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Last update - 00:00 10/07/2008 ANALYSIS / Two years on, IDF is starting to look like an army that can fight a war By Amos Harel Tags: Second Lebanon War, Israel  The satisfaction on the faces of the senior officers who came to observe the training exercise of the 7th Brigade in the Golan Heights last week was unmistakable. The Israel Defense Forces is once again starting to look like an army that knows how to deal with a conventional war, a challenge that - due to more pressing troubles - it downplayed during the years between the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000 and the Second Lebanon War, whose opening shots were fired two years ago tomorrow. The brigade-wide exercise in the Golan marked the climax of three months of training. In four days, the tanks of brigade commander Colonel Ro'i Alkabetz covered about 60 kilometers. They simulated a number of new scenarios, some with live fire. The tank crews ate battle rations, crossed a canal in a drill that the IDF had practically forgotten that it ever knew and slept just an hour or two a night, in over-30 degree Celsius heat. Paratroop, engineering and artillery battalions also drilled. At the same time, the regular Paratroops Brigade in the Golan practiced a "Lebanese scenario": They landed helicopters in difficult mountainous terrain, contended with a simulated artillery barrage and pressed on to their missions. Armored Corps personnel worked on a scenario that included a clash with a conventional army, one that bore more than a little similarity to the Syrian army, notwithstanding the fact that the two countries have been holding indirect peace talks in Turkey in recent months. The two brigades also grappled with a scenario involving the launch of steep-trajectory rockets, a task the army belatedly identified during the Second Lebanon War as a primary objective. Advertisement When Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi visited the Armored Corps drill, he asked who among the 7th Brigade's senior officers had had experience with a similar exercise. One of the battalion commanders hesitantly raised his hand. He had taken part in an exercise, in a different brigade and in a secondary role, eight years ago. The last such drill by the 7th Brigade took place in 1999. This is an excellent example of the seriousness of the situation. Only now, with great effort, is the IDF returning to the model of 19 weeks of training on average per year, which is still significantly lower than the half-year of training that was required at the time the second intifada began. In the last war, the 7th Brigade's tanks were involved in some serious accidents. Some were hit by anti-tank missiles. The brigade took part in the failed siege of Bint Jbail, and the brigade commander at the time, Colonel Amnon Eshel, was seen in the media apparently trying to deceive his division commander. Since the war, the whole senior staff of the 7th Brigade has been replaced at least once. And a majority of the troops who served in it during the war have since been discharged. In Lebanon, says a senior Armored Corps officer, "a situation arose in which the whole chain of command didn't know what the true level of fitness was of all the forces. The philosophy was, 'We'll do our best with what we have.' There had been a prolonged erosion in the army's fitness, and we were all a party to it. When a battalion commander who has never been through a battalion-wide drill goes into a brigade-wide battle in Lebanon, how can anyone with a head on his shoulders expect him to succeed?" "We're still seeing a lot of rust," said one of the senior officers after the exercise. "The difference is that, a year ago, people weren't even aware of what it was they didn't know. Now they know what they're lacking. But by the end of the exercise, a certain amount of experience is accumulated, capability is built up. It's still a process and it's happening very slowly." The regular units, in his assessment, are gradually returning to their level of fitness from 2000, on the eve of the intifada. "The reserves are in less good shape. They have too few training exercises. I don't see any reserve brigade successfully completing a drill like the one the 7th Brigade just did, and there's no substitute for that kind of training. It's not the same as a simulation in an air-conditioned room. A tank battalion has to have the real experience of moving a column through the field in difficult circumstances, over the same small bridge. When you don't do it like the real thing, that will show when it has to be done in reality." Chief of Staff Ashkenazi takes journalists to task for their ongoing silence in light of the IDF's insufficient training prior to the war. He also seemed to imply that the media's indifference (along with their praise of his predecessors) heightened the failure. Here, for example, is what a search of the Haaretz archives found: Among other things, an article from October 2002 about the expected reduction in training exercises by the regular units for 2003, stating: "The burden of the territories displaces training; only two weeks per year." This was the plan, but in reality, the troops sometimes trained even less than that. The article also reported that the army was compelled to divert all of its resources to combating Palestinian terror, and it quotes brigade and battalion commanders who admit