Israel loses a war then a general

According to the BBC, Israel's Lt Gen Dan Halutz has resigned his position following Israel's defeat at the hands of Hizbullah last year.

The military leadership has been criticised for poor planning, poor strategy and poor execution.

In particular, Gen Halutz is accused of relying too heavily on air power and waiting too long to send in ground troops.

When they were sent in, many complained of being poorly equipped.

Gen Halutz said he has decided to step down now because military inquiries into the conduct of the war had been completed.....

Israel attacked the Lebanon-based Hezbollah after the group captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid last July.

But Israel failed to free the soldiers or soundly defeat Hezbollah before a ceasefire ended the fighting in August, with Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah claiming a strategic victory over Israel.

The Israeli army lost 116 soldiers. Forty-three Israeli civilians were also killed by more than 4,000 Hezbollah rocket attacks.

About 1,000 Lebanese were killed in the conflict, mostly civilians in Israel's vast bombardment of the county and land invasion in the south.

The war caused extensive damage to Lebanon's infrastructure.

A former air force head, Gen Halutz became chief of the armed forces in June 2005.

Several other senior army commanders have resigned over the handling of the war.

So Israel lost a war and it's losing senior soldiers. Perhaps they'll start losing civilian leaders soon.