Israeli ground troops appear to be operating in southern Lebanon, in force since at least yesterday. According to Stratfor.com, there are "several Israeli brigades. . .between the Lebanese border and the Litani River."
Hezbollah militia forces are reported to be in bunker complexes, "launching rockets." Hopefully this means that the bulk of them are standing and fighting right there near the border, where the Israeli ground troops and big guns can get at them, and this is not just a rear guard covering the flight of the bulk of the terrorists. Standing near the border would be really stupid of them, but we can hope can't we ?
Presumably airmobile/airborne forces are operating somewhere north of the Litani, and also along the paths to the Bekaa Valley, barring escape, or attacking terrorists headed for the Bekaa.
ADDENDUM: For a good discussion of what's going on, and to see a spiffy relief map of the area, check out Wretchard's post "The Lebanese Border" at Belmont Club.
Also, we've been hearing all sorts of bunkum these past several days from the Usual Leftie/All Wet Suspects about the need for "peacekeeping forces" in Lebanon. Uh, beg pardon, but folks, there's a peacekeeping force there already -- the UNIFIL-- the "United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon." Their website is really nifty, and says that the UNIFIL boys and girls are there to "restore international peace and security." Be sure to check out the UNIFIL's really excellent map showing UNIFIL dispositions in the area. As Chester over at Adventures of Chester points out, all the fighting is happening right in the deployment area of the Ghana Battalion peacekeepers. Gotta wonder what kind of "peacekeeping" UNIFIL was up to while the Hezbollah people were crashing the border and grabbing Israeli privates. The "peacekeepers" don't seem to be doing so hot. Wet newspaper might even be better.
3 comments:
have been reading you folks over at chester.
good strategy talk.
sounds to me like the concensus is the israelis don't want syria involved. for military or political reasons. maybe making a deal with assad.
imo something has to be done.
this time.
something along the lines of sept. 1970 in jordan.
if not, this will only set the stage for the war six years hence.
put your map makers on notice.
borders must change.
walls are for raquetball.
buffer zones are for football.
but then again, imo, naming a los angeles class attack submarine "the jimmah cawttah" is dumb. naming the vessel "the andrew jackson" would mean giving the vessel a very wide berth.
condi needs to go shopping this weekend and the next.
kofi annus should tell his child rape specialists they are out of luck, just order room service at some 5 star hotel, and watch it on tv. not to worry, those flags/decals will prevent his car being towed.
off topic comment:
i'm surprised the french and italians have lasted this long. my guess is one would have surrendered by now.
I got the impression from Fox News that 'only' 30 rockets were fired into Israel today.
Maybe the HA capacity is being degraded at last?
I don't yet have the impression that Hezbullah is "degraded" signficantly. A lot of bombs have been dropped, and there is significant fighting along the border, but I am waiting for more evidence on how matters are fairing with the Israeli ground push.
I am somewhat concerned that the Israelis are putting so much stock in their air offensive.
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