Israel, nice people and Collateral Damage

Unfortunately we learn the lessons of the last war and usually not the lessons that mattered. The Japanese fought World War II on the basis of the Russian War of 1905; they just missed the real points. We fought Gulf I on the basis of Viet Nam, we just missed the real points. Israel is fighting this war on the basis of the our example of Kosovo.

The Israelis are surrounded by people who want them dead. They do not have enough territory to allow an in depth defense. There are only two real solutions, either allow no incursions or attacks without massive and complete destruction of the perpetrator or take enough territory to allow an in depth defense.

Israel should never have occupied any territory beyond its borders. It should have expanded its borders and expelled or eliminated any previous occupants who did not desire to become Israelis. The occupation of territory is a mistake. That implies the territory is not legitimately theirs.

Our enemies, for in this case Israel's enemies are also those of the United States, and in fact enemies of the entire non-muslim world, must understand that we will accept no nibbling away at our toes. If they strike at us from a location, we will take that location for our own. For when it is our territory we need not fear attack from it. Muslims who will not acknowledge the civil authority of non-islamic government need to be expelled. There is no freedom under even the United States Constitution to advocate the violent overthrow of our government.

Our enemies also need to understand that what we take, we will never give up. Never.

Airpower is nice, precision is nice. A rifleman wins the war. With enough airpower, you can make it easier for the rifleman, but the war is not over until the rifleman holds the ground.

Precision has its limits and is not always that helpful. Perhaps rather than precisioning a 125 pound warhead, it would be better to precision a 3,000 warhead and tell people not to get too close to the enemy.