Israel Matzav

Prepping the Battlespace

This is an interesting and important analysis about what the IDF is doing in Lebanon. It makes it sound like this is only the beginning of Israel's assault on Hezbullah, and the real war is yet to come (an analysis with which I think Zev Schiff would agree, but he is looking at things from a different angle).

Hat Tip: Gershon in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York

One of the lessons America, and the world, drew from the lightning campaigns of Gulf Wars I & II was the importance of battlesplace preparation. That is, the conditioning of the battlefield's environment prior to initiating full scale military operations.

What we are witnessing in southern Lebanon is concurrent with actions designed to prep a battlefield for the insertion of ground forces. So far, Israel has relied on its dominance in sea and air forces to isolate Hezbollah, rather than focusing their brunt of their superior forces on actual enemy positions. By blockading the coast, neutralizing Beruit's airport, and damaging roads and bridges into and out of Lebanon, the IDF has cut off Hezbollah's supply routes by land, sea, and air, and blocked all lines of escape.

These isolation actions are eerily similiar to Coalition movements prior to Operation Hail Mary during the first Gulf War, where allied aircraft severed supply lines to foward deployed Iraqi Army units.

The end result is a battlespace that traps the now ill-equipped enemy force, the ideal environment for Israel to crush Hezbollah forces.

Read the whole thing. And let's hope he's right.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:22 PM