IDF: 'If there's another war with Hezbullah, Lebanon is headed for the 8th century
In events marking the 6th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, senior IDF officers warned that because of the way that Hezbullah has embedded itself among Lebanese civilians, much of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure will be destroyed, and many Lebanese civilians will be killed in the event of another war. The Goldstone report which criticized Israel's operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in 2009, will pale in comparison to what will happen to Lebanon in a future war with Hezbollah, a senior IDF officer in the Northern Command said on Thursday.At least Assad is unlikely to benefit from a war right now.
"The destruction will be greater in Lebanon than in Israel and the amount of explosives which will fall there will be far more than what will fall here...We will need to be strong and aggressive," the officer said.
Brig.-Gen. Herzi Halevy, commander of Division 91, clarified the remark and told reporters that the destruction will be extensive due to Hezbollah's decision to establish its command posts and bases inside villages and towns throughout Lebanon.
Halevy, who commanded over the Paratroopers Brigade during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, said that Israel will take immediate action - from the air and on the ground - in a future war that will cause "extensive damage but not as a punishment but rather to hit the enemy where it is."
"The damage will be far greater [in Lebanon] than the Second Lebanon War," Halevy said.
...
Last week, for example, a small force of soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade were on patrol along the border when they spotted a group of LAF troops standing 20 meters away aiming their weapons - including an RPG - at the Israeli force. One of the Israeli soldiers, who speaks Arabic, heard the LAF commander dividing up targets to his troops. The Israeli soldiers called in a backup force which quickly arrived at the scene leading the LAF troops to withdraw.
As for Syria's hold on Lebanon and Damascus' control over Hezbollah, Halevy said it is hard to believe that a Lebanese offensive against Israel would serve any of Syrian President Bashar Assad's objectives at this time.Hopefully the current leadership will prove better in battle than Olmert, Peretz and Halutz.
The IDF is following the developments in Syria very closely, a top military source said. Should the regime be overthrown, Hezbollah may choose to strike Israel – or Israeli targets worldwide – "to set the tone."
As for concerns that various advanced weapons are, or will be, making their way from Damascus to Hezbollah, the officer said that "So far, we have yet to see things like surface-to-air missiles find their way from Syria to Hezbollah."
Labels: Hezbullah, Second Lebanon War, Southern Lebanon
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:52 AM
2 Comments:
Tell those guys who come across LAF troops along that border pointing guns at them to film it and put it on the IDFSpox channel on youtube and then tweet out the link. That way we can zoom in to see whether UN people are helping them. And we can freezeframe their faces and show them to the world.
I'm very glad to hear Gen. Halevy say this. Rumsfeld said again last week that American weakness is dangerous. Well, I'd add that Israeli hesitation is dangerous. Summer '06 we drove back toward Jerusalem at the end of our loop around the north as the soldiers were taken. The next day, a rocket hit some real military-type target, by accident it turned out, but everybody was thinking they might have actually aimed that rocket, which would have changed things.
Well, everybody in the north went into shelters where they stayed for weeks and weeks. There was a movie opening at a Jerusalem mall theater that the kids with us wanted to see. So we went over there and after we sat down, in walked a tall, smiling uniformed man. Everybody cleared a path for him and someone around us told us he was a general. Well you can imagine... I grew up as a military brat and whenever something happened, my dad would disappear for the duration. If he had time off, we might have gone to a movie in civvies, but to see that guy at the movies in that uniform while people in Haifa, for example, were actually dying in that railroad station. But, as always, I was very polite and did not go yell at him. :)
Anyway, that border with Lebanon has been settled and certified for years now and there is ZERO excuse for any trouble from there in the modern international way of things. So I hope you guys don't let the Condi Rices of the world shame you into letting your civilians be rocketed or attacked in any way. KICK THEIR ASS the minute any trouble starts. It's going to be interesting to see how the technology upgrades work as far as ever-improving precision strike... Do I sound mean enough? I hope so because we are headed for exactly the same situation on the US southern border.
tanks, infantry, and air forces provide cover for artillery and artillery can just sit there and work your target lists with variable accuracy but as much completeness as you want
Post a Comment
<< Home