Israeli Restraint. - If so, did it help or hurt?
This weekend, I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine in the Canadian Military. (For the record he’s as conservative as they come).
In our discussion on the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, he made some interesting statements regarding Israeli’s military tactics during the month long war between Hezbollah and Israel. I haven’t been able to confirm his ‘facts’ but they have not been mentioned as of yet in liberal blogs.
He stated 4 ‘facts’ about the Israeli bomb strikes: (his words)
- Israel precision bombing is the best in the world, much much better than even the U.S. The ratio of missed targets to hit targets is militarily exemplary and was completely ignored by the media.
- Israel used restraint when bombing the Beirut airport, if they had wanted to remove it from the map, so Lebanon would be better off rebuilding in a new location, they could have. Instead, they calculated the minimum take off/landing distance for their aircraft which was 400 ft and pot marked all the runways every 400ft. They left the tower intact. (Note: This has been confirmed as the airport was re-opened on Aug. 17th)
- Israel again used restraint when bombing the bridges in Lebanon. All bridges were bombed in the center span. Leaving a gap at the apex. This is the easiest to repair, as the structural integrity is not completely lost - as it would be if Israel were to have bombed either one of the ends of the bridges which would have most likely collapsed the bridge entirely.
- No carpet bombing was employed.
Whether his statements are true or not, it brings to light two questions.
Was Israel’s response excessively disproportioned?
(I don’t believe so, it was always about more than the 2 captured soldiers.)
In employing restraint, did Israel help or hurt Hezbollah strategically?
(In this case, I believe they only improved Hezbollah’s position, the support for Hezbollah has increased in Lebanon regardless, the Lebanese people will not recognize any restraint. Israel has unwittingly reduced the bill Hezbollah will have to pay to further buy the support of Lebanese civilians. How long, if not already, before the next Syrian aircraft lands in the Beirut airport with a fresh supply of rockets?)
Update: It has been suggested that in my stating that Israeli's military tactics have helped Hezbollah, I was insinuating that Israel's military should have used even more devastating force! This is certainly not true, just the opposite. I am only saying that Israel is in a lose-lose situation, "Israel cannot win, Hezbollah cannot lose." Devastating Lebanese infrastructure wasn't a goal of the Israeli military. Neither was the loss of Lebanese civilian life, unfortunately the latter took place, resulting in a dramatic loss of international support. Lose, lose.
1 Comments:
Based only on personal experience on the very very few fist fights I've had in my life, going apeshit on the other guy is the only way to go - but you want to stop when they're beaten and no longer resisting too.
The beatee's friends looking on will duly note that you're not someone to be screwed around with or taunted in the future.
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