Hi Hawkmoon; As I've mentioned many times before on this thread, the real problem Israel has is demographics. The number of people killed in these wars is very small (unless you happen to be one), but making Israel an unpleasant place to live, and the IDF an unpleasant organization to be drafted into has an effect on Israel. Let me quote you from Israeli soldiers themselves:
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The sniper on team 3 is waiting to receive a warning that he will be fired. He has been away from his new job for a month. The medic, the team leader and the guy handling the grenade launcher are unsure about what to do with the semester exams that they have missed. Those who are single are planning to flee the country. The family men are due home to wives who have not slept for a month, to children dying for their embrace, but also to mortgages and the rest of the payments that need to be made.
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On a hill between Mount Meron and Safed, at 2:00 PM on August 16, 2006, the brigade commander talked with his troops from the reconnaissance unit. In response to the claims there had been no orders, no relevant training, about the hunger, the lack of equipment, and the journalists that risked our lives with their camera flashes prior to our entry into Lebanon, Colonel Cohen lectured us for lacking motivation. The soldiers quickly surrounded him, the tempers flared, the tones rose very high. Pretty soon there was booing. A moment before there was real violence, the brigade commander carried out a brilliant withdrawal. If he had a smoke grenade available, surely he would have used it.
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haaretz.com
-- Carl |
