The recent and still developing conflict between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hizbollah has caused many analysts and pundits to point out the great disparity in arms between the two combatants:
The State Department’s 1993 report on international terrorism lists Hizbollah’s “strength” at several thousand. Hizbollah sources assert that the organization has about 5,000-10,000 fighters. Other sources report that Hizbollah’s militia consists of a core of about 300-400 fighters, which can be expanded to up to 3,000 within several hours if a battle with Israel develops. These reserves presumably are called in from Hizbollah strongholds in Lebanon, including the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs. The number of members involved in combat activity in southern Lebanon is under 1,000. But it has many activists and moral supporters. After the Israeli withdrawal Hizballah reduced the number of full time fighters to about 500, though estimates range from 300 to 1,200. There are also several thousand reserves, but these lack training or experience. Hizbollah’s militia is a light force, equipped with small arms, such as automatic rifles, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and Katyusha rockets, which it occasionally has fired on towns in northern Israel. Hizbollah forces are shown on television conducting military parades in Beirut, which often include tanks and armored personnel carriers that may have been captured from the Lebanese army or purchased from Palestinian guerrillas or other sources. [Link]
versus:
The IDF [Israeli Defense Force] is considered to be one of the most high-tech armies in the world, possessing top-of-the-line weapons and computer systems, Some of it American-made or indigenously modified (such as the M4A1 assault rifle, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon jets and Apache helicopter). Israel receives more than US$2 billion per year in military aid from the United States, and much of it requires that American equipment be purchased with it. In spite of this however, Israel also has developed its own independent weapons industry. Weapons such as the Merkava battle tank, Kfir jet series, and various small arms such as the Galil assault rifle and Uzi submachine gun have all proven to be very successful.
The IDF also has several large internal research and development departments, and it purchases many technologies produced by the Israeli security industries including IAI, IMI, Elbit, El-Op, Rafael, Soltam and dozens of smaller firms. Many of these developments have been battle-tested in Israel’s numerous military engagements, making the relationship mutually beneficial, the IDF getting tailor-made solutions and the industries a very high repute. [Link]
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p>This post is filed under, “Another thing that Indians invented that you probably didn’t know about.” In this case however, the invention might be viewed by some as a rather dubious honor. The only weapon of any significance in Hizbollah’s arsenal is the Katyusha rocket. Can this single weapon threaten to defeat the IDF? No. But it was the Indians that invented the use of rocket artillery in battle, and the father of rocket artillery, Tipu Sultan (the Tiger of Mysore), was celebrated for his use of rocket artillery in defeating the superior British army in the 1792 Srirangapatna War.
…Tipu Sultan achieved a grand victory, whereby the whole British detachment lead by Colonel Baillie was destroyed and 3820 soldiers were taken prisoner (including Colonel Bailli). the contributory cause being that one of the British ammunition tambrils was set on fire by Mysorean rockets.At the Battle of Seringapatam in 1792, Indian soldiers launched a huge barrage of rockets against British troops, followed by an assault of 36,000 men. Although the Indian rockets were primitive by modern standards, their sheer numbers, noise and brilliance were said to have been quite effective at disorienting British soldiers. During the night, the rockets were often seen as blue lights bursting in the air. Since Indian forces were able to launch these bursting rockets from in front of and behind British lines, they were a tremendous tool for throwing the British off guard. The bursting rockets were usually followed by a deadly shower of rockets aimed directly at the soldiers. Some of these rockets passed from the front of the British columns to the rear, inflicting injury and death as they passed.[Link]
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p>Here is a bit more background:
Tipu wrote a military manual called Fathul Mujahidin in which 200 rocket men were prescribed to each Mysorean ‘cushoon’. (Mysore had 16 to 24 cushoons of infantry). The areas of town where rockets and fireworks were manufactured were known as Taramandal Pet (roughly translated as “Galaxy Bazaar“).
