Act of War

That is what Israel is calling the abduction of two of its soldiers by the scum of Hezbollah. I can't say I disagree in the slightest. Hezbollah are terrorists, and these kind of tactics are the only thing they know. Why is that? Firstly, every time the Arabs try to engage Israel conventionally, they get their arses handed to them. Secondly, the are cowards. It takes no courage to kidnap a person, nor does it to strap on a bomb and kill women and children in a pizzeria.

Pretty much since the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Muslim armies have been slaughtered by Western ones. One reason is that the Muslim powers, with the exception of the Turks, maintained the old martial traditions. These are fine things, but against repeating rifles, modern training and discipline and tactical thinking, a wild charge of horsemen will most likely fail. So, when you cannot hope to win a conventional war, what do you do? Turn to terrorism or guerilla tactics. Guerrillas target military objectives. Terrorists target civilians. There are exceptions, of course, and this is one of them.

Hezbollah are terrorist scum. Period. They carry out suicide-bombings, they launch rocket attacks against civilian targets, and they abduct people for ransom. Warriors do not do this. Only cowardly scum do.

Now, what do they hope to gain? No clue here. There are dealing with a nation that has never negotiated with terrorists. Ettenbe, anyone? All this will do is harden Israeli resolve and make things worse for the people Hezbollah claims to represent.