Did The U.S. And Israel Overplay Their Hand In The MidEast?

An important factor to consider is whether both the U.S. and Israel were lured into a false sense of military superiority that mislead war planners and politicians in both nations into assuming they could defeat terrorist militias.

In Iraq, the situation just continues to go from bad to worse, where the chance of a satisfactory U.S. achievement there becomes more and more slim. Will inurgents, terrorists and antiU.S. militia groups only number several thousand members, it is more than all the 135,000 American soldiers and their foreign allies and Iraqi military and police can handle.

In Israel, a false sense of military superiority misled the govenment led by a new Prime Minister without the military experience of Sharon into assuming that a military of 500,000 members could easily defeat 2,000 to 3,000 Hezbollah insurgents. Hezbollah appears to be very durable and has withstood weeks of intense bombings and still manages to fire nearly as many rockets and missiles as they did in the first days of the war.

Both Israel and the U.S. share similar equipment and military skills abilities. But once terrorists, insurgents or militia members pull these modern armies down to their level of guerilla warfare, then these terrorist forces appear to be durable enough to survive, resupply and bring in replacements.

In both situations it was a mistake of these first world armies to assume they could defeat these insurgent, terrorist or militia members. Right now no good military model exists for first world nations to beat guerilla forces of these types. In both situations both Israel and the U.S. are locked in a war of wills. How either nation can exit either situation and save face is yet to be seen. But so far it seems like neither Israel or the U.S. have any good plan to win their respective conflicts. Wars are always easy to enter, but far harder to leave.