Will Hezbollah be a new Viet Cong?

Middle East

Is Hezbollah the new Vietcong or NVA?

Having looked in depth at the amazing documentary information the Times and the Sunday Times have amassed puts the idea of Israel trying to overrun Hezbollah in an entirely different light.

Obviously they have learned from the past and in particular their weaknesses how they need to defend against an intrusion by the IDF.

Not just forward facing pill boxes and defence points, they have designed their capabilities to hit the enemy as he goes past or even when they have been overrun. The quantity but also quality of the defences is incredible and they have had plenty of time to develop and perfect them.

We know from D-Day that German defences along the beaches were also positioned to wipe out any attackers as they went past. Thanks to heavy bombardment by the navy and the fact that troops were landed via parachute and gliders behind their defence posts the D-Day assault was a success, albeit with heavy casualties.

The Israelis have been targeting Hezbollah command posts, their depots and storage facilities in the last few days. Also taking out, the modern term for killing people, Hezbollah leaders.

But the Israelis are up against a different quality of defence. The situation is entirely different.

First and foremost there is no single defence line which can be overrun. The entire Lebanon is riddled with Hezbollah military facilities. In that way similar to the situation faced by the Americans in Vietnam. We know now that the US army led by General Westmoreland used a tactic known as search and destroy. Eventually Westmoreland adopted a strategy of attrition against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, attempting to drain them of manpower and supplies.

The strategy of search and destroy was not working because the Viet Cong were the ones who decided where the next battle would be. This is where guerrillas have the advantage. Well known in what is designated "Assymetric Warfare".

The option to pacify the entire country was not only militarily but also politically out of the question. The disatrous My Lai Massacre for example turned many US patriots away from supporting the war. Well published, the United States suffered from the growing home resistance to a war that many just did not want to support. Unlikely in Israel.

This last problem which the Americans had may well turn out at least militarily also to be impossible for Israel.

However the greatest difference between the situation then and now is that the United States was never directly threatened by the enemy. Israel is of course endangered existentially and will react accordingly.

Should the situation turn into all out war, dragging Iran in as well, then if necessary it could be feasible that Israel would resort to using nuclear weapons, something which Iran must also be acutely aware of.

This afternoon the Israelis are amassing Tanks on the southern Lebanon border and according to reports coming in from various experienced reporters it might be assumed that the Israelis will only attempt a limited intrusion. That would avoid making the mistakes the Americans made in Vietnam.

Let's just hope the casualties on both sides are not as terrible as they have been both in Gaza and in the last few days in Lebanon.