Israeli leaders live in perpetual fear of "losing the sympathy of the world" --- good ... they've played it for all it's worth already
On Nov 20, 4:00 pm, Travis <[email protected]> wrote: > This just brilliant!**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > Daniel Greenfield article: Incidentism <http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/> > [image: Description: > cid:699981D5-CC35-4403-BF6D-9D190485D48E]<http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedbur...> > **** > ------------------------------ > > Incidentism<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesB...> > **** > > Posted: 18 Nov 2012 09:24 PM PST**** > > Once upon a time it was the objective of the military to win wars. Now the > objective of the military is to avoid incidents.**** > > [image: Description: > cid:08774AE7-9C53-4070-9871-8FA1D909D3A0]<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--5zQ2kmVNJI/UKnCM8CaL4I/AAAAAAAAKLg/YZ3OGW7...> > **** > > An incident happens when civilians are killed, prisoners mistreated or some > other event that is photographed, videotaped and then flashed around the > world. This results in an Incident, capital I, that triggers much > artificial soul-searching by the media which spends the next two years > beating the incident to death and flogging its corpse across television > programs, newspaper articles, books, documentaries and finally, if it's a > big enough incident, a real life movie version that is based on the book, > which was based on the article, where the idealistic > reporter/lawyer/activist who uncovered the truth about the incident will be > played by Matt Damon or George Clooney. > > The main objective of the military in most civilized countries is to > prevent this chain of articles, programs, books, documentaries, dramatized > plays and Matt Damon movies from coming about by making sure that no > Incident can ever happen. And the best way to do that is by not fighting. > And if the enemy insists on fighting, then he must be fought with razor > sharp precision so that no collateral damage takes place. And if someone > must die, it had better be our own soldiers, rather than anyone on the > other side whose death might be used as an Incident. > > Incidentism isn't derived from a fear of Matt Damon movies, but from the > perception that wars are not won on the battlefield, but in the minds of > men. And that perception has a good deal to do with the kind of wars we > choose to fight. > > The military, whether in the United States or Israel, does not exist to win > wars. It exists to win over the people who don't want it to win a war. > > The guiding principle in such conflicts is to use the military to push back > the insurgency long enough to win over the local population with a nation > building exercise. This program has never worked out for the United States, > but that doesn't mean that generations of military leaders don't insist on > going through the motions of applying it anyway. > > In Israel, the last time the military was sent to win a war, was 1973. > Since then the military has been used as a police force and to battle > militias in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. In the Territories, the ideal > Israeli soldier was supposed to be able to dodge rocks thrown by teenagers > hired by Time correspondents looking to score a great photo. Today the > ideal Israeli soldier is capable of visiting an American college campus to > dodge the overpriced textbooks hurled at him by the local branch of > Students for Justice in Palestine or the International Socialist > Organization, while explaining why the IDF is the most moral army in the > world except for the Salvation Army. > > The ideal Israeli soldier, like his American, British and Canadian, but not > Russian or Chinese, counterparts, is supposed to avoid Incidents. That > means operating under Rules of Engagement which make firing at an assailant > almost as dangerous as not firing at an assailant. > > The ideal American soldier is supposed to avoid the Taliban, or as one set > of orders urged, patrol in places where the Taliban won't be found. And > that's sensible advice, because if the goal is to avoid creating an > Incident, then avoiding the enemy is the best way to avoid an Incident. > Unfortunately the enemy has a bad habit of appearing where he isn't > supposed to be and creating his own Incidents, because Taliban and Hamas > commanders are not concerned about being yelled at in a fictional courtroom > by Matt Damon. They actually welcome Incidents. The bigger and bloodier the > Incident, the more hashish and young boys get passed around the campfire > that night. > > American soldiers operate under the burden of winning over the hearts and > minds of Afghans and New York Times readers. Israeli soldiers are tasked > with winning over New York Times readers and European politicians. But some > hearts and minds are just unwinnable. And most wars become unwinnable when > the goal is to fight an insurgency that has no fear of the dreaded > Incident, while your soldiers are taught to be more afraid of an Incident > than of an enemy bullet.**** > > [image: Description: > cid:F768A060-F6DE-4F35-ACA6-4F0A1E064E35]<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ry0XHERzuUc/UKnCRJ-7r9I/AAAAAAAAKLo/MS-Eh2I...