Submitted by D. Leonard (United States), Dec 17, 2005 at 16:17
As a proud former US Marine (1st Force Reconnaissance Co.) (15th MEU). I personally reject the idea that America would come out on the losing end of a war against Hezbollah.
In 1983 America had CIA and Spec Ops personnel inside Beirut with the express mission of assassinating Hezbollah's key leadership including Imad Mugniyah. The plan was called off by the Reagan administration, but had it gone forward there is no doubt that many Hezbollah leaders and senior commanders would have been killed.
People like Daniel Byman have made comments about how skilled and tough Hezbollah fighters are. that may be true, but they are still basically a Guerilla/terrorist organization, not a professional Military machine like the US Military. US Spec Ops soldiers are the best trained counter-guerilla and counter-terror operatives in the world. the mere suggestion that Hezbollah could stand up to these forces (along with the combined forces of conventional US Military troops) is laughable, and shows a deep misunderstanding of just what the US war machine is capable of.
We owe Hezbollah and scum like Mugniyah for the deaths of many brave sodliers and civilians.
Hezbollah may have forced Israel from Lebanon (although that is open to debate) but America is not Israel. American intelligence should enact a program like the Vietnam era "Pheonix Program" to hunt down and kill Hezbollah's leaders and members in the event that Hezbollah decided to join Al Qaida.
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