In face of destruction, maybe violence is the answer
Three American soldiers were killed in Jordan. They were not brave, they were not heroic; they were casualties of war. Likely they were loved by their family and friends.
My career as a second lieutenant on active duty was long ago and brief. I have no background that qualifies me as a knowledgeable military commentator. I am a statistician and will only speak in that capacity. But that does allow for some cogent observations.
Given the large number of largely unanswered missile and drone attacks on U.S. military installations in the Middle East both before and after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, it was highly probable that there would be some American casualties.
Knowing that this would happen, why did we wait until it did? Should we not have taken more decisive action to assure that it could not happen? And, when it did happen, why wasn’t our response immediate and disproportionately destructive? Why were advance notices of intent given?
World War II was the war of my youth. I was too young to participate, but my brother and his friends did. Lots of people were killed. Some were, indeed, brave and heroic, but, most were just casualties of war. They were often scared but willing to fight, not for some high ideals, but because they were there, with comrades and friends who were also there, dependent upon each other, fellow sloggers, trying to stay alive.
Later, as a teenager, I had a rifle and hunted. I shot rabbits and woodchucks. The first thing that my brother ever shot was a German soldier; for Tom, his closest high school friend, the soldier was Japanese. Tom never fully recovered from it; it happened up close on Iwo Jima.
And Israel is now fighting against Hamas, an organization, actively supported by Iran, committed to the destruction of Israel and, indeed, Jews worldwide. Its murderous Oct. 7 attack brought on the war now raging in Gaza. Possibly, Israel should have initiated a preventive war earlier. If someone’s avowed purpose is to destroy you, you must do what is necessary to avoid that outcome or, alternatively, submit to that outcome. What would you do?
Hamas is both a political and a terrorist organization. It is not a uniformed army against whom Israel can wage a traditional war. It is embedded in the society of Gaza, willing to use civilians to cover its operations, willing to sacrifice innocent lives to achieve its goals. Indeed, the sacrifice of civilian lives is a deliberate and callous means to achieve those goals. And, it is working. Hamas is winning the public relations war. In the United States and elsewhere, support for Israel is weakening.
President Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the many world leaders with whom one can find significant fault. He has long opposed the two-state solution that, for example, President Joe Biden favors, and he has promoted the (illegal) expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. (It should be noted that the possibilities for a viable two-state solution were, on at least two occasions, rejected by the Palestinians; in 2000 by Nasser Arafat and in 2008 by Mahmoud Abbas.)
Netanyahu is committed to the destruction of Hamas. That commitment has resulted in the death of many innocent civilians in Gaza. And, as noted above, that has been a public relations problem (read “disaster”) for Israel. Especially in an election year, it also creates a major public relations problem for Biden.
Of the many Americans who oppose the war in Gaza, a significant proportion are the young, the educated and the progressive left. In addition, there are Muslim voters, especially in Michigan (the other states with significant Muslim populations are more decidedly either red or blue states). These potential voters were decisively important for Biden in 2020. The loss of support from these voters, or their failure to vote, would seriously jeopardize Biden’s reelection prospects. And thus we find Biden, although continuing his support for Israel, calling upon Netanyahu to show restraint in pursuit of his goals to effectively destroy Hamas.
But, as I have argued before, it is not the Iranian proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen that must be subdued, it is the widespread and insidious influence of Iran that must be neutralized. And, there is an urgency in achieving that goal. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, it will someday use it!
Netanyahu, all his faults acknowledged, gets it, but, he cannot achieve that objective on his own. Meanwhile, Biden dithers and vacillates, unwilling to take the decisive action that may widen the war … or end it. Or, is it alarmingly possible that our long underfunded military is no longer capable of discharging its worldwide deterrence commitments?