Search:

Brilliant!!!

...and there's the difference between the IDF and the US/UK/NATO Armed force. No one in an IDF platoon is even ever going to mention religion to the Arabs.

Some of the Platoon maybe Muslim, and a...

Good article.

However I have serious doubts about the contention that the US can learn from the IDF experience in relation to the West Bank and Gaza, and apply it in Iraq. The circumstances of...

Salem Aleikum, and Shalom Abujnoub.

Before we get into your post (and we will) go to his this link, http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=1441 and give us all some details about who...

I have no real quibble with that, except I would exclude all and any targeting of any civilian infrastructure. I'd have also left the International Airport alone.

...but how would have "declaring...

1.) No but they can throw rockets and kidnap your people.
2.) Repel, OK, but how about killing them before they rocket and kidnap your people.
3.) What do you bomb? You can't bomb the Insurgents in...

Well if that was the case it could be said that the IDF caused sufficient fear to halt rocket attacks from the Lebanon. The fighting may have stopped but the war is ongoing.

IMO withdrawal does...

Lets cut to the chase here. In the collective opinion, of those on this thread, what should the IDF have done?

I am not disparaging Hezbollah for an inability to hold ground. I am correcting the perception that they successfully defended any villages - and when they did try, they were unable to do it,...

Having talked to several men who actually fought, i would dispute that Hezbollah fought well or successfully. They were never able to hold ground against the units I have talked to. It would be like...

If someone can be suppressed (does not act through fear of harm) then he can be defeated because sufficient fear will lead to withdrawal.

So the "methods" used to suppress (which you understand)...

Guys, none of this is rocket science.

The Israelis made a bad plan, based on no other objective than trying to convince the Lebanese Govt. and people to turn against HezBollah by second order...

There is some common misconceptions at play here. British COIN, prior to Ulster, was characterised by a brutality and severity that most would find hard to stomach. Almost every measure used by the...

I would also call Judea and Samaria, the occupied territories, and not Judea and Samaria. - and so would more Israelis than most US and UK media would ever want to admit.

Which settlement program?...

Sure it is. I also drive around the West Bank, and specifically the Jordan Valley on a regular basis. Sure, Israeli number plates make a huge difference, and there are some areas off limits, but it...

Territory for peace? Everywhere the IDF withdraws from becomes a base for attacking Israel.

The objective is essentially peace. Easy to say, almost impossible to do, and the goal posts in the...

I don't think you can. Your final point is exactly right. In my own writing COIN is a word or abbreviation I try and avoid using. I consider it expedient for conversing here, but also intellectually...

Naveh has accurately characterised Hezbollah, and in a way I would agree with, but the rest of this article is, I suspect, about promoting his agendas - which appear fairly obvious and are in line...

How is that not the essence of creating defeat? What other mechanism exists? It worked against for the UK in every war we ever fought, and won.

Don't be sorry. You missed my point. The Lebanon was not COIN. It was a straight fighting buffer zone stuff. That was exactly my point.

In the occupied territories it's a different story and I'd...

@ If tactical and operational success cannot gain strategic success, then it's probably something military force cannot solve.

@ Risk is the coin of warfare. Israel's risk-averse strategy gained...

...and Ron Tira and many other IDF members would disagree with Van Creveld. My own judgement is based on talking to members of the IDF who were there.

The idea that COIN operations degrades "war...

The IDF view COIN as being a normal part of what they do everyday. The foundations of the IDF are in both insurgency and counter-insurgency. In 1948 the IDF had 8 tanks and 3 of those they stole from...