http://www.washingtontimes.com/natio...3915-8553r.htm
Israel's force
We asked a former Navy combat pilot to assess the Israeli air
force's war against Hezbollah. He told us:
"I'm reminded of the 1982 war with Syria. I was sitting off the
coast of Lebanon on the USS Independence. Every day there would be
headlines about how the Syrians had shot down another Israeli aircraft.
A close look at the news clips showed that they had actually shot down
a UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]/drone - not an Israeli aircraft. This
was, in fact, an Israeli tactic. They knew how many SAMs
[surface-to-air missiles] Syria had and were counting down the
attrition rate. They denied Syria any Soviet resupply of those SAM
assets. When Israel had determined that Syria had expended their
inventory of SAMs, they launched a tremendous air strike against Syria,
which resulted in a victory within about 48 hours.
"So, today, I think the war of attrition is still the plan. Israel
really wants the current government of Lebanon to succeed, but know
they don't have the wherewithal to accomplish it without getting rid of
Hezbollah and ensuring that Hezbollah cannot be resupplied by Iran or
Syria.
"Ergo, the bombing/cratering of the runways at Beirut international
airport - these Israelis are not dumb - a careful review of their
bombing will show you that they carefully, with precision, cratered the
runways at intersections so that no runways could be used. The road to
Damascus was cratered so that no supplies could be brought in.
"Israel knows within a dozen or so how many Katyushka missiles
Hezbollah has [and their inaccuracy] and how many other Iran-supplied
longer range missiles that could hit Tel Aviv. I suspect they're
waiting this attrition out and will then make an effort to destroy
Hezbollah. I also won't be surprised when Israel air forces pass
unmolested through Iraq airspace [controlled by the U.S.] on their way
to and from Iran."