Our rules of engagement practices are not designed for asymmetric war, but are designed for wars in which one nation’s army fights another nation’s army. It seems obvious that terrorists quite deliberately do not adhere to such practices. As long as we choose to refrain from involving civilians in the wars, we are almost guaranteed to lose.

The current Israeli-Hiz’ballah conflict is a good example. The only way for Israel to destroy Hiz’ballah is to also destroy those who protect and provide aid to Hiz’ballah. We should have acted similarly in Iraq: when terrorists first took over large portions of Fallujah, we should have killed them all by simply leveling the place. Israel must, as a minimum, do the same with southern Lebanon, or it will surely lose.

The western countries have to annouce that this sort of war will be the norm. The Muslims will quickly get the message, and will turn on the terrorists who are ultimately responsible for the mess.

Nice to babble at you. I am still crossing my fingers and hoping against better judgment but if you think I am negative, you should read some of the comments from Israelis at the Haaretz site.

Wow, looks like a sizeable portion of the population is gearing up to do Olmert,Peretz, and company some serious damage.

Send In The Clowns.

I don’t feel comfortable with second guessing Israel’s strategy because I do not consider myself as expert on this. However, if it was really likely that a ground invasion with close air support could wipe out Hezbellah in a couple of weeks I think it would have been done a few decades ago.

Large scale ground assault backed by close air-support against likely targets in South Lebanon. Much like the attacks against the two towns actually levelled. If it is run by Hezbollah it is a target. Surely Israel at least knows which towns are on the list.

The object should only be to kill as many Hezbollah personnel as humanely possible, and to demonstrate that they cannot protect anyone when push comes to shove. Surround the town and give everyone 12 hours to leave through Israeli checkpoints(on foot). Then assault the town with everything you have. Everything inside is targettable.

This should have been done a week or more ago. The air only campaign has failed. Now that might be just my opinion, but I am quite content to stand behind it.

The downside to this — serious Israeli casualties, and lots of ‘collateral damage’. Well we are getting the ‘collateral damage’ anyway. What we are not evidently getting is the results.
And yes , it is ‘only’ media reports that we have to review so the truth might be different. But at this point I doubt it. Just last week the Mossad indicated that Hezbollah had not been significantly weakened, and that it could fight at this level for a very long period. How can that be good news?

Israel could still have responded to missiles by air strikes, but it could also have forced Hezbollah to fight in place or lose its local assets completely.

Israel failed to follow through. Now it’s trapped in a true quagmire of indecision, with its window of opportunity closing inexorably.

Maybe Israel had good reasons not to go ‘full-bore’ but if so they would have been better to have done NOTHING, and found another way to handle the problem.

What they have done to date is IMHO worse than nothing. A brutal campaign which paradoxically has been rendered ineffective and inefficient by a concern for ‘appearances’, an unwillingness to fight in Lebanon, and STUPID mistakes.

My reservations are all on the ‘tactical’ level, not on the ‘ethical’. Israel had the right to respond, but it also had the duty to respond effectively.

Cessation Of Bombing Raids Pending Investigation

The point is we only know what we hear on TV. For all we know Hezbellah brought down that building.

So is winning even possible with Kofi Annan and the world press up Israel’s butt? I mean really, can it even be done?

When the conflict is over and Israel has ‘lost’, I will still be demanding the ‘impossible’. As will the Israeli Public who will be enraged at their ‘leaders’.

Israel is not conducting a bombing campaign like WW2. It is conducting a supposedly ‘targetted’ campaign. How you can do this when it takes 5 minutes or so to set up and launch the missiles and just a further 2 minutes to disappear from view BEFORE the air assault arrives, is quite beyond me. All Israel is hitting in many cases is the place where the target USED TO BE. That is worse than useless.

The ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’ as they say and Israel is baking a concoction that will prove to be inedible. Soon.

And I think you misrepresent my comments.

I don’t care at all about ‘civilian casualties’. I would prefer the Cartago delenda est style of warfare if that is what will WIN. What annoys me is a style of warfare that does NOT do the job, leaves the ‘enemy’ still largely intact, and still manages to lose the propaganda war at the very same time. It takes a degree of perverse genius to accomplish those very diverse goals at one and the same time.

At this rate the IDF will be giving lessons to the Russians in Ineffective Brutality.

Be as ruthless as you need to be to WIN. The important part however is the WINNING. I and if I might suggest, many others, are not at all convinced that the current Israeli leadership knows what ‘winning’ should look like.

A hint — It don’t look anything like this.

You are demanding the impossible.

Besides, do you think that if the Israelis sent tens of thousands of ground troops into these densely populatated areas to kick in doors and root out fighters that civilians would not be killed?

If this were WW2 the US would have “lost” because it bombed Tokyo and killed thousands of civilians after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and killed 2300 American servicemen.

The problem is the Hezbellah hides and fights from behind civilians. Whether the Israelis depend on men on the ground or technology will not change the way the enemy fights.

Unhappily I do.

Israel has made the one mistake it really should have been intelligent enough to avoid.

It has used air-power to save Israeli soldiers from having to fight but in doing so it has both failed to deal devastating blows to the enemy and has provided invaluable propaganda against itself.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all in favour of BRUTAL. I don’t believe in ‘moral war’. It is an oxymoron. What I am not in favour of is incompetent and inefficient BRUTALITY.

Soon now this will all stop as International Pressure becomes irresistible. Then where will Israel be?

My guess is up that infamous creek with all the spare paddles having been previously targeted in error by the IAF.