How Hezbolla defeated Israel

[Bolshevist]

Part one: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ12Ak01.html
Part two: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ13Ak01.html
Part three: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ14Ak01.html

Pretty interesting read, hope it hasn't been posted here already and while I don't agree with Hezbolla nobody can deny their superiority over the IDF which performed awfully.

[Phalanx]

Foreign Policy (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/users/login.php?story_id=3596&URL=http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3596)

Here's a good counter article. I think it brings up several good points.

[AlwaysAnarchy]

I think in this situation we must be against Israel and for the defeat of Israel - Let us all be Hezbollah so that it defeats Israel!!!

[Severian]

The Asia Times Articles are kinda interesting. Mostly as a look at the incompetence of the Israeli military in this war - it's flawed in some of its other claims, especially the political ones. Keep in mind the authors are part of a group "advocating an opening towards political Islam".

Every army prepares to fight the last war. For the "Israeli Defense Forces", since the 80s, its main occupation has been putting down the Palestinian intifadas. With exceptions like the Jenin refugee camp battle, this mostly amounts to an extremely brutal policing operation. The IDF's become unprepared to fight a real war, as the article mentions.

But now the last war is this Lebanon invasion. It may take months, or years as the article's authors claim. But the Israeli military will become prepared to fight it.

Some of the stuff about Hezbollah's military strengths is also interesting. But this is the biggest new information about it:

In truth, the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers and the killing of eight others took the Hezbollah leadership by surprise and was effected only because Hezbollah units on the Israeli border had standing orders to exploit Israeli military weaknesses.
.....
The abductions were, in fact, all too easy: Israeli soldiers near the border apparently violated standing operational procedures, left their vehicles in sight of Hezbollah emplacements, and did so while out of contact with higher-echelon commanders and while out of sight of covering fire.

Lemme suggest those standing orders have probably now been changed, even aside from the complication of "multinational" imperialist forces and the Lebanese army in the area. Nasrallah's publicly stated that Hezbollah would not have captured the soldiers if they had expected such destructive retaliation.

No organization could make a habit of that kind of adventure and retain popular support indefinitely. Even now, while Hezbollah retains support in the Shi'a community and some other Lebanese, there's been a definite new polarization in Lebanese politics. The "March 14 coalition" people blame Hezbollah for bringing down Israeli retaliation on their heads. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6098322.stm)

So the article's kinda one-sided on that. It's definitely dead wrong on the prospects for Islamists to overthrow governments in Egypt, Jordan, etc. - whether in response to a U.S. attack on Iran, or under other circumstances. After decades of trying, Islamists definitely have a poor track record of success at that.

"Islamic fundamentalism" is in a long-term decline. It rose to prominence filling a leadership vaccuum. It benefited from the defaults, failures and betrayals of other forces seeking to lead the fight against imperialism - for example, pro-Moscow "Communists" and Nasser-like "secular nationalists". But like those forces, Islamists have also proved themselves an inadequate leadership. Despite temporary successes like Hezbollah's military accomplishments, they mostly seem powerful - as a symptom of imperialism's decline and disintegration.

[PRC-UTE]

Originally posted by [email protected] 02, 2006 03:07 am

"Islamic fundamentalism" is in a long-term decline. It rose to prominence filling a leadership vaccuum. It benefited from the defaults, failures and betrayals of other forces seeking to lead the fight against imperialism - for example, pro-Moscow "Communists" and Nasser-like "secular nationalists". But like those forces, Islamists have also proved themselves an inadequate leadership. Despite temporary successes like Hezbollah's military accomplishments, they mostly seem powerful - as a symptom of imperialism's decline and disintegration.
Wow, that's a very illuminating way to put it in context. The Weekly Worker said a similar thing - that the USA's failure in Iraq to create stability is a symptom of capitalism's general decline.