100 Hezbollah killed, but they only have 10 of their bodies?

[SoCalDem]

Ressurrection,maybe?..were they all named Zarqawi?

[Suich]

1. Has there ever been an estimate of how many members of Hezbollah

there are in Lebanon?

:hi:

[SoCalDem]

2. Insurgencies are fluid...It's like trying to get an accurate

count of viet cong.. These people LIVE among the people.. they are merchants by day, and fighters by night. They are not "assigned" to military units with "stuff".. they travel light..and are everywhere..

guerrilla wars only end when the general public can get "more" from the anti-guerrilla forces..when they abandon support of the guerrillas, the war's over.. BUT as long as the general public is getting aid and assistance from the guerrillas, they silently support them..

Poverty breeds opportunism..

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. And as you'll recall with the Viet Cong....

every time the body counts reported to the US audience went up, so did the strength of the VC.

[Suich]

4. Good point...

Is there any way to gauge what % of Lebanese people support/are Hezbollah?

[SoCalDem]

5. Out of sheer desperation, the support is going to go UP and UP

If you are hungry or your child is hurt, you will gladly accept help from anyone who shows up.. hezbollah knows this..

[Recursion]

6. Funny you should ask!

There are these ingenious devices called "elections" that determine just that; the one Lebanon just had showed that roughly 35% of the population (IIRC) supported a Hezbollah candidate for parliament.

Lebanon is a civil war disguised as a country; Syria held it together through repression. And now that Syria is out, Israel is making it worse, probably with the intention of destroying Lebanon as a state, since having Lebanon as a state for the time being means having Hezbollah as a part of its government.

EDIT: on reading, that sounds like I'm trying to belittle or be snarky with you; I was being snarky out of frustration with the whole situation, not because I thought that was a stupid question.

[Suich]

7. Check your PM.

[whistle]

8. The Israelis are using a 10% sampling method just like Alan Greenspan

...did to make monetary decisions and interest rate hikes