As the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria violently struggles for its life, observers of the region are wondering about the future of Iran’s alliances in the eastern Mediterranean. In particular, questions abound about what lies ahead for Iran’s primary regional proxy, the Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah, which for decades had relied on the Assad regime for arms supplies and political and military backing.
With the regional balance of power undergoing a potentially dramatic shift, the publication of “Warriors of God,” by journalist Nicholas Blanford, comes at a rather opportune moment. Blanford, the Beirut correspondent for the Times of London and the Christian Science Monitor, has been following Hezbollah in Lebanon since the 1990s. As a longtime resident of Lebanon, he has developed an intimate knowledge of the country. He has also built personal relations and acquired access to Hezbollah officials and soldiers.
(Random House) - ’Warriors of God: Inside Hezbollah's Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel’ by Nicholas Blanford
“Warriors of God” doesn’t set out to dissect Hezbollah’s ideology or organizational structure as other books have done. Instead, Blanford provides a loose chronological account of Hezbollah’s war with Israel since the early 1980s and all the way to the present.
The book’s primary interest is in the group’s military evolution over the decades, including its adjustments and preparations for further conflict following the most recent war with Israel in the summer of 2006. For this task, Blanford relies on his familiarity with the terrain and a wealth of anecdotes (if often bordering on the hagiographic), as well as quotes gleaned from his interviews with various Hezbollah officials, field commanders and fighters. He also sprinkles in the personal stories of the Shi’ite residents of south Lebanon.
The result is an account that offers an intimate window into Hezbollah’s theater of operations, especially in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. The reader is afforded a rare look, accentuated by testimony from participants, into various aspects of the group, including Hezbollah training — both military and ideological. Blanford relays first-hand accounts of participants in Hezbollah’s training camps and takes his readers into its bunker network in south Lebanon, which was uncovered during the 2006 war. Those interested in Hezbollah’s military tactics and its procurement of weapons from Iran will find useful material in the book.
However, Blanford’s analysis is sometimes lacking. He views the relationship between Hezbollah and Iran largely through the lens of the conflict with Israel, with particular emphasis on Iran’s “deterrence posture” and “retaliatory options.” In his discussion of Hezbollah’s early history, he fails to mention the group’s infamous self-description, emblazoned on its flag, as the “Islamic Revolution in Lebanon” — an unmistakable marker not only of its mission and identity, but also of its genesis in the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Blanford writes that “the task for which [Hezbollah] was born” is “confronting the Israeli occupation.” This is not only too simplistic, it ignores the early history of the movement.
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