hezbollah would openly refuse to stand up to the them if needed or ordered to do so, effectively creating a moot point out of the cease-fire.

Further, intelligence gathered from satellite and ground sources show the Hezbollah is already stockpiling a new resupply of rockets and within a few years will be at a 100% level fully capable if restarting the war. If this were, their true underlying plan then the Lebanese army would not stand in their way, leaving the decision to remaining peacekeeping forces, primarily the French.

Only time and history will be the deciding factor in this present conflict; if anything was learned it is never to underestimate again and the Israeli LDF tends to learn quickly. They also have a history of not forgetting too easily and getting even wherever they desire and we can bet the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will learn that lesson very soon.

The Ranter

4 comments:

L. Thomas said...

Well its your blog. But I think you put a way too positive spin on this. Israel got an arse whooping. I mean they got smoke, bashed, beaten and run outta S. Lebanon.

I was listening to Shep Smith on Fox who was interviewing Israeli Special Forces who told him, "This is hard, were not ready for this, were only children."

The Israelis have always depended on 2 active duty divisions to hold the line for 12 to 24 hours until the reserves can be called up. Many of the reservists had reported they had not trainned in 5 years.

Much of what you say is true. But to suggest they didnt get thumped is not true. They got thumped on the battle field, in the press, in the court of world opinion and in every home in the Middle east. I dont know what more can be said. They were toasted.

Im a strong Israeli supporter and wanted them to bash Hezzbollah with extreme prejudice so Im not an Anti Israeli Peace dove posting here.

Thanks........My opinion.

L. Thomas said...

Well its your blog. But I think you put a way too positive spin on this. Israel got an arse whooping. I mean they got smoke, bashed, beaten and run outta S. Lebanon.

I was listening to Shep Smith on Fox who was interviewing Israeli Special Forces who told him, "This is hard, were not ready for this, were only children."

The Israelis have always depended on 2 active duty divisions to hold the line for 12 to 24 hours until the reserves can be called up. Many of the reservists had reported they had not trainned in 5 years.

Much of what you say is true. But to suggest they didnt get thumped is not true. They got thumped on the battle field, in the press, in the court of world opinion and in every home in the Middle east. I dont know what more can be said. They were toasted.

Im a strong Israeli supporter and wanted them to bash Hezzbollah with extreme prejudice so Im not an Anti Israeli Peace dove posting here.

Thanks........My opinion.

Wild Bill said...

I dont thank Hez is gonna be able to hold off long enuff to do very much re-armin.. The celebratory mood of the ME is gonna insist that they attack the Jews again, and soon..
Israel is already talkin bout stayin put for maybe months more, and Hez aint gonna be happy and they are gonna be pushed into more conflict by Act-Mad-A-Jab..
From what I hear, Bebe is gonna be back in the drivers seat in Israel very very soon, and the next time Hez aint gonna even get close to a win, even in the Lib circles..
I just wish Americans had taken a long hard look at it and realized thats what happens when you have an anti-war pacifist in control.. And if the America haters dont get bitch-slapped back into their corner, the U.S. is gonna be in the same damn shape as Israel !!
Well, while you were on "vacation", I left a real good comment over at the Baron's and I thank it realy struck a nerve with em.. Sounded like it almost left Papa Ray speechless !! It was one of those that was so real and spot-on that it was scary.. I thank I said what folks really didnt want to hear.. I'm pretty bad about that tho..

The Old Ranter said...

Howdy upin smoke, (kewl handle) You are right too, this was a bad situation from the get-go. I am not supporting Israel, just a bystander, but they lost the media war ran by the Hezbollah and they lost big time. That building they destroyed with the people was a setup, pure and simple and they walked right into it. From that point on they could not fight as planned. So, from that point on it went downhill.
As far as an arse whipping, Nahhh. That remained to be seen yet.

Time will tell, but I can bet you Israel will think twice next time. They tend to have a high regard of their LDF and you know what, only human. That and the leadership had their heads in the sand thinking it was a slam dunk.
Thanks,
Ranter