August 24, 2006: Arabs are looking for reasons why Israeli infantry did not wipe out Hizbollah gunmen in Lebanon. Hamas spokesman Abu Oudai, who commands elements of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on the West Bank, has attributed Hizbollah's "victory" in Lebanon to the fact that the Israeli army is "full of gay soldiers and full of corruption and with old-fashioned war methods." It is true that gay troops serve openly in the IDF, but there appears to be no apparent ill-effects on discipline or morale. And the IDF is certainly not corrupt; it's probably one of the least corrupt military organizations in the world. But Oudai may have a point about "old-fashioned war methods," since the Israelis failed to engage in vigorous Information War operations. That includes pointing out that Israelis killed enemy troops more efficiently in Lebanon than in previous Arab-Israeli wars. Some Arab analysts noted that, but they have been encouraged to keep silent for the moment.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army is performing as predicted. Despite a desire on the part of most senior Lebanese military personnel to wipe out Hizbollah, they're unwilling to actually take aggressive action. The Lebanese Army is poorly trained and ill-equipped. Even small arms ammunition is in short supply. Hizbollah is superior on all three counts. In addition, senior officers are concerned about the loyalties of the many (nearly 40 percent) Shia troops in the ranks.
All that may change if European peacekeepers show up. But the Rules of Engagement (ROE) for the proposed UN peacekeeping force is what's keeping most countries from committing themselves. Feeble ROE has almost always been a problem for peacekeeping troops. That's because the UN does not want to be seen as an organization that can effectively make war. This makes many UN members nervous. So the UN is resisting sending peacekeepers who have permission to fight. But on those rare occasions when vigorous ROE have been established (Congo, 1960-1964; Sierra Leone, 2000; a few others), problems have generally been resolved very quickly by decisive military action. Initial offers of large numbers of troops by Western nations was predicated on vigorous ROE, to permit the peacekeepers to use whatever force is necessary to insure the disarmament of Hezbollah in accordance with Security Council resolutions. This is being successfully resisted by Arab and Moslem nations.