Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post

1 During the early days the IDF was mainly concerned with raiding, and dismounted infiltration to clear out OPs and ATGM posts, almost always situated in civilian houses, and thus in villages.

2 So the IDF by-passed villages of no tactical importance. - and why would you expect to see IDF soldiers once they are exploiting northwards?

3 Of course they can be destroyed. If Syria wanted to destroy Hezbollah, they would, and Hezbollah would never recover, and no one, who was left alive south of the Litani would ever speak the word Hezbollah again. Maybe Bashir isn't the man Hafas was, but I am sure you get my point.
1. Actually most of the OPs, bunker complexes, underground rocket firing positions etc were located in the wadis outside villages. Hizbullah had some underground storage facilities and OPs in the villages and towns, but these were more logistical in nature than intended for war fighting. I have explored some of Hizbullah's bunkers in the wadis in the past year and they are quite impressive, far more elaborate than anyone imagined prior to the 06 war, passages lined with welded steel plates, equipped with hot and cold water, ventilation, latrines, kitchens, electric lighting etc. They were located in sealed-off military zones, and everyone (IDF, UNIFIL, local residents, nosy journos) knew the locations of these zones, but no one really knew what Hizb was up to inside them. How they built them without anyone seeing, I have no idea. Even the hundreds of tons of quarried rock from one the larger bunkers I visited had been carried away, so leaving no trace to observers in the skies above.
I don't know if SWC has facilities for posting pics, but I'd be happy to send along a couple of bunker interiors if interested, or kml (or is it kmz) attachments so you can view the locations on google earth.

2. The villages by-passed by the IDF were the villages they were unable to capture in the opening days of the war.

3. Syria cannot destroy Hizbullah because they are no longer in Lebanon. If for whatever reason they attempted to do so now, I suspect they would fare even worse than the IDF. Hizbullah is not a military entity separate from its environment so that it can be isolated and crushed, it is part of the fabric of Lebanese Shiite society. Maximalist solutions (genocide against Lebanese Shiites/blitzing Lebanon with nuclear weapons) aside, a more realistic means of tackling Hizbullah is to neutralize its ability to use its weapons. That means depriving it of its casus belli. This is a process that has been underway since 2000 when the IDF withdrew from south Lebanon. How can you resist occupation where there is no occupation left to resist? Yes, Hizbullah claims the Shebaa Farms, Lebanese detainees in Israeli jails and the nebulous "deterrence against future Israeli aggression" as its justification for continuing to bear arms. But to many Lebanese, these excuses sound hollow and as they are chipped away, Hizbullah's ability to use its arsenal becomes increasingly difficult.