Israel withdraws troops from Lebanon

Jerusalem Post:

IDF ground forces operating in the southern Lebanon villages of Bint Jbail and Maround al-Ras pulled back on Saturday, and the IAF was striking Hizbullah targets in Bint Jbail.

An IDF official said Saturday that the army had never intended to take over Bint Jbail, and that the operations there were designed to strike at Hizbullah capabilities. This goal, he said, was "fully realized."

Earlier Saturday, the army confirmed that seven soldiers were wounded in Friday's fighting in Bint Jbail. One of the soldiers was wounded seriously, while the other six were in light to moderate condition.

IDF forces killed at least 50 Hizbullah operatives and wounded hundreds on Friday during the intense firefight. Most of the wounded operatives were from Hizbullah's special forces and had come to the village to shore up the regular Hizbullah guerrillas there.

Soldiers operating in the village found and confiscated dozens of guns and rifles, stocks of ammunition, grenades, mines, and five anti-tank missiles.

...

Israel's strategy appears very muddled at this point. It appears that Israel will continue to destroy Lebanon infrastructure and target missiles and Hezballah leadership almost exclusively with its air force. This pounding can degrade the Hezballah threat, but cannot eliminate it. It can drive up the cost of reconstruction for Iran and the Arab allies who want to rebuild Lebanon, which presumably will divert some funds that might otherwise have gone for rearmament. While this is a form of attrition warfare, it is not a strategy for victory. It appears that the destruction of Hezballah will be put off for another day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more