Regional War part 6.

That is exactly the problem. Unfortunately, Israel's military strategy in this war is very bad. They should've started a mass ground operation in Lebanon over a week ago to push Hezbollah back and destroy most of it's members close to Israel's border. And also to avoid high civilian casualties. Air strikes sooner or later will lead to mistakes and have virtually no chance of destroying hezbollah. The problem is that while they didn't have much pressure few weeks ago, now, after the butchered attack, they are on a very short leash and probably won't have a chance to even at least partially solve the problem.

What I am wondering now - is what Israel will do if Hezbollah launches a bunch of rockets tomorrow at Israel. Will they wait for 2 days or respond right away?

 

They've already said that the aerial strike cease fire will be over if Hizbullah launches rockets.

 

You know, you have different opinions from IM, but the two of you are basically the same. You're followers, and you have a need to pick a team. Free thinking is not for the two of you. If the two of you were germans born in the 1910s, you would have been in the crowd cheering hitler. This is not a comment on your political views, it's a comment on your personalities. And it's sad.

 

Yes, but that was an immediate life or death war which cost Israel 2656 lives! Do people want to see what an Israeli ground invasion looks like where they'll sacrifice thousands of soldiers? I hope not.

 

Fair enough.

But if the question is about the Israeli land incursions, it's worth mentioning that Israel has lost only 33 soldiers. Saying that Israel hasn't achieved any objectives (which isn't true) ultimately is nothing more than baiting Israel into taking a more aggressive posture. As far as Israeli land wars go, it is the equivalent of several hours total, not nearly three weeks.

 

Even in the first phase before taking out Sadaam?

 

Again, you might be right, but I still say its way too soon to tell.

 

You are comparing apples and shoes - all those previous wars were fought against regualr armies, not terrorists who fire rockets, then hide in civilian buildings - thus it is much more difficult to "win" in a short time without inflicting too much damage to civilians, which what Israel has been doing since the start of the campaign.

Also, for the total not winning situation, don't you find it a little odd, that Hezbollah has not stated any casualty numbers, when IDF said 300+ of them have been killed, at least? That no rocket has hit Haifa in the last couple of days, that IDF has been destrying the missiles and rockets and that maybe Hezbollah are in their last gasps of firing so many rockets without doing much damage? Do you not think if international forces can guarantee Israel it's northern border security that a victory is won, or if Lebanese Army can guard the border and Hezbollah won't be able to use the same infrastructure as before?

 

I do wonder why Israel has tread so lightly. Im guessing it's because they don't consider the Lebonese the enemy. If that is the case then they should have prepped the Lebanese for the war rather than going in by surprise.

 

Here is a very different look at what is happening and why:

 

Just curious. Has Kofi Annan made any statements against Hizbullah?

 

Sometimes one has to wonder if Kofi is paying attention to what he's saying.

 

lightly? tell that to the Lebanese civilians

 

Would you really want to know what Lebanon would look like if Hezbollah did this to anyone other than Isreal?

 

You don't think more would be dead if Israel decided to move faster and more completely eliminate Hezbollah?

 

Isreali Brigadier comment on the IDF successes

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...0728/mideast_herzog_060728/20060730?hub=World

 

Some of you guys are hopeless!

What 'success' exactly did this Israeli Brigadier mention that everyone else has missed??

He doesn't even offer his own assessment, but rather qualifies his comment by what he is 'told'.

 

Israel intentionally underestimated and withheld information regarding the magnitude of its (early) losses in the 1973 war, releasing the full tally only after the conflict had concluded.

Regardless, what is confirmed even by the IDF is that at least 33 soldiers have been killed, several hundred soldiers wounded, quite a few tanks destroyed, damaged, or disabled. And two helicopters have been lost as well.

The assault on Bint Jbeil was using a force of several thousand troops, led by Israel's elite Golani Brigade, backed by air support. They were going against a force of several hundred Hezbollah fighters. In that context and within that calculus, the Israeli losses have been quite high.

 

In that context and within that calculus, the number remains the same, very low.

 

If you add up Israel's dead and wounded, you end up with more Israeli soldiers taken out of the fight due to casualties suffered than the size of the entire force they were battling. Nevermind that they weren't able even take control of Bint Jbeil, as they had falsely claimed they had already, or achieve any military objective from the fight. Except brandishing clearly exaggerated enemy casualty figures.