Jul

31

Hard Men

July 31, 2006 |

Hizbullah prides itself on its secretiveness and discipline. “We don’t take anyone who knocks at our door and says ‘I want to join’. We raise our fighters. We take them when they are young kids and raise them to become Hizbullah fighters. Every fighter we have believes that the ultimate form of being is martyrdom.” The three men nod their assent.

Shia symbols and mythology play a big role in the ideology of Hizbullah, especially the tragedy of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet who in the 7th century led a few hundred men against the well-organised army of the caliph in Damascus. He was slain in Karbala, and Shia around the world commemorate these events in Ashura.

“Every one of those fighters is a true believer, he has been not only trained to use guns and weapons but [indoctrinated] in the Shia faith and the Husseini beliefs,” Ali says.
the guardian

This is a chilling and rather brilliant article. Beating hezbollah, which the Israelis must do and must be seen to do, is going to take a great deal of resolve and a degree of commitment and tactical sophistication which would be a challenge to any army.

About the only thing the Israelis have going for them is the relative size of the battlefield. Or at least the potential of reducing the size of that field. If the Israelis are willing to risk the forward position in the north of the Bekaa valey and a flanking attack to the West cut Hezbollah land in half and continued bombing and strafing of anything which moves along the Syrian border they have some chance of taking Hezbollah apart piece by piece.

That would, however, mean a six month to five year war and a war which is going to involve a lot of Israeli KIA and significant civilian casualties. Can Israel afford such a war. Can it say “Screw you” to Kofi and “world opinion” for that long?

Likely not and it may well be that the best the Israelis will be able to do is to take one or two of the patches in the Hezbollah quilt. Whether this will be enough militarily is an open question. It will certainly not be enough to prevent the hardmen of Hezbollah from claiming a tremendous victory.

Again, Israel has to box smart here and so far they have not managed to.


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