The rocket men were trained to launch their rockets at an angle calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance of the target. In addition, wheeled rocket launchers capable of launching five to ten rockets almost simultaneously were used in war. Rockets could be of various sizes, but usually consisted of a tube of soft hammered iron about 8″ long and 1Å“ – 3″ diameter, closed at one end and strapped to a shaft of bamboo about 4ft. long. The iron tube acted as a combustion chamber and contained well packed black powder propellant. A rocket carrying about one pound of powder could travel almost 1,000 yards. In contrast, rockets in Europe not being iron cased, could not take large chamber pressures and as a consequence, were not capable of reaching distances anywhere near as great. [Link]
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p>I fancy the term, “Galaxy Bazaar.” I have a feeling that if such a thing still existed I’d find myself there often (although I feel like they DO still exist off the highway in states like Indiana 
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Dr. APJ Abul Kalam, the father of modern Indian rocket technology, in his Tipu Sultan Shaheed Memorial Lecture in Bangalore (Nov. 30, 1991), called Tipu the innovator of the worldÂ’s first war rocket. In fact, two of these rockets, captured by British at Srirangapatana, are displayed in the Woolwich Museum Artillery in London. Their motor casing is made of steel with multi-nozzle holes and the sword blade as warhead. The 50mm diameter, 250mm long rocket weighs about 2kg, with about 1kg packed gunpowder as propellant, and its range performance is reported 900meters to 1.5 km. [Link]
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p>So what would Tipu Sultan say if he saw his battlefield innovation being put to use in this conflict? Fortunately we have some insight into his thoughts here:
War must be linked to battlefields. Do not carry it to innocent civilians. Honor their children and the infirm.” A TOLERANT RULER In the tradition of Islamic tolerance, Tipu advised that “… Religious tolerance is the fundamental tenet of the QurÂ’an,” adding, “The QurÂ’an calls upon you not to revile the idols of another religion for it says: revile not those unto whom they pray beside Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance.” In a declaration issued in 1787, Tipu also informed his subjects: “The QurÂ’an expects you to vie with each other in good works and says for each we have appointed a divine law and a traced out way. Had Allah willed he could have made you one community…so vie one with another in good works…” [Link]
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p>At a recent lecture at Tipu Sultan’s old residence “Dariya Daulat,” BrahMos Aerospace CMD and Managing Director Sivathanu Pillai spoke the following words in regards to Tipu’s accomplishments:
“As there are no models of the rockets left in India, I visited Woolwich Artillery Museum in London where a spent rocket and pieces of other weapons used by the King are on display. I will tell the President [Kalam] how innovative our people were in those days. We must celebrate this and tell the world that the birth of rocket indeed took place in Srirangapatna.
“The rocket has a steel chamber and is charged with gun powder. Even today the solid motor of a rocket looks like this. The technology the ruler and his men have developed is amazing. They had developed a launcher from which three rockets could be launched simultaneously. Though not accurate, the rockets were so effective that it spun and hit the British cavalry with deadly effect. This is depicted in a painting in the London museum. In the painting, horses were seen tumbling when hit by the rockets,” he added. [Link]
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p>Anyways, I always find it useful to view modern conflict while keeping a historical perspective and Tipu Sultan, his deeds, and his thoughts seemed appropriate here.
To learn more about Tipu Sultan you can check out this bibliography for interesting sources.
Also see related posts: Spy Princess, Dr. Ramanand Sagar, 1917-2005, The tyranny of a transposition typo, More Vicarious Traveling: “The Lost Temples of India”, “Brown Arms White Wars”,
Perhaps it’s mainstream because, rightly or wrongly, they are perceived to have driven out Israel in the last occupation 😉
this is only accurate insofar as humanist idealism is dismissed as a strand in plausible foreign policy. the reason it is, for now, is that the bush administration has adopted cynical idealism as its foreign policy’s primary raison d’etre, resulting in democrats adopting and much of the antiwar left adopting a realpolitik approach. just yoiu wait, and you’ll see people who care about human rights abuses in burma AND don’t support US interviention in all kinds of places.
😉
I really wish this madness would end; but, I doubt if it will happen in my lifetime:(
Just to second post #33: No offence to anyone, but perhaps the people who have inadvertantly diverted this thread into another extended debate on the Israeli-Lebanese conflict should take the conversation over to the other thread which (coincidentally) has also been somewhat hijacked, namely the one about the 86,000 Sri Lankan maids stranded in Lebanon.
Or perhaps Abhi or one of the other Mutineers could collate the various viewpoints and start a fresh thread that focuses purely on the current conflict, so that it doesn’t spill over repeatedly into unrelated threads, which appears to be what is currently happening.
Anyway, this isn’t my blog, so if Abhi doesn’t have a problem with the current threadjacking then it’s his judgement call, of course. The discussion is proving to be extremely informative and it’s interesting reading the various viewpoints, but I’m wondering if this is actually the right thread to discuss such matters.
Or maybe this post is an SM Trojan Horse. A self-hijacking, if you will. Abhi is very duplicitous this way.
Saurav (post 51), Why do you keeping winking (at me)? Your post isn’t meant to be funny, is it? Are you trying to arouse my latent homophobia? 😉
BTW, in post 44, Imeant to say “non-representative,” not “non-non-reprehensive”–whatever that means.
No one, not even Wikipedia, really knows the sectarian breakdown of Lebanon.
The earlier statement that Lebanon is 40% Christian cannot be substantiated. There has not been a census in Lebanon for decades. I had this conversation with my taxi driver when I first went to Lebanon. He took great umbrage when I suggested Christians were a minority, insisting Christians were 60 or 70%. His brother later told me, while watching porno movies at their house (the Lebanese are very inviting), that Georges likes to exaggerate, and that he would be surprised if the Christian population was still above 40%. Who knows? What is known from recent hospital statistics is that Shiites are massively outbirthing Christians. And that doesn’t even take into the account the thousands of home births in the still impovished rural shiite communities.
It should be noted that Lebanese Christians are themselves a mix. The Maronites are the majority, but there is also significant Greek Orthodox community, Catholics who don’t adhere to the Maronite tradition, and a sizeable enclave of Armenians who have heir own Ghetto, Bourg Hammoud in Northern Beirut. Note: The Armenians who ended up there (escaping a Genocide) being largely Christian were given Lebanese citizenship and rights, helping to buttress the Christian numbers. This contrasts with 400,000 or so largely Muslim Palestinians who have nothing.
