Israeli colonel attacks army

[IndianaGreen]

Israeli colonel attacks army

Commander says reservists were ill-prepared for battle in Lebanon and officers were out of touch

Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem
Sunday August 27, 2006
The Observer

An Israeli brigade commander who was a key player in the Lebanon war has accused senior army officers of being badly out of touch with events on the ground and of exposing soldiers to unnecessary risks.

Amid widening recriminations in Israel that are threatening to bring down the government, Colonel Amnon Eshel, commander of the 7th tank division, in an interview accused his division commander of being insensitive towards the plight of reservists who were called up at a moment's notice and ill-prepared.

Talking about events leading up to the ground operation Amnon said: 'I realised there was a problem with the readiness of the reserve regiment to carry out its mission. The regiment commander told me he was not ready. So I went to the division commander ... he told me: "I don't care, we're going in".'

Amnon returned to his division commander twice to request the order be changed and was rejected both times. In the end, he said, he subverted his orders because of his fears of mass casualties. Amnon, who made the claims in an interview with award-winning Israeli film director Nurit Kedar, commanded thousands of soldiers on the eastern section of the south Lebanon front.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1859324,00.html

[rodeodance]

1. tsk tsk.

[wakeme2008]

2. More I heard of the Israeli Army the more it sounds like

the US Army. Depending on weekend warriors with Vietnam era weapons and gear.

[tocqueville]

3. whatever true it may be, it's poor excuses for a blatant defeat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict

what do you call it when a militia of 1000-10 000 men (probably 2-3000) takes maximum 500 casualties according to IDF (probably half), destroys over 30 tanks, severely damages a warship and shoots down an helicopter, AND inflicts 120 casualties and wounds 400 soldiers of a 30 000 men army - considered so far to be the best and most modernly armed of the whole region ?

OK, the Lebanese civilian and material toll was enormous, but so was it in Vietnam.

the Israeli were militarily beaten, so they gave up. The pressure from the International community, plus the Israeli insight that all this was turning into a quagmire played of course a big role. Now they are in full damage control.

Sorry George, you lost in Iraq, you lost in Lebanon, and I do hope we don't lose in Afghanistan.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. "I don't care, we're going in". - Sounds like GW probly said about Iraq .

.
.
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No evidence of a real threat to the USA or any OTHER country for that matter

But DimSon probably said exactly the same thing

"I don't care, we're going in".

Israel is a pawn of the US Military

and I think the world is getting to realize it's time for the USA to butt out of other countries business

ALL empires over the millenniums have fallen

And the USA ain't showing any signs of brilliance,

Just raw unmitigated power.

That won't cut it.

[tocqueville]

5. the details are here

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2330624,00.html

I can confirm that the Hezbollah were about 2000 and the number of destroyed Israeli tanks 46, according to the article

this part is one of the most amazing :

Apparently using techniques learnt from their paymasters in Iran, they were even able to crack the codes and follow the fast-changing frequencies of Israeli radio communications, intercepting reports of the casualties they had inflicted again and again. This enabled them to dominate the media war by announcing Israeli fatalities first.

“They monitored our secure radio communications in the most professional way,” one Israeli officer admitted. “When we lose a man, the fighting unit immediately gives the location and the number back to headquarters. What Hezbollah did was to monitor our radio and immediately send it to their Al-Manar TV, which broadcast it almost live, long before the official Israeli radio.”

Hezbollah appears to have divided a three mile-wide strip along the Israeli-Lebanese border into numerous “killing boxes”. Each box was protected in classic guerrilla fashion with booby-traps, land mines, and even CCTV cameras to watch every step of the advancing Israeli army.

[Porcupine]

6. The Israeli's were forced into a trench warfare situation.

With the Hezbollah denying them the use of tanks and apc's they had no choice but to walk into fortified positions. At that point the defender has huge advantages that air cover only somewhat mitigates.

The IDF sent troops into trap after trap. Without a radical new tactic or technology to breakout the IDF's ability to go after rockets beyond it's borders will be limited at best. It's possible they destroyed all that stuff in Lebanon so they could show the folks back home that they were killing something, anything really.

To even temporarily disable 40+ tanks was an enormous victory for Hezbollah. Before this american style armor was certain death for any resistance. Those days are gone.