Officer of Engineers

I would really like to know the nationalities of those soldiers who ran off. If French UN Peacekeepers turned their guns on the IDF, then they should have no qualms about the Hizbullah. In fact, I do know that Italian and French troops have not backed off when threatened.

Indian peacekeepers have already died in UNIFIL.

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Chimo

Stan187

You bring up a good point. I wonder if the report will be made publically available at some point.

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Oscar

[quote=Officer of Engineers;489769]I would really like to know the nationalities of those soldiers who ran off. If French UN Peacekeepers turned their guns on the IDF, then they should have no qualms about the Hizbullah. In fact, I do know that Italian and French troops have not backed off when threatened.


Remember France doesn't consider Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation and that's Kouchner who brought them for the talks concerning the election of the next predident(until now rather unsuccessfully). Like any other groups of this kind they crave respectability that's why I'm not sure they will bite this hand

S-2

Colonel,

"If French UN Peacekeepers turned their guns on the IDF, then they should have no qualms about the Hizbullah. In fact, I do know that Italian and French troops have not backed off when threatened."

Haaretz says otherwise-

Israel: UNIFIL hiding info about Hezbollah from Security Council - Haaretz - Israel News]

Sir, that was an Italian UNIFIL contingent. The problem is simple from Israel's perspective- a whitewash at UNIFIL H.Q. An oblique mention to this incident in a UN report alerted Israeli officials to the limited knowledge held by the UNSC about the incident. Apprised of the full facts, UNIFIL had to admit to the UNSC the complete nature of the incident. Thus corrected- or not. The UN amended it's report to include the full disclosure of this solitary incident only to be apprised again by Israel that it wasn't isolated at all.

Major General Claudio Graziano of Italy is the UNIFIL force commander as of February, 2007.

There was no reason to believe that Israel's withdrawal was anything but defeat and the U.N. has no more interest now in maintaining a de-militarized zone than before July 2006. Nobody thought it would be and that's exactly what the Europeans have delivered- a facade of security masking a fait accompli.

This isn't a fair shake and it's not right. POG is NOT the Lebanese gov't and has no business south of the Litani- plain and simple. The U.N. is facilitating a war by this gross mismanagement of it's responsibility.

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"This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski

zraver

same goes for Darfur, Zimbabwe and other locations. Everyone knows Israel only stopped because it's game plan failed. Now both sides have re-armed and round 2 is next.

aktarian

and now something completly unrelated....

link

Parihaka

Not unrelated at all. Round 2 coming up.

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aktarian

that would be round 3. Round 2 was in summer of 06

S-2

Who cares which round. ANOTHER round is shortly in the cards.

This one will be a doozy.

chakos

It remains to be seen if they Isreilis will pick up their act or get caught with their pants down yet again. Was definatelly not impressed last time to be quite honest.

Gun Grape

I notice that the Israeli papers didn't bring up the various times UNIFIL has caught IDF troops in restricted areas.

One day the Israeli government will realize that UN and other peacekeeping forces are there as a neutral element. Not an extension of the IDF or a pro IDF unit.

I'm in agreement, this is that country's way of building the foundation for another incursion.

Stan187

There has been foundation for a while, no need to build further.

Gun Grape

Sure there is. They got their butts kicked the last 2 times they ventured into lebanon.

If you plan to go in a third time, you really, really have to give your people
a good reason. Especially with the desertion and refusal to fight problems the the IDF has has the last few years.

Officer of Engineers

That problem won't be solve by the Israeli reliance on the reserves. They have to goto a regforce for that.

Stan187

The Israeli public for the most part understand that what went down in Lebanon is not yet over, every weeks even the liberally-minded papers report that Hizballah has rearmed to levels higher than before the war. The IDF's problems in terms of morale were partially due to a lack of reserve training that made soldiers lose confidence. Reserve manpower training has increased by 33% according to the IDF, and they say that they are integrating the the lessons of the Lebanon war.

33 Percent Rise in Training Drills in the Ground Force Training Center