The "Lethal Weapon" syndrome
What is it that allows sensitive young Jewish men to turn into killers, that enables them to jump into trenches and fight hand-to-hand with hardened fanatical Arab terrorists? It must be something, it doesn't happen without cause. Of course, the main thing is training in the IDF, but all the units involved in such fighting are elite paratrooper units that are volunteer only and are always oversubscribed.
I put this down to the so-called "Lethal Weapon" syndrome. Remember the character Mel Gibson played in that series of movies, especially the first one. The role of Sgt. Martin Riggs is someone who is barely stable, who is insane from the murder of his beloved wife, and who is practically suicidal, looking for a way to redeem himself from his mental anguish. That's the kind of attitude our troops must have in order to carry out this assignment. And young Jews can have this attitude because they know that in the past so many of our people have been killed, so many of our mothers and children have been massacred for no rational reason, its mad, but mad ideas can lead to many deaths, and the only way to stop the loss of our lives is to fight back savagely and even suicidally. If you don't fear death you can do it.
The Syrians know this syndrome first hand when the IDF attacked in 1973 and overcame their entrenched soldiers in bunkers on the Golan Heights that were thought to be impregnable. Even today when you visit that area you wonder in amazement at the courage of the Israelis who scaled those heights with Syrians firing machine guns down on them and managed, although with heavy losses, to take the bunkers. Another example was the Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem in 1967, where the Jordanian Legion, was entrenched in heavily defended bunkers and the IDF took them at point blank range. Today you can tour the site as a National Park and marvel at how it was possible, and Israel allowed the Jordanians to construct a memorial in East Jerusalem to the bravery of their men who defended this site. If history is any judge, the IDF will take all its targets in south Lebanon and will remove Hizbollah from its underground bunkers, hopefully never to return.
At present it is estimated that there are around 2,000 trained professional Hizbollah soldiers in the south. These are the ones putting up the resistance to the IDF and firing the missiles into Israel. They have another 20,000 men all over south Lebanon and south Beirut who could be called upon, but noone knows how many of these can or would respond. In total there are ca. 100,000 Shia Hizbollah volunteers in south Lebanon, although many of these would now be demoralized and unable to reach the front. They believe that this is a religious responsibility and they are in principle prepared to die for their cause. However, in practical terms the IDF is far more heavily armed and professionally trained. There have been calls by Shias in Beirut for the IDF to come and fight them rather than only dropping bombs on them. The current action in south Lebanon will no doubt cure them of their braggadocio.
I put this down to the so-called "Lethal Weapon" syndrome. Remember the character Mel Gibson played in that series of movies, especially the first one. The role of Sgt. Martin Riggs is someone who is barely stable, who is insane from the murder of his beloved wife, and who is practically suicidal, looking for a way to redeem himself from his mental anguish. That's the kind of attitude our troops must have in order to carry out this assignment. And young Jews can have this attitude because they know that in the past so many of our people have been killed, so many of our mothers and children have been massacred for no rational reason, its mad, but mad ideas can lead to many deaths, and the only way to stop the loss of our lives is to fight back savagely and even suicidally. If you don't fear death you can do it.
The Syrians know this syndrome first hand when the IDF attacked in 1973 and overcame their entrenched soldiers in bunkers on the Golan Heights that were thought to be impregnable. Even today when you visit that area you wonder in amazement at the courage of the Israelis who scaled those heights with Syrians firing machine guns down on them and managed, although with heavy losses, to take the bunkers. Another example was the Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem in 1967, where the Jordanian Legion, was entrenched in heavily defended bunkers and the IDF took them at point blank range. Today you can tour the site as a National Park and marvel at how it was possible, and Israel allowed the Jordanians to construct a memorial in East Jerusalem to the bravery of their men who defended this site. If history is any judge, the IDF will take all its targets in south Lebanon and will remove Hizbollah from its underground bunkers, hopefully never to return.
At present it is estimated that there are around 2,000 trained professional Hizbollah soldiers in the south. These are the ones putting up the resistance to the IDF and firing the missiles into Israel. They have another 20,000 men all over south Lebanon and south Beirut who could be called upon, but noone knows how many of these can or would respond. In total there are ca. 100,000 Shia Hizbollah volunteers in south Lebanon, although many of these would now be demoralized and unable to reach the front. They believe that this is a religious responsibility and they are in principle prepared to die for their cause. However, in practical terms the IDF is far more heavily armed and professionally trained. There have been calls by Shias in Beirut for the IDF to come and fight them rather than only dropping bombs on them. The current action in south Lebanon will no doubt cure them of their braggadocio.
posted by Jack Cohen at 10:31 PM
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