Severe deficiencies

The winner in a war is usually the side that makes the least mistakes. This is
based on the fact that all sides in all wars make mistakes, the most common of
which is fighting the last war over again. In the recent war against
Hizbollah in Lebanon the IDF made many major mistakes, and severe
deficiencies were revealed. It is difficult for any military organization, not
built on constant questioning and reevaluation, and often in which the leadership of generals is downright arrogant, to cope with constant change and adaptation.
This is especially true in a challenging economic situation, since defense is
one of the most costly Government outlays.
One of the most egregious deficiencies revealed in the war was the lack of
preparation and support for the reserves who were called to duty.
Approximately 20-30,000 reservists were called up and were sent into battle
mostly towards the end of the war. Because of cutbacks in the Defense budget
starting about 3 years ago under Benjamin Netanyahu as Minister of Finance,
one of the main things that was cut was reserve training. So the reserves
went into this conflict for the first time without any recent training. They
went straight from their jobs as lawyers, carpenters, clerks, cleaners etc.
into the front lines. But, because of apparent caution by the political
echelon, they were sent into battle without sufficient planning, so the
equipment and armaments they were given were often outdated, unworkable or
inappropriate. Added to that the fact that often the orders were changed and
changed again at the last minute, this lead in some cases to total confusion
at the front. Calling up the reserves, then letting them sit, then sending
them in and then calling them back was a recipe for disaster.
Although some Labor Party and other politicians have criticized Netanyahu for
this situation, in fact they are even more at fault. It was Amir Peretz,
current Min. of Defense (!), who as head of the Histadrut Trade Union and then
leader of the Labor Party called for even greater cuts in the Defense budget
in order to support their social programs. Now he and our young men are
paying the price for this shortsightedness.
Some of the reserves have described how they were not given enough food or
water for days. This partly resulted from the fact that one helicopter was
shot down by a shoulder held missile by a Hizbollah fighter who infiltrated
close to the troop deployment. This apparently paralyzed the helicopter forces
and vital water supplies and wounded recovery was delayed. Some IDF soldiers
describe how they took muddy water from the ground and added chlorine tables
while under fire in order to slake their thirst. Some described how wounded
soldiers bled to death because the recovery helicopter was delayed.
Apart from these terrible deficiencies there was a general lack of adaptation
to the new tactics of the Hizbollah, apart from their fanatical suicidal
fighting (unlike the former PLO, Egyptians, etc.). For example, the Israeli
Navy, most modern navy in the area, didn't bother to turn on their
anti-missile technology because they didn't know that Hizbollah had anti-ship
missiles! And so one of their best ships was hit and four men were killed.
Anyone could have guessed that they might have such missiles, and at least you
take precautions! Hizbollah used motorbikes to get them quickly into the
field and to outflank and ambush IDF troops. Finally, after 8 men were
ambushed and killed and this was realized, appropriate actions were taken.
When the bombardment of the north with short range Katyusha rockets was at its
height, reserves were bivouacked in the open close to the border in
concentrations. It was predictable that they would be hit by rockets, and in
fact 12 men were killed by one Katyusha near Kiryat Shmona. What is the sense
of ordering all civilians to take cover and in the same area having young men
sitting around waiting for the next rocket to come in without any protection
whatsoever? That amounts to malfeasance.
We have no idea how much damage was done to military installations by cheap
rockets, when no action was taken prior to the war to protect them, even
though it was well known that Hizbollah had ca. 12,000 rockets of various
kinds supplied by Syria and Iran. Let's hope the IDF is currently taking
action so that their facilities are protected against this scourge all over
Israel, because you can be sure that our enemies, including Iran itself, are
currently choosing suitable targets.
Another area of neglect was the development of a laser-based anti-missile
system called Nautilus that was under consideration by Israel and the US for
protection against short-range rockets! It was cancelled, not because of cost
per se, but because of lack of interest. Now there's a case of
shortsightedness!
While the rockets were raining down on the north of Israel, the Government
itself did practically nothing to protect the citizenry. All those who
evacuated themselves did so privately, there was no mass evacuation organized
by the Government or the Army, although they managed to disengage 8,000
settlers from Gaza in a few days without much trouble.
These are some of the issues that the two Committees set up to evaluate the
actions in the war will cover. One of the Committees set up by Min. of
Defense Peretz, chaired by former Gen Lipkin-Shahak an adviser to Peretz, has
been criticized for being potentially too self-serving. Today PM Olmert
announced that he was setting up a more independent Committee with advice
from Attorney Gen. Bennie Mazuz, that will be a legally-based State Commission.
Hopefully this will also consider the strategy of the war, why there was such
an initial dependence on air power and then such a delayed decision on a
ground invasion of south Lebanon.
Israel has been in worse military situations before, perhaps the worst was
when Sadat flagrantly prepared his troops to cross the Suez Canal on Yom
Kippur 1973, and the General in charge of Israeli intelligence ignored all
blatant signs and warnings and maintained that they would never do it, until
Egyptian troops actually crossed the canal and attacked Israeli
fortifications! That day 3,000 IDF troops, mostly reservists, were killed,
partly because no provisions had been made for their active defense and/or
evacuation. Times have been worse, but in light of the recent failures the
future does not bode fair.