Keeping Security in Shape

Hezbollah/Lebanon vs. Israel

Over the last dozen years, Israel has often been involved in a round robin of military conflicts: Lebanon, Gaza, West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Gaza, secret missions into Syria. It seems that now the focus is back on Lebanon after December 08's counter terrorism campaign in Gaza.

Whenever Israel has launched a military campaign into Lebanon to strike back against Hezbollah, the world media condemns Israel for victimizing the Lebanese. Since Hezbollah, a notorious terrorist organization, is firmly entrenched in the Lebanese government and has tremendous influence over the Lebanese military, and despite any Western leaning ideals possessed by other Lebanese political factions, at the end of the day Hezbollah and thereby Lebanon is a valid target of the Israel Defense Forces.

In the Middle East, might makes right, especially in Lebanon regardless of what party sits at the top of the government. Hezbollah is armed with thousands of rockets and personnel and flushed with millions of dollars not including additional support it receives from Iran and Syria. Time will tell if Israel will once again preemptively strike in Lebanon to quell the growing military power exhibited by Hezbollah.

Special Forces - Up Close and Personal

Check out this compelling account of special warriors tasked with undertaking extraordinary missions. 

US Special Forces

ISRAEL- HAMAS

At the start of the Israeli military response to Hamas rocket attacks fired into southern Israel, Israel had the initial respect and admiration of many nations for its actions. As I stated in my previous post, the Shock and Awe phase usually opens the eyes of the world's media with many democratic nations collectively thinking, "about time" when Israel seeks to route out a terrorist entity. 

The Israel haters will always condemn Israel no matter how small or great the scope of any Israeli military action will be; though morally Israel has the upper hand in fighting Hamas, the collateral damage to the civilian Gaza population has been incredibly high to the point where those Western democracies are starting to blame Israel and potentially seek harsh UN resolutions or war crime tribunals. Any military expert will tell you that when an enemy that hides amongst the civilian population and uses humanitarian institutions for cover, the surrounding population will suffer the reprisals of the responding force.

As ridiculous as it sounds,many European countries in fear of facing the wrath of their growing Islamic populations, are sounding the bell for the UN to step in, penalize Israel, and ignore the fact that Hamas' true purpose is the destruction of Israel.

 Israel is targeting Hamas, not the Palestinian people in general. The tactics Israel is employing are no different than what Allied Forces did in WWII against the Nazis in an effort to route out Evil. True, Hamas doesn't have a huge military force with planes, tanks, and submarines, but if nothing is done to stop Hamas now they will build and build a large military arsenal that could endanger Israel and potentially parts of Egypt.

Where Hamas has outfoxed Israel is in the media and in turning the global media's perception of the conflict from Israel versus Hamas to Israel versus Gaza.

 

 

Hamas on the run?

Once again the Israel Defense Forces are launching attacks targeting Hamas. This time former Prime Minister and current Defense Minister, Ehud Barak has essentially declared, "All in" as the Israeli Air Force and artillery units are taking the fight to Hamas.

Every few years Israel  launches impressive looking military campaigns in either Lebanon, the West Bank, or Gaza usually in response to repeated unanswered terrorist attacks. Such military initiatives undertaken by Israel have developed a pattern of their own:

1. "Shock and Awe"  air bombing campaign followed by

2. Lots of international condemnation, followed by

3. Limited ground engagement, followed by

4. Limited Israeli casualties, followed by

5. A cease fire, followed by

6. A commission of inquiry by the IDF as to what went wrong, followed by

7. Big Aid package to defeated enemies, followed by 

8. More attacks 

This latest military operation is quite different than in past years in that an end goal has been defined, the elimination of Hamas from control of the Gaza strip.

To the casual observer, one might think these are revenge attacks for the nearly 4,000 missiles that have rained down in Israel over the last few years, but no, the IDF is "in it to win it"; to borrow a cheesy phrase.

Israel may have to withstand another wave of terrorist attacks or suicide bombings from inside or outside Israel, even though the IDF is doing the Abbas led Fatah movement in the West Bank a favor by diminishing Hamas' power in Gaza.

Stay Safe and Stay Informed

Rescue in Columbia

The rescue operation launched by the Columbian government, in which 3 American military contractors, former Columbian Politician Ingrid Betancourt, and approximately 15 other hostages were freed, was a major blow to the captors, the guerrilla organization FARC. The Americans were held for 5 years and Betancourt for 6, how they survived not just physically but mentally as well (as far as we know), is amazing.

The resuce operation itself is amazing. In recent years, the Columbian government as been able to penetrate (use under cover operatives) FARC, and succeed in learning their command structure and how the guerrillas communicate to each other, chiefly by radio. Columbian government forces, pretended they were representing FARC leadership via radio and were able to dupe actual FARC guerrillas into bringing their prisoners to a pre determined rendezvous spot. Once the guerrillas and captives were on board a Columbian military helicopter disguised as a FARC aircraft, the captors were easily overtaken by Columbian agents. No shots fired.

The Columbians succeeded in using HUMan INTelligence (HUMINT) and SIGnal INTelligence (SIGINT) to locate and identify the individual cells of guerrilla fighters that each held the American captives and Betancourt; tnen ultimately launch a rescue operation.

Lessons learned: Understand your enemy. Understand his culture  and method of communication - language, how he gives or receives respect, how he motivates and identifies his power base.  I am sure that the Columbians applied some of the teachings of the great Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu in outfoxing the FARC guerrillas. 

Crazy for Kabul

This just in... terrorists, crime lords, and corrupt politicians running amok in Afghanistan. In an effort to turn back Al-Qaeda and the Taliban (again), Coalition forces have been increasing the number of military personnel operating in the area. 

The work in Afghanistan may actually be more dangerous than Iraq but the soldiers in this fight deserve all of our support.

The nuclear capability of Pakistan, an ally, maybe more troublesome to Coalition forces because of the ability of Al-Qaeda to infiltrate Pakistan with ease. All it takes is the spread of the INFLUENCE of Al-Qaeda to destabilize the shaky pro-western forces in Pakistan, and then kaboom. 

Dangers of Regular Units vs. Special Operations

It has been a deadly week in Iraq for US servicemen - roadside bombs, firefights, rocket attacks, etc. The odds are that most of the casualties are of units that though are fighting terrorists, don't have the training, materials, and logistic support of special operations forces.
This is not to say that the regular military units are inferior; but to highlight the fact that it is the regular units that are deployed more often and thereby find themselves in harm's way. Standing post at a munitions depot is not a task of any special operations force but it is probably one of the most hazardous assignments regular army units end up doing in Iraq (apart from contractors).

Special operations forces are just that, special. They don't engage the enemy as much during wartime as their regular army counterparts in terms of patrols and security duty. Now in peace time when the larger army is standing down, the special operators are put at more risk undertaking covert operations in parts of the world in support of counter terrorist operations or national security objectives.

What makes special operations so "glamorous" is the danger factor of operating behind enemy lines, training on various weapons including close quarter combat (CQB), airborne, scuba, etc. The training required to belong to any special operations unit is quite dangerous in itself and unfortunately many perish.

For those of you in the "community" or in regular units, you have my utmost respect.