Hezbollah can't be defeated, says UN force chief

[bemildred]

Some interesting bits.

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“A military victory will never be possible,” Major General Alain Pellegrini, the commander of UNIFIL, the acronym of the UN peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon, told The Times in an interview.

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Israeli troops have withdrawn from Bint Jbeil, the largest Shia town in the border district, after heavy street clashes against well-entrenched Hezbollah fighters caused high casualties.

Failed to "take the town", now will try to bomb it flat.

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Unfil estimates there are between 800 to 1,000 Hezbollah combatants deployed throughout the south, operating in groups numbering as few as 12 to 15.

Notice the small number of active fighters.

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“They are mobile, dedicated and willing to act. When there’s shelling, they’re not scared. They’re not sitting in bunkers,” he said.

TimesOnLine

[benburch]

1. No modern mechanized army has ever won against a guerilla force.

The only time these things end is when peace of some sort is negotiated.

[atreides1]

2. "as few as 12 to 15."

Sounds like a SF A-Team. Any former Green Berets out there?

[bemildred]

3. They have been described as SF before.

So far it seems a good fit.

[enigma000]

4. and the UN won a war when? n/t

[daleo]

5. Korea was supposed to be a U.N. police action

The first Gulf War was also supposed to have been a U.N. action (more or less), as far as I recall.

The U.N. has come in handy for brokering peace when the belligerents get tired of war. Some variation of that will happen here as well.

[IChing]

6. Algeria and other French Colonial experiences such as Vietnam

Make his analysis totally realistic.......his background


General Pellegrini enlisted as a cadet in the French Military Academy of Saint-Cyr in 1966.

He is a graduate of the French Military Staff College and of the French Command and General Staff College of Paris (France).
He has held various military appointments in his country and abroad, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, including command of a French Marine Regiment in Fréjus (France).

He served also as adviser to the Defence Minister of Benin in Cotonou and as the Defense Attaché at the French Embassy in Beirut (Lebanon). In 1995-1996, he served with the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNPROFOR) and IFOR in Sarajevo and Mostar.

In 2000, as a Colonel, he was the head of the Africa and Middle East Division at the Military Intelligence Directorate in Paris. Since July 2001, General Pellegrini is the special adviser of the French Chief of Defence Staff on issues related to Africa and the Middle East.


http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sga863.doc.htm