What Really Went On In Lebanon

Stuff The US Media Doesn't Show Or Tell Us About...


It has been pointed out to me by my blog idols over at Powerline that Itai Anghel, an Israeli photo journalist, spent a mind boggling evening last month following a group of IDF soldiers on a mission from Israel into a Lebanese border village known to be a Hezbollah stronghold.

Here's a link to the 25 minute video:

http://switch248-01.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=209947&ak=63628786

I posted the entire link so that if you click on it and it doesn't play, you can cut and paste it into your browser address window and watch it.

You really need to watch it.

Seriously…YOU really need to watch the entire thing…it’s not fake drama…

It’s REAL LIFE military action.

I know that a number of my readers read my rantings at work and don't have time to watch 25 minutes of video, but I suggest that you go home, pour yourself a drink, and sit down at your home computer and be prepared to have the crap scared out of you.

I’m pretty sure that our own military has been going through the exact same scenarios for the past three plus years in Afghanistan and Iraq, and until you have been there like Cameraman Itai has you really have no idea what it is really like to be in close quarters night combat.

I really can’t believe that a journalist could be so brave, or that he would ever go back after that experience.

Another thing that struck me was how young everyone was in the video, even the company commander.

The point which I'd like to make in this reference is the ridiculous complaints of the various piecenicks and Democrats that the training of the new Iraqi Army is taking so long to accomplish.

What total idiotic crap, I say, and I’m surprised that no one in the current administration has had the intellectual or intestinal fortitude to point out the problems encountered in trying to produce an “Instant Army.”

Being the intellectual giant that I am, I want you to think about that idea (an instant army) with me for a minute.

Here in the United States, since the elimination of the draft, there are basically two ways of joining the military. You can either (a) walk into a recruiting station and sign your name on the dotted line, or (b) attend college in an ROTC program or one of the Service Academies like West Point and paste Ensigns or Lieutenants bars on your collar when you graduate and march into active duty.

Then every year or two, IF you learn everything you are supposed to learn and keep your “nose clean” (i.e. leave the commanders’ wife alone and don’t get into fights or get convicted of DUI), you get a promotion of rank.

In the process you also learn something about fighting wars and leading other soldiers, along with the opportunity to see some of the rest of the world east of NY City and West of San Francisco.

After ten years, you might make the rank of Major, at fifteen years Bird Colonel, and at twenty years, if you did everything absolutely perfect and kissed all of the correct rear ends, you might have one star on your cap (Brigadier General)

Ten Years…Fifteen Years…Twenty Years…it takes a good deal of TIME to make an Army, because it takes TIME to train fighting soldiers and LEADERS.

You just can’t snap your fingers and have them appear our of thin air like John Murtha and Nancy Pelosi would have you believe.

Next you say…”but Iraq already had an Army before we invaded, what about those officers?”

Is there anyone out there really stupid enough to want us to attempt to trust the animals that were employed under Sadam’s regime? Yes, I agree that some were probably just going along with the program to protect their own wallets and health, but seriously—how do we know which ones to employ?

All I do know is that even if I was a healthy 21 year old again, I would sure hate having to run around holding a pair of night vision goggles while snipers wearing their own goggles (thanks to Russia, Germany, and France) took pot shots at my butt.

Watch that video, DAMMIT.