Thursday, January 15, 2009
1/15/2009 09:08:00 AM | 
Posted by
JoeSettler
One thing this country’s leadership have studiously avoided is actually defining their vision of victory in this war.
In my opinion it comes down to 1 of two possibilities.
Option 1 implies either they will turn over a new leaf and become good neighbors, or will be in such psychological trauma from this, they will never consider it again.
Obviously option 1 is still far away and as they still haven’t stopped shooting or trying to smuggle in weapons and it is clear that will never happen. Their ideology/religion will never allow them this option.
Option 2 indicates a more realistic view of the situation. Hamas has no intention of, or capability to change its religion/ideology, and as such we need to impose our will on them entirely, ensuring they never again have the capability to attack us. That can be done by liberating Gaza (Jerusalem/West Bank model), or worst case continuing to keep soldiers in play over the long term and actively keeping their infrastructure destroyed (Afghanistan model). (Between Jerusalem (liberation) and Afghanistan (attrition), I think we know which model works better).
Option 2 is obviously the better option.
But for a left wing government option 2 poses a major problem – there is no exit strategy, and that is yet another nail in the coffin of their dead ideology that they keep trying to resurrect and pull out of its grave like the Frankenstein monster it is.
So instead, they will settle for a temporary false quiet. Israel will accept Hamas’s terms for a cease fire. Hamas will use it to build up their military infrastructure even further (still spradically firing at us just to spit in our face), and using the lessons of this war to make the next one far more difficult, and we’ll be in this movie yet again within a couple of years – but on an even larger more difficult scale.
Barak and Livni will use this false quiet to enhance their positions in the upcoming elections (“they bought/brought us some quiet”) and in the end nothing will have changed.
When will we have some fearless leadership?
In my opinion it comes down to 1 of two possibilities.
- Hamas loses its will to attack us ever again.
- Hamas loses its ability to attack us ever again.
Option 1 implies either they will turn over a new leaf and become good neighbors, or will be in such psychological trauma from this, they will never consider it again.
Obviously option 1 is still far away and as they still haven’t stopped shooting or trying to smuggle in weapons and it is clear that will never happen. Their ideology/religion will never allow them this option.
Option 2 indicates a more realistic view of the situation. Hamas has no intention of, or capability to change its religion/ideology, and as such we need to impose our will on them entirely, ensuring they never again have the capability to attack us. That can be done by liberating Gaza (Jerusalem/West Bank model), or worst case continuing to keep soldiers in play over the long term and actively keeping their infrastructure destroyed (Afghanistan model). (Between Jerusalem (liberation) and Afghanistan (attrition), I think we know which model works better).
Option 2 is obviously the better option.
But for a left wing government option 2 poses a major problem – there is no exit strategy, and that is yet another nail in the coffin of their dead ideology that they keep trying to resurrect and pull out of its grave like the Frankenstein monster it is.
So instead, they will settle for a temporary false quiet. Israel will accept Hamas’s terms for a cease fire. Hamas will use it to build up their military infrastructure even further (still spradically firing at us just to spit in our face), and using the lessons of this war to make the next one far more difficult, and we’ll be in this movie yet again within a couple of years – but on an even larger more difficult scale.
Barak and Livni will use this false quiet to enhance their positions in the upcoming elections (“they bought/brought us some quiet”) and in the end nothing will have changed.
When will we have some fearless leadership?
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1 comments:
It's funny, my husband and I were discussing just this last night, about how the government has no idea what it wants as an end result.
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