ONE day in December last year, at the 8-33 Garuda XXIII A Contingent Post in the Syeikh Abbad area of South Lebanon, a soldier took a cellphone out of his pocket. He sent a short message to his wife in Indonesia. “Dear, I have been put in a dangerous area.”

After an interval of only a few moments, he received a reply. The sender’s number did not appear on the phone’s screen and its contents had the tone of a threat: “Don’t talk carel