Just How Strong is Hezbollah?
EmailBy Jim Sciutto, Senior Foreign Correspondent, ABC News London Debate has raged since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War over whether Hezbollah emerged stronger or weaker. Today, Israeli Defense Minister (and contender for prime minister in February elections) Ehud Barak gave his answer: Hezbollah is not just stronger, it’s three times stronger. How did he do his math? The answer is Hezbollah’s estimated arsenal of 42,000 missiles, supplied by Iran. Here’s the story. This isn’t the only thing making some in the U.S. security establishment nervous. Today, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman arrived in Tehran, Iran, for his first official visit, amid rumors first reported in the London Arabic language newspaper Al Quds al-Arabi that Iran may offer Lebanon military assistance, including missiles. Lots for President-elect Obama’s security team to chew on. Read more blogs from Jim Sciutto Read more blogs from the ABC News Staff
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Umm, thats awesome :)
It is obvious that Israel lost the war in 2006. Israel might have caused more physical damage due to their superior air force, but they completely lost the war. Hezbollah kept the captured soldiers, Hezbollah kept firing rockets all the way up to the ceasefire. And they came back stronger.
*GASP* could this “super power” be losing its superness? HAHA
:D
Posted by: Citizen in FL | November 24, 2008, 5:51 am 5:51 am
It all comes down to survival or extermination. The Muslim world wants to exterminate Israel and Israel wants to survive. Israel will likely use nuclear weapons if attacked and their extinction is evident. Jerusalem and the rest of the “Holy” sites in the region may need to be vaporized. This should deter the struggle to claim them and dominate them. Take out as many martyrs as possible that have such a desire.
Posted by: MBell_TX | November 24, 2008, 6:27 am 6:27 am
yes… its unthinkable… but one “sure-fire” way to eliminate a set up like Hezbollah’s rocket array is to just make the land “uninhabitable” that these rockets are fired from. It will end the rocket attacks from this region, save many
israeli lives and have the “Japan Effect”-
It would scare the hell out of these people constantly attacking Israel, cause them to surrender their effort (at least for a very long time) by making it clear that it would be “foolish” for them to continue this fight….
Posted by: Levi | November 24, 2008, 8:43 am 8:43 am
You can clear the land Levi, but that will not stop Hezbollah. What do you think Israel was trying to do with their ariel campaign? And Hezbollah has a very deep and complex underground tunnel system. Its seems as if Israel has meet there challenge. With Israel’s loss in 2006, this has made Israel weak and vulnerable in the eyes of the arabs. And besides, the whole scare them into submission idea, its obvious that idea has failed. Iraq, Aghanistan. They both are failed wars (so far at least) and the main tactics was fear and ariel bombardments. Besides, how are you going to scare a group of people that are ready and willing to die? LOL
Israel = Losers
Posted by: Citizen in FL | November 24, 2008, 9:31 am 9:31 am
> Where did you learn that from, dude? Iraq is fairly stable…much of the Pentagon’s objectives there have been met…Afghanistan has not been “lost”…in a volatile a place as it is, NATO’s done alright…
Posted by: Jazz | November 24, 2008, 10:09 am 10:09 am
Citizen in FL: You are obviously in denial and I don’t mean the river in Egypt! You can’t name even one war the Arabs have ever won. Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Iran, 1947, 1967, 1973 etc etc etc. Who are the losers? They have lost every war with Israel and they will continue to lose. Iraq is well on its way to being a success. Afghanistan will be a success. The Pakistanis will work with us to root out the tribal areas and Al Qaeda and the Taliban will be crushed. Hezbollah and Hamas are failures, all they can do is fire their impotent rockets from a distance to virtually no effect. They are wasting their time, money and blood.
Israel survives, America is still the dominate super power and the radical islamofacist arabs are the biggest losers.
Suck on it!
Posted by: joey | November 24, 2008, 10:09 am 10:09 am
I am not convinced there will ever be peace in the middle east. The religious conflicts have been around for thousands of years and they will be around for thousands more. We will have peace in the middle east when we no longer have crime in the US.
Posted by: Not convinced | November 24, 2008, 10:38 am 10:38 am
Israel as it exists today is doomed to failure one way or the other. It is just a matter of time. All the Palestinians have to do is run out the clock and wait for demographics to catch up. The only stable solution is to give Palestinians their land back, all of it, and then maybe work out a deal to let some Israelis stay in Palestine, governed by a Palestinian government, give up their israeli passport as it is null and void, take Palestinian citizenship and give up their weapons. Then there will be peace throughout the region.
Posted by: Tom | November 24, 2008, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
How powerful is Hezbollah? Not so powerful that the United States Armed Forces can’t handle them. Can Obama handle them? We’ll see. My opinion? :(
Posted by: Patriot | November 24, 2008, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
The whole region is doomed as long as human life is diminished and viewed as something to be exterminated like insects. When something cannot be reconciled or reclaimed it is doomed to destruction. Currently the whole region is ablaze with evil intent. Of the two sides involved; the most evil is with the one intent on doing the most harm to the other. Care to guess which side that is?
Posted by: MBell_TX | November 24, 2008, 5:10 pm 5:10 pm
Hezbollah, is a product of the United States to keep friction going, anyone who cannot see the truth of the matter is flat out brain dead. Get a clue and start using those brain cells.
Posted by: Truth Hurtz Biatch | November 24, 2008, 6:15 pm 6:15 pm
Give it 50 years and the Chinese will field the largest economy and strongest military the world has ever seen. The world is going to shift east in a very hard way. Most of you will live in countries that will either tow the line or are not allowed to do anything without the authorization by our Beijing based friends.
Posted by: Matthew | May 15, 2009, 10:28 pm 10:28 pm