Inside Hezbollah's statelet in Lebanon..

Joshua's Army members are quite familiar with the work of journalist Michael J. Totten, one of the more astute free lance journalists roaming the Middle East. He's been cited on these pages more than once.

As usual, rather than stay cosseted in a hotel in the capitol and rely on native stringers or simply rewriting what AP and al-Reuters have to say, Mr. Totten took a trip into the heart of Hezbollah controlled Lebanon at their headquarters in Haret Hreik and provides an illuminating look at Hezbollah, the recent war, Hezbollah's Lebanon and the non-Hezbollah Lebanon and the prospects for peace in the region. Here are a few samples:

{...}"The Israeli Air Force dropped leaflets over the neighborhood warning residents to get out of the way of the incoming air strikes. Many times more people would have been killed if they hadn’t done this.

Haret Hreik is vertically packed with civilians, including the liberal cleric who was my guide and who is completely innocent of this war. Tens of thousands of people live in the area. Some of their homes were destroyed. Those whose homes weren’t destroyed now fear theirs could be next.

Haret Hreik also is packed with the infrastructure of a warmongering militia that unilaterally instigated the conflict on purpose. That’s why it was hit harder than any other urbanized section of Lebanon. {...}

I have been to Israel four times in the last nine months and I know very well that Israelis, left-wing and right-wing alike, overwhelmingly prefer peace to war. But when your only exposure to Israelis is through racist and phantasmagoric Hezbollah propaganda, and when that propaganda is underscored by air raids with blockbuster bombs, it can be a bit hard to believe that Israelis would rather leave you alone.

{...}Hezbollah has restocked its weapons supply from Iran via Syria. Hassan Nasrallah insists the “resistance” will continue. His supporters applaud him for that even though huge numbers are homeless or live next to piles of rubble.

Hezbollah’s supposed “victory” is a Pyrrhic one, if even that. And it should serve as a warning. Military historian Michael Oren explained it to me this way at the end of the war: "If [Nasrallah] has enough victories like this one, he’s dead."

{...}Enormous forces pull this tiny country (only half the size of tiny Israel) in violently opposing directions at the same time. Lebanon cannot be in the Western and moderate Arab orbit and be absorbed into the Syrian/Iranian axis. Civil war, as well as war with their southern neighbor, will hang like the Sword of Damocles over the country until this is resolved..."

A fine read, with absolutely incredible pictures to go with it. You simply don't get journalism like this normally from the people that are supposed to be professionals, doing it for a living.