August 18, 2006

ISRAEL'S FAILURE: THE SAME DIAGNOSIS APPLIES TO THE U.S.

        Yuval Steinitz (see below) has written a withering critique of Israel's approach to war. Where a Patton was needed, they got an incompetent Halutz and a bumbling Olmert. Horsefeathers discerns no American Pattons either. Hopefully, some will arise to replace those who seem to have spent more time at the Kennedy School, learning diplomacy, instead of the art of war. Steinitz, citing Victor Hanson's historical studies shows that the Western way of war has succeeded by its effectiveness at killing the enemy, by taking the ground battle to him using speed, surprise and flexibility. Patton is the archetypal Western battle commander. He made the essential point about the need for ground troops to be always on the offensive, colorfully but memorably. He also made clear that the emphasis must be on killing the enemy, not minimizing casualties.

"War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours...I don't want to get any messages saying, 'I am holding my position.' We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!.."

        The Post-modern, Western way of war prides itself, not on victory, but on minimizing casualties. Israel strove so hard to limit civilian casualties (getting of course no credit from the world's Jew haters) that it neglected to defeat its enemies. Instead it expended much effort explaining why victory was unachievable. Recall this: our enemies killed 3000 American civilians in one day--and celebrated-- while we search for every opportunity to flagellate ourselves over the deaths of one enemy prisoner. Israel is at war for weeks and kills less than a thousand and diplomats cry halt. The most damaging fallout from Israel's delicate, politically correct prosecution of the war, is that the surrounding jackals, having drawn blood, will seek a second holocaust soon with renewed vigor.
        America is deeply infected with the same disease of political correctness. We too have forgotten how to wage war and too many of our Generals seem to have spent more time learning the arts of diplomacy than the art of war.

The war that was led astray
By Yuval Steinitz

Why was Israel prevented from trouncing a relatively minor terror organization, like Hezbollah, operating from the smallest, weakest nation in the region? How did we fail, not only to achieve our declared objectives, but in the far more vital effort of protecting the State of Israel from a missile and rocket attack for more than four weeks? Was this a specific failure of an inexperienced political leadership? Or perhaps the product of haughty, arrogant Israel Defense Force top brass, who closed its ears to criticism of exaggerated dependence on air power? Or perhaps, are these all symptoms of a far more serious disease: the culture of war we adopted since the first war in Lebanon in 1982...
See the rest here.