"JERUSALEM (AFP) - A general resigns, a colonel is disciplined and the command structure is battered by an unrelenting storm of criticism: the Israeli army is in disarray as it struggles to cope with the failures of the war in Lebanon.
A month after the 34-day campaign against the Shiite militia Hezbollah ended, the barrage of brickbats continues, with the military and political leadership both under fire for their handling of a deadly conflict that failed to achieve its main aims.
Colonel Amnon Eshel, head of the seventh brigade, reportedly complained that his immediate boss, General Gal Hirsh, was "completely cut off from realities on the ground" as his badly prepared men battled to counter Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel.
The war left 162 Israelis dead and failed to achieve either of its main objectives -- retrieving two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a July 12 raid and halting the barrage of more than 4,000 rocket attacks fired into the north of the country by the guerrillas.
"Going to war was scandalous and he is directly responsible for that," Yaalon was quoted as saying in the Haaretz daily when asked if Olmert had to resign. "The management of the war was a failure and he is responsible for that.""
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Can you imagine something like this debate and self-criticism taking place in any of the dictatorial Arab regimes (the PA included)?
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