Nasrallah on Their Minds……………
“Hezbollah's redeployment and rearmament indicate that its next clash with Israel is unlikely to focus on the border, instead moving farther into Lebanon and challenging both the military and the government. The situation is important for U.S. efforts in the region, whether aimed at curbing the influence of Hezbollah's patrons in Iran or at persuading Syria to moderate its stance toward Israel and its neighbors. Hezbollah "learned their lesson" in 2006, when vital intelligence enabled the Israel Defense Forces to destroy the group's long-range launch sites in the first days of the conflict, said reserve Gen. Aharon Zeevi Farkash, a former head of IDF intelligence. In effect, he said, "the 'border' is now the Litani River," with Hezbollah's rocket sites possibly extending north of Beirut…….. Israel, meanwhile, lost more than 100 troops and uncharacteristically large numbers of tanks, helicopters and other equipment -- prompting it to rewrite its war doctrine and adjust its perception of Hezbollah's militia. Military analysts now see Hezbollah not as primarily a guerrilla force but as an organization that practices "hybrid war," mixing classic guerrilla tactics with the strategy, equipment and capability of a standing army. In a 2008 report for the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute, analysts Stephen D. Biddle and Jeffrey A. Friedman concluded that Hezbollah had performed more effectively in 2006 than any of the Arab armies from Egypt, Syria or Jordan that had fought conventional wars with Israel over the years, and better in some ways than the Iraqi army in its two wars with the United States……..…”
I could have told them exactly what the report for the US Army War College did. and for free. In fact I already have told them so here on this website more than once. It takes only one sentence, not a whole long-winded report. "Hezbollah has done better than any Arab army has done, or will do, in modern times, simply because it won or at least it did not lose".
I know, I know, Hezbollah is a fundamentalist organization that is funded and armed largely by Iran. I do not agree with it ideologically, but Hezbollah is not nearly as fundamentalist as the Salafis of Taliban, nor as the Salafis of the Arab world for that matter. Not nearly as fundamentalist as the Afghan Mujahideen Salafis of the 1980s whom Ronald Reagan armed and financed. Conicidentally: the Taliban dominate a large part of the Pashtun who represent about 40% of all Afghans. They don’t represent most Pashtuns, but a large part of them. Herzbullah represents an even larger part of the Lebanese Shi’as, a huge majority of them, and they represents more than 40% of Lebanese population (the Shi’as), making them the largest group in the country. Hezbollah is also part of the Lebanese cabinet, something that the Taliban may be offered. It has Christian allies representing close to half Lebanon’s Christians, something the Salafi Taliban will never have. Besides, are there any Afghan Christians?
Just comparing. Interesting comparison, no?
Cheers
mhg
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