I have changed the order from the original post to make things clearer:
Israel destroys bridge in Lebanon, threatens Gaza-scale destruction
On Wednesday night, Hezbollah launched 200 rockets at northern Israeli communities.
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Israel destroyed a bridge in southern Lebanon on Friday and dropped leaflets in Beirut threatening Gaza-scale devastation as it deployed more troops to fight Iran-backed Hezbollah and warned of more attacks on the country’s infrastructure.
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Israeli aircraft dropped flyers over Beirut threatening to inflict damage on Lebanon similar to the devastation the military wrought on Gaza during its two-year war with Hamas. Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble and nearly all its population displaced.
“In light of the great success in Gaza, the newspaper of the new reality arrives to Lebanon,” the flyer said.
Another flyer called on Lebanese to strip Hezbollah of its weapons. It featured two QR codes to links on WhatsApp and Facebook, accompanied by a message telling Lebanese to make contact if they want to see “real change” in their country.
I am reminded of the leaflets the U.S. military dropped over Japanese cities (Warning Leaflets – Nuclear Museum). Japan did not heed them even after Hiroshima was vaporized. A similar lack of response will occur in Lebanon. Verbal persuasion is difficult in most people and in essentially impossible in religious extremists.
There is a reason why we have expressions like, “Using a clue bat”, and “hit them with a clue by four.” It takes a different type of “persuasion” to change the minds of these people.
The distribution of the leaflets is the right thing to do. But only to somewhat reduce the guilt of those delivering the bombs the harshness of the international criticism. The rockets will continue to be launched into Israel and, sadly, real change will come from the sky.
My guess is that the QR codes are the link to the program that allows citizens to call in Israeli airstrikes, like in Iran.
Yup, That’s what I’d bet on.
The Israeli’s have crowdsourced target location and designation.
But we might be wrong in our assumptions that they’re bomb those locations; perhaps those locations will just get a package via DHL with free cell phones and pagers.
I don’t think the Israelis suffer much from guilt in these matters. In my view, those leaflets are a way to mute the outrage from the Western politicians. It’s unlikely to be effective, since most of those politicians hate Israel no matter how justified its actions may be.
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“Apply whatever force it is necessary to employ, to stop things quickly. The main thing is stop it. The quicker you stop it, the more lives you save.”
Attributed to Gen. Curtis LeMay
This could also be a paraphrase of something General Sherman believed.
I think you could get some kind of summary of war fighting from quite a few people that would all contain something similar.
If it’s worth fighting for, worth killing for, *get it done*, do not hold back, accomplish the goal quickly! Then set about mending the world, minimizing the harm, saving those who are left that can be saved.
Dithering leads to much more thorough destruction and much, much more death, in total.