The War Reviews Keep Coming In

234 words.

Bill Roggio thinks Hezbollah scored a huge victory: After Action Report: Winners and Losers in the Hezbollah-Israel War.

Maybe I’m just thinking too much like a post-Enlightenment Westerner here, but if Army A attacks Army B, then runs and hides while Army B destroys the country around them, is Army A victorious? According to Bill Roggio, when it comes to the Middle East and Israel, the answer is “yes.” Hezbollah leader Nasrullah is viewed as a hero for standing up to the invincible Israeli army and fighting them to a draw, even though he undoubtedly did his standing up from inside a deep, dark, underground bunker, and the fighting undoubtedly consisted largely of hit and run tactics.

Tim Hames of The Times has a viewpoint that I can more easily get behind: If this was a defeat, the Israelis must be praying for a lot more of them. My favorite quote is: “As victories rank, not being destroyed, disarmed or discredited is not that impressive.”

Granted, Roggio has a point when he says that Hezbollah did get away with kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, who are still at large. In that sense, Israel lost. But I heard somewhere that Israel may try to exchange the bodies of Hezbollah soldiers they recovered for their own kidnapped soldiers, which I thought was a great idea that overflowed with dark, humorous irony. Now that’s an acceptable prisoner exchange.

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