Posted on 01/31/2013 5:58:01 AM PST by Pan_Yan
“THE conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” Henry Kissinger’s observation, made during the Vietnam War, should be haunting Hezbollah, the Middle East’s most capable guerrilla force, as it becomes embroiled in an increasingly costly effort to save the Assad regime.
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Hezbollah’s military commitment in Syria is no less obvious. Since the conflict’s outset, Hezbollah commanders have joined their counterparts in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in advising the Syrian military in its crackdown on opposition strongholds, in addition to training a reported 60,000-member militia to protect Alawite communities in Syria’s coastal northwest. Thousands of Hezbollah-linked fighters have helped protect roughly 20 Shiite Syrian communities along the Lebanese border from sectarian-motivated attacks by hard-line rebels. Hezbollah is said to have used its arsenal to shell Sunni border communities acting as rebel strongholds.
Reports indicate that Hezbollah recently expanded its actions in Syria to include its most valued resource — its highly trained and strategically irreplaceable special forces units. Hezbollah’s secretive military wing is reportedly composed of 2,000 to 4,000 professional soldiers and thousands of reservists hailing from Shiite villages south of the Litani river and the Bekaa Valley, meant to be called into action to repel a future Israeli invasion.
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Most recently, Hezbollah’s reported deployments near Syrian chemical weapons facilities has spurred the Israeli government to threaten military intervention as a response to any potential attempt to transfer those weapons into Hezbollah bunkers in Lebanon.
Whether these moves were meant to protect these key facilities from sensitive sites or transfer their deadly materials, the deployment nonetheless testifies to the reality that these foreign Shiite militiamen have become one of Assad’s most trusted fighting units.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Read later.
My feeling is that Hez is less interested in saving Assad and more interested in getting their hands on the upgraded military hardware....including chem munitions.
If chem weapons are used against Israel, then the entire ME and Iran will cease to exist.
Our very own Barak thinks they are "Arab Springtime Freedom Fighters?"
Okay, but by your definition the only groups that could be called rebels are pro-democracy groups. That eliminates 99% of the groups that have rebelled against their government throughout history.
“Why does everyone call these various groups of mad dog sectarian jihadists, “rebels.”
Because that’s what they are. A quick glance at a bad dictionary whould have told you that.
I confess that "pro - rebel" sympathies colored my view of these jihadists and lessened among other things my grammatical scrupulosity. I have a hard time placing Patrick Henry, Robert E. Lee, and Garibaldi in the same frame with some screaming worthy oriental gentleman jihadist who thinks that beheading a Christian grandmother will earn him 72 virgins in Firdous.
BTW, while I am confessing, I must add that personally, until very recently, I didn't think I was rebel material myself. Frankly, had I been around at the time of Geo III, the family and I just might have found ourselves in Canada!
"The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose." Henry Kissinger's observation, made during the Vietnam War, should be haunting Hezbollah, the Middle East's most capable guerrilla force, as it becomes embroiled in an increasingly costly effort to save the Assad regime... Hezbollah commanders have joined their counterparts in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in advising the Syrian military in its crackdown on opposition strongholds, in addition to training a reported 60,000-member militia to protect Alawite communities in Syria's coastal northwest. Thousands of Hezbollah-linked fighters have helped protect roughly 20 Shiite Syrian communities along the Lebanese border... is said to have used its arsenal to shell Sunni border communities... recently expanded... to include its most valued resource -- its highly trained and strategically irreplaceable special forces units... 2,000 to 4,000 professional soldiers and thousands of reservists hailing from Shiite villages south of the Litani river and the Bekaa Valley... reported deployments near Syrian chemical weapons facilities... testifies to the reality that these foreign Shiite militiamen have become one of Assad's most trusted fighting units.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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