> > **** > > Israeli leaders live in perpetual fear of "losing the sympathy of the > world", little aware that they never really had it. The "Sympathy of the > World" is the strategic metric for conflicts. And so Israel does its best > to minimize any collateral damage by using pinpoint strikes and developing > technologies that can pluck a bee off a flower without harming a single > petal. But invariably the technocratic genius of such schemes has its > limits, an Incident happens, the Israeli leftist press denounces the Prime > Minister for clumsily losing the sympathy of the world, and international > politicians order Israel to retreat back behind whatever line it retreated > to during the last appeasement gesture before the last peace negotiations. > And its experts ponder how to fight the next one without losing the > sympathy of the world. > > American and Israeli generals live in fear of losing political support and > so they never put any plans on the table that would finish a conflict. > Instead they choose low intensity warfare with prolonged bleeding instead > of short and brutal engagements that would finish the job. They talk tough, > but their enemies know that they don't mean it. Worse still, that they > aren't allowed to mean it because meaning it would be too mean. > > Incidentism leads to armies tiptoeing around conflicts and losing them by > default. Avoiding them becomes the objective and that also makes Incidents > inevitable because the enemy understands that all it will take to win is a > few dead children planted in the ruins of a building; in a region where > parents kill their own children for petty infractions and frequently go > unpunished for it. The more an army commits to Incidentism, the sooner its > war is lost. Prolonged low intensity conflicts are ripe with opportunities > for Incidents, far more so that hot and rapid wars. And so the hearts and > minds, those of the locals and those of New York Times readers, always end > up being lost anyway. > > War is no longer just politics by other means, it actually is politics with > the goal of winning over hearts and minds, rather than achieving > objectives. The objectives of a war, before, during and after, have become > those of convincing your friends and your enemies, and various neutral > parties, of your innate goodness and the justice of your cause. Propaganda > then has become the whole of war and those who excel at propaganda, but > aren't any good at war, now win the wars. The actual fighting is just the > awkward part that the people who make the propaganda wish we could dispense > with so they can focus on what's really important; distributing photos of > our soldiers protecting the local children and playing with their puppies.** > ** > > [image: Description: > cid:4BF08718-4EF2-4693-B59B-2BC1875F3749]<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NWvBZtoyus0/UKnCgiBt3fI/AAAAAAAAKLw/cM07lr-...> > **** > > Take all that into account and the miserable track records of great armies > are no longer surprising. Armies need to prove their morality to win a war, > but are never allowed to win a war because it would interfere with proving > their morality. Conflicts begin on the triumphant moral high ground and end > with the victors slinking back defeated after an Incident or two has been > splashed all over the evening news and the book based on the article on it > has already been optioned by Matt Damon's production company for a movie to > be funded by the same people who fund the terrorists. > > The war of words, the conflict of images and videos, the clash of > arguments, has become the sum of war. And that war is unwinnable because it > must be fought on two fronts, against the cultural enemies within and the > insurgents outside. > > An army cannot win a war and win over the New York Times at the same time. > And so long as it fears Incidents more than operating in an aimless > counterinsurgency twilight that eventually shades into defeat, then it is > bound to lose both to both the terrorists and the New York Times.**** > > Daniel Greenfield is a New York City based writer and blogger and a > Shillman Journalism Fellow of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.[image: > Description: cid:830B9AD9-90C7-4D4F-8D9D-83B9B92E9BA4]**** > > [image: Description: > cid:F7C5B449-13DE-489C-BE78-4998D2A8C54A]<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStories...> > [image: Description: > cid:9C87DBD7-F0AA-4731-AC4F-EA8028B3FE26]<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStories...> > [image: Description: > cid:F73C15FF-ECD5-46E3-9687-D3BA8AE4500F]<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStories...> > [image: Description: > cid:E7F39C9B-E469-4AD9-A0AE-448FCA5494BB]<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStories...> > [image: Description: > cid:B12F769A-AB4C-4C29-97AF-55C293E49A20]<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStories...> > [image: Description: > cid:2EC8D491-F112-46B3-9DBD-16B996C69215]<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStories...> > **** > > [image: Description: cid:830B9AD9-90C7-4D4F-8D9D-83B9B92E9BA4]**** > > ** ** > > FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews.gif > 1KViewDownload > > 6a00d8341c90b153ef017c32858d48970b-500wi.jpg > 65KViewDownload > > FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews.gif > 1KViewDownload > > IDF-soldier-praying-in-field-IDF-Spokesperson.jpg > 35KViewDownload > > FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews.gif > 1KViewDownload > > FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews.gif > 1KViewDownload > > QyhN2-AH_ZM.gif > < 1KViewDownload > > idf-israeli-soldiers-victor.jpg > 28KViewDownload > > plus_google.gif > 2KViewDownload > > FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews.gif > 1KViewDownload > > FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews.gif > 1KViewDownload -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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