Living in a Country at War Part III: The Aftermath
*Just found out a couple of days ago that our next door neighbors' youngest son who is in the army spent the whole war on the front line in the thickest part of the fighting. We had no idea. And even though the mother suspected it; she really didn't know either where he was. He kept on lying to her the whole time telling her that he was in safe areas. Their next oldest son is also in the army and in an intelligence unit-he kept on backing up what the other brother was saying. Even so, Sara (that's her name) hasn't slept the whole month. She told us that even sleeping pills didn't help she was so sick with worry.
*Asher is one of the owners of Archeological Seminars, the company I worked for this summer. He also happens to be a company commander in a reserve paratroop battalion. He was, of course, called up a few days into the war and once the generals and politicians finally committed themselves to sending in the ground troops, Asher went into southern Lebanon with his company and fought for at least a couple of weeks. He spoke about his experiences Friday at lunch: his basic assessment is that it was all for nothing and that the IDF is going to have to do it all over again. Not only because of the way the war was handled and fought, but also because of what they found. He said that even though they knew about the bunkers, and how well entrenched Hezbollah was in the villages and the surrounding countryside, there was a complete intelligence failure as to how intricate the bunkers and defenses were. First of all he said that in each village there was a line of bunkers and then behind the village in the fields there was another line of bunkers. The bunker systems had lots of rooms including food storage and sleeping.
The bunkers were anywhere from six to 15 meters deep. But the most amazing thing about them according to Asher was katusha rocket launchers were put underground in bunkers. Hezbollah had dug silos so that the rockets could only be launched in one direction. So you had dozens of these bunkers, deep underground, with katusha launchers pointed at our cities. This is why they were able to keep firing at us. It didn't matter how many katusha launchers mounted on trucks or hidden in the fields we destroyed; they were still able to shoot at our cities from the launchers hidden in the bunkers.
Asher said the complexes were incredible, their entrances hidden with plastic plants and trees. They had multiple entrances and observation points. Hezbollah laid mines in certain areas around their bunker complexes in order to "channel" attacking forces in order to funnel them into an ambush. This worked on several occasions. Many of these bunkers they just bypassed in the push north not wanting to risk extensive causalities by entering them. One or two the IDF managed to subdue by dropping firebombs in them and burning the terrorists out. So basically one of the things we have are Hezbollah fighters still hunkered down in their bunkers and tunnels waiting us out until the IDF withdraws.
*We went to dinner on Friday night at Marcel and Anat's house. Marcel is an old friend of mine from ulpan class. We have known each other for 15 years. Marcel is originally from England. His wife is Yeminite-Israeli. He had been back from reserve duty in the southern West Bank about a week. The general consensus among us and among most Israelis is that Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, and Chief of Staff Halutz totally mismanaged the war and we are going to have to fight Hezbollah again and soon. It's only a matter of time. Anat gives the Olmert government 3 months. I say, if it falls, six months. The sharks are already circling Olmert and Peretz. Many are calling for their resignation as well as Halutz's.
*A government committee was appointed to investigate the handling of the war. It is headed by a former chief of staff of the army who also happened to be one of Defense Minister Peretzs' advisors during the war. We are all expecting a whitewash when the committee finishes its deliberations. Even so all of the politicians and high ranking army officers have all engaged lawyers. I guess everybody is covering their asses.
*There are commercials on the TV warning people not to handle any pieces of katusha rockets they might find because of the danger of unexploded ordinance. On the news I saw pictures of hundreds of police and army recruits searching for katusha rockets which are still in the hills and fields of the north.
*Just found out a couple of days ago that our next door neighbors' youngest son who is in the army spent the whole war on the front line in the thickest part of the fighting. We had no idea. And even though the mother suspected it; she really didn't know either where he was. He kept on lying to her the whole time telling her that he was in safe areas. Their next oldest son is also in the army and in an intelligence unit-he kept on backing up what the other brother was saying. Even so, Sara (that's her name) hasn't slept the whole month. She told us that even sleeping pills didn't help she was so sick with worry.
*Asher is one of the owners of Archeological Seminars, the company I worked for this summer. He also happens to be a company commander in a reserve paratroop battalion. He was, of course, called up a few days into the war and once the generals and politicians finally committed themselves to sending in the ground troops, Asher went into southern Lebanon with his company and fought for at least a couple of weeks. He spoke about his experiences Friday at lunch: his basic assessment is that it was all for nothing and that the IDF is going to have to do it all over again. Not only because of the way the war was handled and fought, but also because of what they found. He said that even though they knew about the bunkers, and how well entrenched Hezbollah was in the villages and the surrounding countryside, there was a complete intelligence failure as to how intricate the bunkers and defenses were. First of all he said that in each village there was a line of bunkers and then behind the village in the fields there was another line of bunkers. The bunker systems had lots of rooms including food storage and sleeping.
The bunkers were anywhere from six to 15 meters deep. But the most amazing thing about them according to Asher was katusha rocket launchers were put underground in bunkers. Hezbollah had dug silos so that the rockets could only be launched in one direction. So you had dozens of these bunkers, deep underground, with katusha launchers pointed at our cities. This is why they were able to keep firing at us. It didn't matter how many katusha launchers mounted on trucks or hidden in the fields we destroyed; they were still able to shoot at our cities from the launchers hidden in the bunkers.
Asher said the complexes were incredible, their entrances hidden with plastic plants and trees. They had multiple entrances and observation points. Hezbollah laid mines in certain areas around their bunker complexes in order to "channel" attacking forces in order to funnel them into an ambush. This worked on several occasions. Many of these bunkers they just bypassed in the push north not wanting to risk extensive causalities by entering them. One or two the IDF managed to subdue by dropping firebombs in them and burning the terrorists out. So basically one of the things we have are Hezbollah fighters still hunkered down in their bunkers and tunnels waiting us out until the IDF withdraws.
*We went to dinner on Friday night at Marcel and Anat's house. Marcel is an old friend of mine from ulpan class. We have known each other for 15 years. Marcel is originally from England. His wife is Yeminite-Israeli. He had been back from reserve duty in the southern West Bank about a week. The general consensus among us and among most Israelis is that Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, and Chief of Staff Halutz totally mismanaged the war and we are going to have to fight Hezbollah again and soon. It's only a matter of time. Anat gives the Olmert government 3 months. I say, if it falls, six months. The sharks are already circling Olmert and Peretz. Many are calling for their resignation as well as Halutz's.
*A government committee was appointed to investigate the handling of the war. It is headed by a former chief of staff of the army who also happened to be one of Defense Minister Peretzs' advisors during the war. We are all expecting a whitewash when the committee finishes its deliberations. Even so all of the politicians and high ranking army officers have all engaged lawyers. I guess everybody is covering their asses.
*There are commercials on the TV warning people not to handle any pieces of katusha rockets they might find because of the danger of unexploded ordinance. On the news I saw pictures of hundreds of police and army recruits searching for katusha rockets which are still in the hills and fields of the north.
posted by Unknown @ 2:17 PM
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