Israel has a right to defend itself. It does not have the right to kill, or through inaction, allow the death and other suffering of innocent civilians.
I am a military retiree. I believe in a strong national defense. However, I do not believe that because you have a strong military that you must use it.
War is the ultimate negative sum game: nobody wins a war. One side manages to lose it to a lesser extent. The objective of negative sum games is to stop playing them as soon as possible. Nobody benefits from a protracted war – Sun Tzu.
Tzu also recommends that the very last thing you should consider in war is to lay siege to the enemy’s cities. It is tacit admission that all else that you have done has failed. I have not seen any evidence that Israel has tried anything else. They jumped immediately to the military sledgehammer approach.
The Art of War was published about 2,500 years ago. The Gaza War is one more piece of evidence that governments are poor learners.
I maintain that all wars are two conflicts: the military conflict and the political conflict. For the military conflict I give a grade of D- for the political conflict: an F only because there is no lower grade. No political attempt was or is being tried.
I have, in the past, stated that as a military man, I had been trained to fight a war in a jungle, or a dessert, or in the rolling hills of Europe or on the steppes of Russia. I do not know how to fight a war in an urban area.
I’ve also quoted Sun Tzu when he says that the LAST thing you should do in war is lay siege to the enemy’s cities.
I’ve also claimed that wars are two conflicts: military and political and that both conflicts need to be addressed.
All this got me thinking. Do we have an environment where a paramilitary force operates successfully in an urban environment? We do. The New York City police department or any major city police department.
How do they control the civilian population with minimal use of force? How do they deal with gangs and other groups of criminals?
I believe that the military should create an new branch of special forces. Traditional special forces operate under G3 (Operations). These troops will work under G5 (Civilian Affairs).
It would be more than just straightforward policing, but there can be a lot learned from policing tactics.
emiesty Premium Member 9 months ago
How heavy his heart must be.
FreyjaRN Premium Member 9 months ago
It is indeed a nightmare.
dflak 9 months ago
Israel has a right to defend itself. It does not have the right to kill, or through inaction, allow the death and other suffering of innocent civilians.
I am a military retiree. I believe in a strong national defense. However, I do not believe that because you have a strong military that you must use it.
War is the ultimate negative sum game: nobody wins a war. One side manages to lose it to a lesser extent. The objective of negative sum games is to stop playing them as soon as possible. Nobody benefits from a protracted war – Sun Tzu.
Tzu also recommends that the very last thing you should consider in war is to lay siege to the enemy’s cities. It is tacit admission that all else that you have done has failed. I have not seen any evidence that Israel has tried anything else. They jumped immediately to the military sledgehammer approach.
The Art of War was published about 2,500 years ago. The Gaza War is one more piece of evidence that governments are poor learners.
I maintain that all wars are two conflicts: the military conflict and the political conflict. For the military conflict I give a grade of D- for the political conflict: an F only because there is no lower grade. No political attempt was or is being tried.
GaryCooper 9 months ago
It’s not a nightmare, it’s a current, real-life genocide.
dflak 9 months ago
I have, in the past, stated that as a military man, I had been trained to fight a war in a jungle, or a dessert, or in the rolling hills of Europe or on the steppes of Russia. I do not know how to fight a war in an urban area.
I’ve also quoted Sun Tzu when he says that the LAST thing you should do in war is lay siege to the enemy’s cities.
I’ve also claimed that wars are two conflicts: military and political and that both conflicts need to be addressed.
All this got me thinking. Do we have an environment where a paramilitary force operates successfully in an urban environment? We do. The New York City police department or any major city police department.
How do they control the civilian population with minimal use of force? How do they deal with gangs and other groups of criminals?
I believe that the military should create an new branch of special forces. Traditional special forces operate under G3 (Operations). These troops will work under G5 (Civilian Affairs).
It would be more than just straightforward policing, but there can be a lot learned from policing tactics.