Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Hezbollah still uninterested in defending Lebanese

One of the reported goals of Hezbollah is the defense of Lebanon, but by now no one should believe this. Their actions speak far louder than their words. So far the only military actions they have performed are offense missle attacks against Israel that do not differentiate in military or civilian targets. Hezbollah has acted against ground troops but this is completely in it's own defense.

If they were interested in defended Lebanon and the Lebanese they would have been trying their best to shoot down some of the Isreali jets that have bombed targets deep into Lebanon. There has been one report (from Hezbollah) of a SAM shoot, however absolutely no follow up which in real terms means it didn't happen. You know that if Hezbollah had actually shot down an Israeli jet they would have the media crews their lickety split. According to Brian Hoffman, a counterinsurgency expert at Washington's RAND Corp, "...it also had to be assumed Hezbollah had at least some surface-to-air missiles to take out planes, though there have not been any reported uses yet."

Most of us recognize that Hezbollah sees the Israeli bombings in Lebanon as another weapon for Hezbollah, a weapon in the modern media battlefield. For ever bombing that occurs Hezbollah has another opportunity to attract attention with the media of how Israel is killing, wounding or endangering civilians. This has lead them to concentrate on manipulating the media as their likely best weapon and the only one where they seem to have an advantage. But, as it currently appears, if the media stories influences the diplomatic actions then Hezbollah could win the "war" just based on this. So far few media have reported on this Hezbollah weapon, and none have put together what their strategy means as to the defense of Lebanon.

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