Paintballing with Hezbollah

[shaayecanaan]

The usual stuff from Vice, but interesting in parts:-

As we pass through a Lebanese military checkpoint intended to keep foreigners from sniffing around one of the world’s tensest borders, he talks tactics, first insulting both sides’ strategies in the paintball game—a lack of discipline and unwillingness to modify plans, the antithesis of the Hezbollah way. As an example, he points to a bend in the road just inside the former Security Zone, which Israel had occupied for more than 20 years.

“That’s where an Israeli tank almost ran me over,” he says, describing a patient ambush he’d set in the late 90s. “But we couldn’t move or make a sound, because the tank wasn’t our target.” Then he points to another bend in a road a few hundred meters away: the site of the action.

As we approach the border, on the other side of the fence we encounter an Israeli military patrol milling around with their Humvees in the distance. The Boss rolls down his window.

“Hellllooooo there,” the Boss shouts in English to the startled soldiers, who whip around in surprise. He follows this with a hearty “Fuck you!” and we speed off. Once we’re far enough away that I stop worrying about getting shot, I ask him what he really thinks—personally—about his Israeli enemies.

“They are well trained and tough,” he says. “They fight hard and defend their land and people. I respect them as enemies. They work with their hands, they fight for themselves, and they take care of their own people, so they’re much better than the Saudis.” He goes on: “Saudis are the worst people alive. They claim to be the most religious Muslims and were given the greatest gift of any nation by God himself. Do they protect Muslims with this money? Do they feed the poor? Build a culture? No, they spend it all on cars and whores. I hate them.”

http://www.vice.com/read/paintballing-with-hezbollah-0000151-v19n3

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. The key to peace in the Middle East!

Take away all of the rockets and guns and tanks and outfit every fucking individual with a paint gun (and unlimited supplies of whatever serves as 'paint bullets').

I like it.

[shaayecanaan]

2. And a worthwhile response:-

http://aldekken.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/partying-with-hezbollah/

At the wheel was The Godfather, who, in the weeks following our drunken debauchery, had learned to trust me, despite the fact that I’m foreign, don’t speak his language, and my publications on the group have tended to depict them as a terrorist organization that is holding the country hostage.

My impression is that although he knew this sort of thing is strictly banned, he really liked my smile.

In the south, which is overrun with Hezbollah militants hiding in the bushes (I swear I saw one twitching militantly in the breeze), I came to the realization that I was being given access to something every no other Western journalist has ever seen: Hezbollah strongholds.

After removing the batteries from our phones – to ensure that the CIA, Mossad, MI6, and the local KFC delivery guy couldn’t track us – I decided now would be the appropriate moment to ask him how he really feels – like really really feels – about his Israeli enemies.

“I really like their hummus,” he confided. I was shocked a senior Hezbollah leader would ever admit that Israeli hummus did, in fact, exist.

[bemildred]

3. LOL.

Thanks, interesting.

One thinks of "Bored of the Rings'.

[shaayecanaan]

4. the video game?

i vaguely remember that, i remember the other one "the grobbit" or whatever it was called

[bemildred]

5. I was thinking of the book.

I suppose I am dating myself. I remember it being decidedly irreverent and scatological. It was not long after I first read the original, and it seemed very funny at the time.

But anyway, the implied criticisms of the OP are appropriate, one ought not get too enthusiastic just because it's a good story.