An examination of the Lebanese blogsphere proves nothing about who likes who either. The suggestion that Christians don’t like Hezbollah or that Sunnis don’t like Shiites or Hezbollah either is enormously simplistic. I could go on, but the thread is about rockets.
I promise when I next post when I have something to say about rockets. How’z that?
Farouk Engineer.
Hizbollah is responsible for this war. They kidnapped the soldiers. They have indiscriminately launched rockets into Israel killing both Arabs and Jews.
They could have prevented this, but instead they asked for a fight and they got it.
Just putting you on notice, Colbert style.
Btw, thanks for putting words in my mouth 😉
Hello? It starts with a strength assessment of Hezbollah and IDF!
See, I’m made a vow to avoid cable news networks so I can AVOID routine talking points, dammit!
I really envy the people who can draw such fantastically clear lines for the sake of apportioning blame. It’s a trait I often wish I had, simply because the monocular myopia makes life so much easer.
There’s a lot of fucking-up going on here, both sides. I’ll leave it at that, because while I think Israel’s behaviour in attacking an entire country (instead of just the clear region where the Hizbollah is located) is reprehensible, I also think that there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes drama that one simply will not get as an outsider, no matter how emotionally invested. “Proportionality”. It’s a good way to go.
I do think it’s kind of wickedly cool to have sword blades as the “warheads” on early rockets. I mean, think about how much less drama there’d be, right? No fallout, no poison, no bio-chemical destruction? Desis came up with responsible artillery! 😉
Ummm. Actually I posted about this for three reasons: 1) I’m a rocket scientist 2) I’m a history buff–> see SM archives 3) I’m a military buff–> see SM archives
You’ll note that I haven’t really stated my opinion about the current conflict. It seems kind of pointless to roll in a “Trojan Horse” and then never actually get out of the horse either in the post or the subsequent comments. Believe me that I have some strong opinions about this current conflict.
Here’s an interesting page with detailed drawings and references …
The suggestion that Hezbollah is alone responsible for this war is absurd. Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, which is what warring nations tend to do. Kill, capture etc. A state of war existed between Israel and Lebanon prior to recent events on the border.
Furthermore, given that Hezbollah are in effect Lebanese irregular forces, then the term ‘kidnap’ is a distortion.
From the Oxford Dictionary…
Kidnap – 1. carry off by illegal force (a person etc.)…
Capture – 1. take prisoner, seize as a prize…
Hezbollah ‘captured’ two Israeli soldiers. The same was true of Hamas the week before. You would not say that the Lebanese and Palestinians in Israeli gaols arrived there by kidnapping, would you? Hezbollah did not ask for a fight, but rather for a prisoner exchange. Such exchanges have been conducted with Israel before.
Yes, I agree, Hezbollah indiscriminately launched rockets into Israel killing both Arabs and Jews. But the same is true of Israel. Incidentally, there remains a small Jewish community in Lebanon. In theory, Israel’s indescriminations also risked the lives of the innocent Arabs and Jews of Lebanon. However, in reality, what Israel seems to be doing, given it’s attacks are overwhelmingly on Beirut’s Southern suburbs, Southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, is a form of ethnic cleansing on the Lebanese Shia.
Finally, speaking of rockets, as I promised I would, I ran into Fox News last night, where a serious discussion was ongoing between their panel of experts about how Hezbollah could have been the destination for Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction!!!
Farouk Engineer
This is Farouk Engineer, as ever behind the stumps watching every for swing and spin
In the meantime you forgot to watch your own spin
“The suggestion that Christians don’t like Hezbollah or that Sunnis don’t like Shiites or Hezbollah either is enormously simplistic”
nothing is as simplistic as the claim that ‘hizbollah is lebanon’ to which i was responding to. I was merely pointing out the different forces in play. And yes, the discussion is about the history of rockets and i should refrain from posting further off the topic.
As a wannabe author, but a much more accomplished history buff, I think the article and the ensuing comments demonstrate the sheer superiority of the AP-report style over a stream-of-consciousness narrative, when it comes to discussing history.
Sure Tipu Sultan was the first to use a rocket barrage to rout enemy soldiers, but the reason that this 200 year old story is making news right now isn’t only because of the conflict in the Middle East. Abdul Kalam just got back from Mysore where he issued this statement:
“This was the beginning of the rocket technology and the contribution of the ruler and his men is unforgettable. How the original idea came to his mind is amazing. Our rocket and missile technology is actually based on the same principle,” [The Hindustan Times]
India loves revisiting its past to say “we were first”. Some faux-scholars and fundi-pundits even go as far to say India invented human cloning and nuclear bombs.
That’s right Scott….President Kalam’s failure to give a shout out to Goddard & von Braun puts him in the same genus as cranks who claim that proto-Patels purveyed parathas on Pluto during the Paleolithic.