All Is Not As It Seems

Varifrank has a longish but fascinating speculation on what may actually be going on in Lebanon right now. It's quite interesting and would explain a few things, much as what Wretchard did at the Belmont Club. Many of the conclusions the two write about match up closely.

Here’s what I’m talking about. When you see news coming from Israel, its censored. That’s a good thing. I support that, its saving lives. When you see news from Beirut, its also censored. It’s also mostly propaganda. It’s a fact. I think were all over the age of 5 here, so I don’t think anyone who reads this blog is going to slap themselves in the head and shout “ Oh say it isn’t so!”

But knowing this simple set of facts, knowing that both sides want to put the best shine on their version of the story at all times, then ask yourself this;

“Why is it that stories coming from Israel this week are so damn pessimistic”?

Israel has press organizations, agents and other people to spin the story. They can put the proper pressure to ensure on the media to ensure that the story is told as close to the way they want it told. Yet, the stories coming from Israel seem to me to be bleak and nasty and full of fear and dissention, almost to the exception of any sort of good news.

Today, my "spider senses" started to twitch when I watched a news story told from a hospital from Israeli troops who had just returned from inside Lebanon. They were talking about the Hezbollah troops like they were 20 feet tall, each of which had 6 popeye sized arms with a .50 caliber machine gun and a full belt of ammo in each oversized hand.

I thought to myself for just a second, this doesn’t feel right. First, the only info that gets out is the info they want out, so why would Israeli government officials be so interested in letting this message get out? These are Israeli troops. These are not European conscripts. These guys know what defeat means. It means they will be feeding their families to the ovens of Hezbollah and the Iranians. They will fight to the death because failure means the end of everything. There is no line of retreat for Israelis. To Israelis there is no honor in losing, just death.

Israelis don’t talk like this in battle…so why are they and more importantly, why are we seeing it?

Shouldn’t the message being sent by the Israelis be “ We’re jubilant, we’re winning, we’re happy joyful fighters protecting our homeland, kicking the crap out of the Arabs again”? We’ve always seen that before haven’t we? even when they faced attacks by big armies from all three sides at once, they were cheery and happy in the face of battle. Defeatism and doubt are not things that you hear from the Israeli army.

Why send or allow to be sent, the exact opposite of that message?

One possibility is that things really are bad. Ok, I can accept that. But are they? Work with me for a second. Let’s ask ourselves the question again in a slightly different way;

“Why would any government be interested in sending a message of their own weakness at the beginning of a shooting war”?

Well, you do it because you want the enemy to commit…..

Like I said, fascinating read. Worth taking the time. Note also the update in which it is noted that a dog did not bark. Very interesting.