larry johnson watched a debate and discovered differences between the conversation and reality; 

 

I plunked down $25 to watch the Wednesday night Munk debate between the team of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt vesus the team of Victoria Nuland and Mike Pompeo. The debate was titled, Foreign Wars Debate: Be it resolved, don’t go hunting monsters. The premise of the debate, in my opinion, was faulty… Monsters are imaginary beings, yet Nuland and Pompeo insisted on labeling almost every US adversary — e.g., Russia, China, Cuba and Iran — as Monsters. At one point in the debate, Mike Pompeo described Hezbollah as a Monster and insisted that Hezbollah has killed thousands of Israelis. I recoiled when I heard that because the historical facts tell a radically different story. Here are the facts:

How many Israelis have been killed by Hezbollah?

This is a question that requires assembling casualties across four distinct phases of conflict spanning 44 years. Here is the most complete accounting the historical record allows:

Phase 1: 1982–2000 — The Lebanese Occupation War

During the South Lebanon conflict from 1982 to 2000, Israel suffered 559 killed — 256 in direct combat — and 840 wounded. This includes Israeli soldiers fighting Hezbollah, Amal, and allied Palestinian factions throughout the occupation period. This is the bloodiest single phase of the conflict for Israel, representing nearly two decades of grinding guerrilla warfare that ultimately forced Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000. U.S. Energy Information Administration ..............more...........

Phase 2: 2000–2006 — The Shebaa Farms Low-Intensity Conflict