Israel expands its military effort

Hezbollah is firing missiles from civilian areas in Lebanon into civilian areas of Israel. It seeks a double bonus since it wants to kill Jews and to claim the propaganda rewards from dead Lebanese civilians.

Hezbollah is skillfully exploiting missile technology to realise these 'rewards'. As Greg Sheridan in the Australian remarks:

Missiles, like most weapons, are becoming more sophisticated yet, paradoxically, simpler to operate. Thus, Israel has technology that can trace the line of an incoming missile and hit the point from which it was fired. But missile launchers are almost throwaway items now.So Hezbollah can set up a missile launcher with a couple of soldiers, move them away from the launcher, then fire it by remote control. When the Israeli retaliation hits, the Hezbollah fighters are well out of range.

Even worse, in a way, they can set up the missile launchers in areas, especially civilian areas, where they know that an Israeli hit will cause Israel big political damage.

Missiles are fascinating because they are a weapon of conventional warfare and, increasingly, a weapon of terrorism. They are used in symmetric warfare, between powers of comparable military strength, and in asymmetric warfare. In other words, they are a weapon that a weaker power can use to inflict unacceptable damage on a stronger power.

Israel is justified in expanding its ground-based military operations in Lebanon to prevent missile attacks on its territories. However justification is becoming of secondary importance. The issue is can it win with these tactics at acceptible cost? Hezbollah might not be widely loved among non-religious fanatics but its popularity is increasing in some circles.

The bad guy can win.