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After soldiers return from Lebanon, hundreds of reservists express frustration with leadership. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 21, 2006 |
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Hundreds of reserve soldiers who served in Lebanon sent a letter of protest addressed to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz on Sunday while two reservists planned a protest march leaving the community of Maoz Zion in the outskirts of Jerusalem towards the Prime Minister's office, Army Radio reported.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the letter described a severe breach of trust between the leadership and the soldiers. "The management of the war," they wrote, "caused us to feel that they were spitting in our face."
The letter expressed frustration with the "indecision" that, the soldiers say, characterized their assignment in Lebanon. It also stated that the lack of a clear mission for their brigade in the final days of the war needlessly endangered their lives, Army Radio reported.
A participant in the march told Army Radio the marchers intend to camp out before the Prime Minister's office and call for Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF chief Dan Halutz to "draw personal conclusions" and resign.
According to Haaretz, on Monday one of the petitions, already signed by hundreds of soldiers, received wide exposure in the press. "The 'cold feet' of the decision-makers were evident everywhere," said the petition, signed by members of the reserve Spearhead Brigade. "To us the indecisiveness expressed deep disrespect for our willingness to join the ranks and fight and made us feel as though we had been spat at, since it contradicts the principles and values of warfare upon which we were trained at the Israel Defense Forces.
"The heavy feeling is that in the echelons above us there is nothing but under-preparation, insincerity, lack of foresight and inability to make rational decisions leads to the question -- were we called up for nothing?"
In a private meeting between Halutz and the commanders of the reserve Alexandroni Brigade, which fought in the western sector, the officers of the brigade criticized the army's management over the last month.
Among other things, they described serious trust issues with the commanders, and told Halutz, "We need to rebuild the soldiers' trust in the system before it is too late." Many officers spoke about the inadequacy of the food and water supply in the battlefield.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday, Chief Infantry Officer Brig.-Gen. Yossi Hyman was the first senior IDF officer to admit the failure of the war in Lebanon. "I did not succeed in preparing the infantry well enough for war," he said, adding, "Sometimes we were guilty of the sin of vanity."
Meanwhile, reservist Roni Tzvangenboim and his friend Assaf Dovidov have planned a protest march from the Castel on the outskirts of Jerusalem to the prime minister's residence at 11 a.m. on Monday.
"We're not leaders - we're just the ones shouting first," Tzvangenboim said in an interview with Army Radio. He added that he believed many others would join them in the march.
Tzvangenboim said that the problem with the war was on a much wider scope than the issue of the inadequate food and weapon supply that other protesters were raising.
"The problem," he said, "is that there's no leadership. There's a strong army, with all the best technology in the world, with the bravest soldiers in the world?but there's no one who knows how to operate it."
"I'm talking about [change in] the army and the government," Tzvangenboim declared. "The prime minister, the defense minister, and the chief of general staff all have to go."
Tzvangenboim admitted that he still didn't know what he was going to do when he arrived at the prime minister's residence. His goal, he said, was to change the leadership, adding, "If the one that comes after it doesn't do what needs to be done, I'll walk again - that's what I can do."
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