Hezbollah Is Way Ahead. Again.
By John E. Carey
August 17, 2006
Last Sunday, 250 Hezbollah Katyusha rockets fell upon Israel. Three days have intervened.
In each of those three days, Hezbollah made strides toward restoring Lebanon.
Today, Hezbollah is rebuilding Lebanon.
Much has been written in the United States about “asymmetric warfare.” The concept states that big armies and other military might need to take caution; there are enemies that can adroitly martial forces of other means to bring them down. This is the “might” of power being threatened here; not the “might” of maybe. There is no maybe about what is happening in Lebanon.
Make no mistake about it: asymmetric warfare is no longer a concept. The Professors of the University of Hezbollah have just rocketed past all the theoretical thinkers at the cushy U.S. war colleges.
Hezbollah clearly won the media and public affairs war. Hands down and without question, believe what you will but Arabs almost universally heard and accepted one message: Hezbollah won the war.
Many in the west find this difficult to comprehend, they cannot fathom how people standing homeless and amid rubble can claim to be a “winner.”
Sometimes it is better just to listen than to argue. The Arab people of Lebanon are telling us about their deep hatred of Israel, its “occupation,” its “unjustified invasion,” its “disproportionate force.”
There is plenty of blame for the US too. A full share.
Argue as you will that they are wrong: we here are listening and trying to see paths toward resolution because no debating society ever fielded a team that can convince these people with words that they are wrong.
How many shovels and spades could be made by melting down one Merkava tank? That is my thought tonight. As Israel struggles to retrieve all its lumbering armor from Lebanon, much of it borne on flatbed trucks, the “freedom fighters” (as they call themselves and their neighbors call them) of Hezbollah are scraping up the debris of war, buying furniture for homeless Lebanese people, and working toward restoring Lebanon.
But Hezbollah is not just rebuilding southern Lebanon with spades. Bulldozers are already working.
More importantly, an on the ground neighborhood-by neighborhood network of caring for people and looking after their needs, from cell phones to homes, in progress.
In an insightful essay in "Parameters" Magazine, the U.S. Army War College quarterly, with the title "Strategic Leader Readiness and Competencies for Asymmetric Warfare," in the Summer of 2003, Thomas J. Williams wrote, "There also is a growing consensus that US military forces will increasingly face 'adaptive adversaries.' These adaptive foes will attempt to find imaginative ways to match their strengths against our vulnerabilities, combining unconventional approaches to achieve a synergistic effect. Given the US military’s overwhelming strength and dominance, many believe that future adversaries have no choice but to seek every advantage in an effort to attack our will to fight, trying to find ways to exploit and undermine the psychological and physical advantages that our superior technology and information dominance provide."
If one accepts that war is not just about shooting; Israel and the US lost this war. Hezbollah won. And they continue to win the media war and the "hearts and mind war" of the people all over the Arab world.
The unmistakable outcome of this war, in Arab minds, is this: we (Hezbollah, Syria and Iran) care about you (the Arab people). The US (Great Satan) and Israel only want to deal with your problems by killing you and destroying your home.
The money comes from Iran. More correctly, the money comes every time you buy gas for your car. You just get no credit for your charitable contribution to Hezbollah.
The fuel of hatred in the air in Lebanon, where Hezbollah places homemade banners on bombed out building to say “Made In America,” is palpable.
The questions now include what next? What do we in America do?
I can say categorically about the talk from the US about rebuilding Lebanon: Hezbollah is way ahead.
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