If anyone has information, AAR, lessons learned documents, etc. concerning the Israeli experience in Lebanon, please pass it along. In addition, any book recommendations are welcome. Thanks.
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If anyone has information, AAR, lessons learned documents, etc. concerning the Israeli experience in Lebanon, please pass it along. In addition, any book recommendations are welcome. Thanks.
Adam,
Suggest firat that you broaden your target window to 1978--2000. reasons, the first major IDF incursion into Lebanon was 1978; that set up the "security Zone" and prompted the creation of UNIFIL. Notably, the IDF never let UNIFIL establish control over the Litani River corridor; that remained a gap in their deployment that the IDF used in 1982 for their main thrust north with a coastal ruote thrust in parallel After 1984, the IDF more or less returned to their pre-1982 boundaries inside Lebanon with the SLA as a proxy force. with the final pull out circa 2000?, the IDF essentially left the SLA holding the bag and it was not a happy bag to be holding.
SLA role under MAJ Haddad is a key area to look at; client nominally Christian based militia (by 1987 when I was there many of its members were Muslim --usually Sunni--recruited in Beirut).
Rise of Hizballah with Iranian sponsorship as fundamentalist Shia militia
Creation of Amal as Syrian proxy-Shia militia
Some on CSI web page at http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resour...piller.asp#5AH on attack helo use.
From my Bibliography: Lebanon
Trevor N. Dupuy and Paul Martell, Flawed Victory, The Arab-Israeli Conflict and the 1982 War in Lebanon. Available on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/091...lance&n=283155
John Gilmore, Lebanon, the Fractured Country. Available on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/074...lance&n=283155
LTC Robin Higgins, Patriot Dreams: The Murder of Colonel Rich Higgins. This book covers the abduction of then LTC Rich Higgins in Lebanon in 1988. Available on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/094...g=UTF8&s=books
John Munro, Theatre of the Absurd, Life in Amin Gemayel's Lebanon. Listed on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=283155
Thomas P. Odom, Journey Into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda with foreword by General (ret) Dennis J. Reimer. This memoir covers the author's 15 years as a Foreign Area Officer on the Middle East and Africa with operational tours as a UN Observer in Lebanon and as US Defense Attaché in Zaire and Rwanda. You may read a chapter from the book at http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/docu...om_journey.htm or order it from TAMU Press at http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2005/odom.htm or on Amazon or other on line bookstores.
Michael Petit, Peacekeepers at War. This is an excellent account of the Marines in Lebanon in 1982 and the Beirut bombing. Available on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/057...lance&n=283155
Itamar Rabinovich, The War for Lebanon 1970-1985. Available on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080...lance&n=283155
Jonathan C. Randal, Going All the Way: Christians, Warlords, Israeli Adventurers and the War in Lebanon. Listed on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067...g=UTF8&s=books
Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War. Available on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067...lance&n=283155
Pierre Sergent, 2eme REP. In French. Sergent covers Algeria, Chad, Zaire, and Beirut. Listed on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/225...g=UTF8&s=books
Best
Tom
As always sir, thank you. This is very helpful. I am of the impression that more and more of the "think-tank smart-guys" are going to turn to this experience, vice the US in Vietnam or Brits in Malaya, for lessons learned for Iraq and the future.
My personal feelings regarding Lebanon as a Lessons Learned source applicable to current ops is more along the lines of the IDF struggle with Hizbollah during their occupation of South Lebanon, not the major action in '82 or the earlier Litani River op.
If you can find a copy, I highly recommend "A Reach Greater Than the Grasp": Israeli Intelligence and the Conflict in South Lebanon 1990-2000, found in the Autumn 2001 issue of Intelligence and National Security. A solid essay, with much to provoke thought in the context of current ops.