Did the Loss in Israel Save Them from a Bigger Disaster?

It's apparent now that the Israeli military as seen in this latest war was not the formidable force it once was. The soldiers are complaining about the lack of support and training:

Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Lebanon say the army was slow to rescue wounded comrades and suffered from a lack of supplies so dire that they had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas.

"We fought for nothing. We cleared houses that will be reoccupied in no time," said Ilia Marshak, a 22-year-old infantryman who spent a week in Lebanon.

Marshak said his unit was hindered by a lack of information, poor training and untested equipment. In one instance, Israeli troops occupying two houses inadvertently fired at each other because of poor communication between their commanders.

"We almost killed each other," he said. "We shot like blind people. ... We shot sheep and goats."

Yoni the Blogger, who has some 20 years of experience in the Israeli military, has written a good piece which makes the case the the loss in Lebanon is a blessing in disguise since it brought to light multiple deficiencies in the military forces:

With the defeat of Israel in Lebanon, comes a blessing.

We have found with very little cost that the IDF is not prepared for the battlefield of today.

This situation came about as the result of two things, first that the threat to the existence of the Jewish state was over. That the battle was only going to be a terrorist threat primarily focused on the Palestinians and maybe an attack or two on Israeli targets outside of Israel such as the attacks in Argentina carried out by Hizballah in the recent past.

Today we face an enemy that is better prepared and armed than ever before. We have Egypt armed with American F16 fighter aircraft and The M1Abrams tanks. With additional regional pressure, combined with the rise in Egypt of support for the Islamic Brotherhood can the Camp David Accords hold?

I would think it would be foolish to hope so. So we must plan on a potential war on our western front.

Read the rest of it here. I hope this whole mess will give Israel the time to fix their problems and be ready for the regional war which is sure to come.