The whole war with Hezbollah thing has raised a few eyebrows among us armchair observers as well as among professionals who are paid to worry about stuff.
First was the surprise about just how many of the deadly, if inaccurate, Katyushas rockets Hezbollah had. Then there was the discovery of missiles packed with ball-bearings which had no military value whatsoever, and is only useful for killing and maiming civilians.
A real stunner was the revelation that Hezbollah had sophisticated anti-ship missiles which attacked an Israeli naval warship and seriously damaged it.
The incident occured close to 8 P.M., west of Beirut, when the INS Spear, a Saar-5 Class destroyer, was on patrol as part of the naval blockade imposed on Lebanon since Wednesday...
The missile struck the vessel near its helicopter landing pad at the rear of the ship. A large explosion caused the landing pad to cave in and be engulfed in flames that threatened the aviation fuel storage below
The blaze and the darkness made it difficult to discern the nature of the attack and the missing soldiers. Repeated count of the crew showed that four were missing. Only later was one body discovered in the rear of the ship.
The missile that hit the INS Spear was
Apparently two such missiles were fired on Friday night, one of them hitting INS Spear and the other a Cambodian-flagged freighter, 60 km off shore.
But the most surprising thing so far is the sophistication of the Hebollah fighting force.Bill Roggio of the Counterterrorism Blog reports
The Hezbollah fighters are well trained, and according to an anonymous senior military source, using ammunition and equipment such as armor piercing rounds, body armor, night vision gear and laser sights. Hezbollah also possesses mortars, RPGs, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, anti-tank missiles and possibly surface to air missiles to accompany their arsenal of short and medium range missiles capable of striking into the heart of Israeli territory. Hezbollah is using infantry tactics and fighting at the squad and platoon level.
This isn't a garden variety militia, but a well trained fighting force, the Iranian version of the Foreign Legion.
And it gets worse
Hezbollah also has built an extensive underground networks, including "fortified underground bunkers some 40 meters (roughly 120 feet) underground, along with mass weapons caches" and communications systems. All of this was built under the nose of the Israeli military and intelligence services, as well as the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
(Which, by the way, is more supporting evidence for my "The UN is Dangerous" theory)
It is quite clear from this that Islamist terrorism can not be treated as a law enforcement issue; when left alone, they become a military force to be reckoned with; nothing like what we've seen in Iraq mostly because we don't leave them alone. In Lebanon, the UN "peacekeeping" force (UNIFIL) left Hezbollah alone.
This is what state-supported terrorism can become when no one is paying attention.
This is what happens when Islamists are allowed to gain control of the machinery of State and the oil-money that can come with it.
This is why we must win in Iraq.
At this point there is no doubt that Israel has got to incapacitate Hezbollah. They are way too capable a force to leave alone. It is now clear that Israel is facing its most serious military threat of its existence. It can be argued that it is more serious than when it was attacked by five Arab states when it was a fledgling nation in 1948.
Israel will take casualties in this excursion. But when they are done the world must assure that Hezbollah can never again become as capable a force as it is today and most certainly no more capable than it is today.
But we can project from this that these are not simply people who are satisfied with terrorism as a tactic; they want a conquering Army.
If they are not stopped today, tomorrow we will be facing an army, not just suicide bombers.
Think about it very carefully.
