[lit-ideas] Re: Jihad Against Hezbollah
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2006 14:47:32 -0700
Judith Evans wrote:
Invaders? I thought most of the Viet Cong came from South
Vietnam.
(As we're dealing in complexities.)
This is true; and the definition of 'invaders' doesn't support what I
said. Without help from North Vietnam, the Viet Cong, or People's
Liberation Armed Forces would not have flourished. The PLAF) were
'strictly subordinated to the general staff in Hanoi.
In any case, I was thinking of the North Vietnamese army, and it was
careless of me to confuse the two. Although I don't for the most part
trust Wikipedia, the following passage from it does seem helpful at
sorting out the players.
"Within the United States, the Vietnam War is commonly thought of as a
guerrilla war. However this is a simplification of a much more complex
situation which followed the pattern outlined by Maoist theory.
"The National Liberation Front (NLF), drawing its ranks from the South
Vietnamese peasantry and working class, used guerrilla tactics in the
early phases of the war. However, by 1965 when U.S. involvement
escalated, the National Liberation Front was in the process of being
supplanted by regular units of the North Vietnamese Army.
"The NVA regiments organized along traditional military lines, were
supplied via the Ho Chi Minh trail rather than living off the land, and
had access to weapons such as tanks and artillery which are not normally
used by guerrilla forces.
"Over time, more of the fighting was conducted by the North Vietnamese
Army and the character of the war become increasingly conventional. The
final offensive into South Vietnam in 1975 was a mostly conventional
military operation in which guerilla warfare played a minor, supporting
role.
> Would you accept _any_ figure? And why is this 'slim say-so'
to you
I think you mean "why is this 'say-so' 'slim' to you?". I think
the answer may be that the source is simply "a businessman".
Globalsecurity.org says Iran probably gives Hezbollah "financial
assistance and military
assistance worth about $25-50 million". (I didn't check
further.)
I have to confess that I don't see any meaningful distinction between
the two expressions. 'Slim say-so' was a quote and I assumed that the
person who said it saw it as, to her, say-so that was slim. 'It looks ø
to me,' and 'To me it looks ø,' to me the same look. But this is not
what we really want to talk about, I think.
Judy is right to suggest that I did wonder why to Ursula this claim was
'slim,' i.e., fishy, incomplete, not well-supported; for to wonder those
things usually means that the skeptic is skeptical for a reason.
Be that as it may. The businessman quoted by the New Yorker writer is
himself relying on something he's heard, and is saying, in effect, that
if it's true that Hezbollah has received $100 million from Iran, then
one would wonder why it hadn't done more to provide for the Lebanese
civilians in harm's way. (The New Yorker writer does visit one shelter.)
The $100 million figure comes from a June report to the US Congress from
the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. Maybe
that's where he 'heard' it.
Robert Paul
The Reed Institute
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