Posted on 01/07/2009 4:33:41 PM PST by nickcarraway
One of the most striking things about Israel’s invasion of Gaza has been the absence of a clear, achievable political goal. After all, military action ultimately serves political objectives. As Clausewitz famously said, “War is a continuation of policy by other means.”
It isn’t that Israel hasn’t articulated a goal. They have: the elimination of Hamas missile and mortar attacks on Israeli cities. Fair enough, but also not achievable.
Both Hamas’ missiles and mortars are low-tech and very movable, and can be operated by 15- year-old terror entrepreneurs from their own backyards. If armchair generals across the globe understand this, you can bet the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) does too.
Of course, Israel can’t announce that its goal is the restoration of Fatah in Gaza. That would discredit Fatah in the eyes of its Palestinian constituents.
So what’s up? Go back to the 2006 Lebanon war for an answer. Israel bungled that action because their announced goal–the destruction of Hezbollah– couldn’t happen with the means that Israel employed: air power. At the end of day, regimes can only be changed with infantry. In Lebanon that summer, Israel committed its infantry too late, too little and too timidly.
Fast forward to now. Israel could kill every Hamas leader around, and the missiles would still be launched, albeit in reduced numbers. There will always be new Hamas recruits. Israel knows that the only way to stop the missiles is to replace Hamas with Fatah. Israel, the U.S., the EU, the Saudis, the Egyptians and the Jordanians know that there’s no doing business with Hamas. They are believers in the same way that Usama bin Laden believes. But Fatah is different. They’re Arab Mafiosi with a political face. It’s sort of as if the Gambino crime family took over the Democratic or Republican
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It's very achievable. What is lacking is the will to do it.
L
In a word LIBERALS.
And maybe there are political war aims that can’t be articulated.
You can’t say, out loud, we’re going to replace Hamas with Fatah. You just go about doing what has to be done. Decapitate Hamas. You’ve got an org chart, keep rolling until the names have been checked off one by one. Remember the Iraq deck of cards? Same thing.
And you can do a lot to stop the rockets from inside Gaza. They keep firing, you keep killing them. When they stop, you stop. This isn’t brain surgery.
Now, the more complete answer would be to respond to every attack by seizing and clearing a strip of territory in reprisal, and moving the border fence. Every time. But I doubt they are ready to bite off on that one.
DIE, HAMAS!!!
Oh yes, Hamas’s ultimate destruction is possible, it is also inevitable. I don’t think that any amount of political interference will get in the way of Israel’s destruction of Hamas. Let’s hope this is true.
PS: next target: Hezbollah. (I am not kidding)
“clearing a strip of territory in reprisal, and moving the border fence. Every time. But I doubt they are ready to bite off on that one.”
Neither has our government with Mexico.
It's a different goal. If you haven't been following this stuff the last week or so, you may have missed something.
I've been able to because I was coming off a bout of pneumonia and sitting here was all I could do.
The IDF proudly announced the elimination of a lot of top Hamas leaders and terrorists with them. Ammunition dumps near mosques and schools. Detonating ~40 smuggling tunnels. Capturing prisoners. Those are targets that are military on the surface. Weakening the enemy.
Iran did't help. Egypt and the other local countries won't deal with Hamas. Hezbollah didn't get involved. Iran's influence has been shown to be weak from this to the Republic of Iraq now. Those dogs always watch each other.
It's the wrong goal.
The IDF proudly announced the elimination of a lot of top Hamas leaders and terrorists with them. Ammunition dumps near mosques and schools. Detonating ~40 smuggling tunnels. Capturing prisoners. Those are targets that are military on the surface. Weakening the enemy.
None of that will matter. ANY military operation which has as its goal 'weakening' an enemy is doomed to failure before it even begins.
Iran did't help.
And they would be foolish to do so right now. Next time they will help, and obama will stand by and let it happen.
L
Israel is justified by int'l law. They don't want Gaza back. Egypt doesn't want it. They were given stuff to grow their own food, and wrecked it the day after independence. No country wants those people as part of them.
Israel has missiles that can blow up incoming anythings now without a payload. Direct hits at very fast speeds. Heavy missiles with payloads are slow to maneuver. Missiles without payloads are as fast as bullets and can boresight real fast for a direct hit ~40k ft up? . Kinetic energy is the way to go.
As far as Obama is concerned, he's getting the daily briefings Bush is getting. And Bush and Obama had a private meeting before going to a private lunch that included fmr. Pres's Carter, Bush 41, and Bubba! today at the WH!
Five living Presidents there. I wonder which ones were or are thinking about how that bathroom off the Oval Office could be put to good use?
Just imagine Michelle Obama putting words together that will recall your basic training instructor!
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