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"There it is!" shouted Ismail, our military driver, as he pointed to the red, white and black Egyptian flag waving over a bunker on the Bar-Lev Line, Israel's former first line of defense on the eastern side of the Suez Canal. We had just crossed the canal by driving over a wooden-plank bridge that rested atop 16 pontoons. Egyptian troops standing on their tanks waved as we passed and called out, "Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest). Others gave us the clasped-hands salute of welcome or flashed V-for-victory signs with their fingers.
Everywhere we found Egyptian soldiers in buoyant spirits and bursting with confidence. Although we could easily hear the rumble of Israeli artillery to the east and the occasional crash of shells near us, the troops behaved as if they had already won the war. Once we looked back across the Great Bitter Lake into Egypt and saw a pall of white smoke where the bitter battle raged on between Israeli and Egyptian armor. Still, no one around us showed the slightest concern.
We halted in a flat, sandy space while masses of vehicles, moving around like nervous beetles, went churning up the sand. Soldiers swarmed all over us eager to be photographed.
A husky private from Damietta, after learning that I was an American, immediately started quizzing me. "Why is Nixon selling Phantoms to Israel?" he asked. "Nixon magnum [Nixon is nuts]! We have the oil and so many people, and yet Nixon gives the Israelis the weapons to fight us. What's the matter with him?" Another private flexed his muscles and said: "Never mind. This land was held by the Israelis two weeks ago, and now we have it. This land is ours and we won't leave." Some of the troops were anxious to show us the wreckage of a blue Israeli helicopter, which they claimed to have shot down with their rifles. "Five Israelis were killed and six we took as prisoners," they boasted.
Up and down the east bank of the canal, bulldozers were leveling the Bar-Lev Line. At one still intact bunker, we met Brigadier General Abdel Wahab al Hariri, 39, commander of the unit that came across the canal and stormed the Israeli positions in that sector on Oct. 6. A veteran of previous wars with Israel, Hariri said that "after we captured this position, the Israelis counterattacked with tanks. But we foot soldiers knocked out 15 of their tanks, captured 17 of their men, and killed 100 of them. Our best weapon was the courage of the Egyptian soldier," he said proudly. "I am not saying that the Israelis are not brave. They fight bravely. But they like to fight in a tank, while we fight on our two feet."
Almost everywhere we went, Egyptian officers told us that they would launch their next offensive "as soon as possible." Yet it was obvious that their emphasis was on consolidation rather than advance. On our tour of the front, we saw military vehicles spread out across the desert like swarms of locusts. There were troop transports, trucks, bulldozers, tractors and columns of tanks that seemed to stretch for miles. There was no doubt that, at least in the sector of the front that we saw, the buildup was continuing.
From Marlin Levin on the Golan Heights: