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No one should be happy about the Lebanon pager incident. One thing about war is that it incentivizes humans to find new and creative ways of killing and injuring each other, and then these new means of destruction never go away but are just added to the list of threats we all must contend with in our lives. It’s not just nuclear weapons. It’s military-grade firearms in the hands of citizens. And now it’s our pagers, phones, and watches that can explode at any moment on the whim of some malefactor.
So, what happened? Israel got so good at tracking Hezbollah fighters through their cell phones that their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned the group’s members not to carry them. Instead, they made a mass purchase of pagers, apparently from a Taiwanese company. It looks like the shipment was compromised in some way because at 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, several thousand pagers simultaneously heated up and exploded in people’s hands, pockets and bags. The explosions were relatively small so there were far more injuries than fatalities, but many people were killed and the injuries were often grave. The son of a Lebanese member of parliament was killed, and Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was injured. An eight-year old girl is listed as one of the fatalities.
It’s not clear how this attack was carried out. It wasn’t a simple lithium battery fire but seems more like the heated battery set off a small explosive charge. Israel isn’t commenting, although they are the obvious perpetrators. The U.S. government denies all involvement or knowledge.
From a military point of view, this will certainly further complicate Hezbollah’s ability to have internal electronic communications. Their fighters won’t trust pagers, phones or watches in the future. But they’ll adapt. It’s not like they’re going to quit fighting Israel.
The rest of us, however, now have to live in a world where we could become the target of such an attack if we step out of line or get on the wrong side of some political conflict. And to reassure us, the manufactures of personal electronic equipment will have to take new expensive measures to control their assembly lines and distribution networks, and even work on software and hardware security measures. Our devices will be more expensive, at a minimum.
And let’s be clear. Every major power in the world will now work to master the technology and spy craft needed to carry out and protect against a similar attack. It’s one more thing the Secret Service needs to worry about. It’s just a negative development no matter how you look at it.
And, for what? What was achieved to compensate us for this degraded new world? Did it end a World War? Did it lead to an era of relative peace and commitment to collective security?
Or did it just escalate a seemingly irresolvable conflict and give one side a mild and probably temporary military advantage?