that, two years into the intifada, their charges have no notion of regular training and exercise. That article was based in part on a conversation with the head of the IDF's training department at the time, Colonel Moti Kidor. Kidor told about how, when he tried to warn then chief of staff Shaul Mofaz about the decline in the regular units' battle fitness, Mofaz nearly threw him out of his office. Four years later, during the war, Kidor commanded the 401st regular Armored Brigade, which became known for the bloody battle of Wadi Saluki. Kidor's fighters conducted themselves heroically and earned numerous citations, but the gaps in their professional training were made painfully clear. Coincidental timing The cabinet was convened two days ago, at relatively short notice, to discuss Hezbollah's mounting strength. According to Military Intelligence estimates, the organization currently possesses close to 40,000 rockets - three times the number it had just prior to the war. Some are located south of the Litani River. The longer-range rockets are believed to be able to reach as far as Dimona, whereas before the war they could barely reach Tel Aviv. In addition to the statistical review, the question of intent cannot be ignored. This isn't about solid numbers, but still: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, for now, is not displaying any keenness for another confrontation with Israel. Not to mention that the man seems to have hardly emerged from his bunker at all in the past two years. Toward the end of next week, if there are no last-minute mishaps, the prisoner swap is expected to be completed. This week, media coverage focused on Hezbollah's report on Ron Arad, but from the moment the state agreed to a formula in which it would receive such a report, knowing that Hezbollah would not provide absolute answers, its bargaining power became limited. Nonetheless, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still managed to put up one more obstacle to the deal, with the plan to hold another cabinet discussion (and perhaps also another vote) on the issue, with the explanation that the release of Samir Kuntar would constitute a violation of a "governmental promise" made by the previous government to the Arad family. It's not clear why this wasn't mentioned at the time of the government's vote on June 29, which was not presented as a conditional vote of approval. Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev will not be returned to Israel on the second anniversary of their abduction. As of now, it appears that the swap will be carried out at the Rosh Hanikra crossing next Thursday or Friday, very close to the time Morris Talansky will be undergoing cross-examination in a Jerusalem court - an event widely expected to determine the prime minister's future. Perhaps the prisoner exchange will manage to cast a real shadow on the things that are said in the courthouse in Jerusalem. Life is full of strange coincidences Bookmark to del.icio.us   Picking up the pieces U.S. Jews ponder 'catastrophic' effects of Bernard Madoff affair. Adolf Hitler, toddler Three-year-old Adolf Hitler finally gets his name on his birthday cake.   1.   Analysis: Try Start Looking like a Govt. that can fight for Peace 15:33  |  Markus 12/07/08   2.   Future Wars Won`t Be Conventional 16:27  |  Yosemite 12/07/08   3.   Hope Amos Harel is not dreaming..... 17:02  |  Dolly 12/07/08   4.   Amos Harel and POTEMKIN 17:08  |  Sens 12/07/08   5.   WHo pays? 17:16  |  Truth 12/07/08   6.   I hope the lessons learned 17:18  |  Mark Lincoln 12/07/08   7.   Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi Is Doing A Terrific Job 17:45  |  THE WARRIOR 12/07/08   8.   A bit frightenning analysis. Result of the Occupation. 17:50  |  S 12/07/08   9.   Good! However, every brigade must have similar excercises 17:57  |  Baruch Gold 12/07/08   10.   When the Intifada erupted in 2000... 18:33  |  Hansje 12/07/08   11.   How about an Army that can fight for Peace 19:01  |  Markus 12/07/08   12.   #1 Yosemite 19:17  |  Jim 12/07/08   13.   Stop your hopfull drems 19:23  |  farrokh 12/07/08   14.   Exercises 20:13  |  Clickfool 12/07/08   15.   To Hollywood: Will Israel Fight to Win or Stall? 20:20  |  Dave Levy 12/07/08   16.   and 20:28  |  wh 12/07/08   17.   As usual click #2 the voice of doom 20:50  |  Dish It Out 12/07/08   18.   Pity The Lebanese 20:56  |  Bill Foonman 12/07/08   19.   Future Wars Must Be On Our Terms 20:57  |  Usedtoposthere 12/07/08   20.   #Markus. Your idea Make good sence 21:12  |  Ari 12/07/08   21.   CFOOL.How do you know what Israel does in its training excersizes 22:02  |  PETER SM 12/07/08   22.   For Dish It Out # 9 22:11  |  Clickfool 12/07/08   23.   Unfortunately, it will happen I`m afraid. 23:32  |  Shlomo 12/07/08   24.   Clickfool: Gaza isn`t Stalingrad! 00:00  |  Arthur 13/07/08   25.   For Arthur # 18 00:28  |  Clickfool 13/07/08   26.   bodybags 02:36  |  Joe Hill 13/07/08   27.   19, clickfool 04:40  |  Harry 13/07/08   28.   IDF will never win war,with a traitor as prime minister 05:11  |  chaim 13/07/08   29.   In the words of Sun Tzu 05:25  |  David 13/07/08   30.   usedtoposthere 05:49  |  Otto Rand 13/07/08   31.   #11 Jim 06:14  |  Yosemite 13/07/08   32.   THE IDF IS BUILDING UP WHILE MERT WILL BE SENDING THE BULLDOZERS 16:38  |  glenna 16/07/08   33.   Victory through Syria 17:00  |  section9 05/10/08

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