Something the US has liong since forgotten how to do. Or just gave up caring about doing, more like.
You Want to Win a War? This Is How You Win a War
There’s more good news out of the Middle East, I’m happy to report. On the heels of yesterday’s news that the Israeli Defense Force was doing an admirable and rapid job of eliminating Hamas leadership in an explosive game of Whack-a-Mole, today we learn that the Gazans themselves finally show signs of turning against their terrorist government.We saw tiny signs of this in the awful weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror invasion that kicked off the Israel-Hamas War, such as the old Gazan woman who accused Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid meant for the people. “Everything goes to [Hamas] houses,” she complained. “They take it; let them take me, shoot me, or do whatever they want with me.”
Which, note ye well, is more of an expression of the hag’s disgruntlement over Hamas’ lack of concern for her own personal well-being than it is of horror at the brutal atrocities committed against guiltless civilians during the vicious Oct 7 rampage. Just in case any of you thought Gazans suddenly developing a functioning conscience had anything to do with their newfound dislike for Hamas, terrorism, or genocide of the Jews.
But Tuesday saw a rare mass protest against Hamas.
Even the mayor of Beit Lahia, Gaza, got in on the action.
If Hamas finds him, I suspect he won’t die well.
Why the mainstream media chooses not to air clips like these is anyone’s guess, but anyone’s most cynical and accusatory guess is probably the correct one.
None of this is perfect, of course. “Why aren’t they chanting to release the hostages then?” one critic wondered. Then there’s Iran, the official sponsor of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Until Iran is put back in the box President Donald Trump had them in during his first term, the terrorist kudzu will grow back.
But turning the population against the people who started the war is how you end a war, and Israel’s renewed offensive — the IDF’s WWII-style rubble-ization of the Gaza Strip — might be doing just that.
Most wars fail to accomplish that vital goal.
A tad too much Vietnam-era “hearts and minds” bushwa here for my taste, I’m afraid. Another Vietnam-era counterslogan is more my speed: When you’ve got ‘em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow. The Gaza job will never truly be over and done with until the very thought of death, destruction, and strife makes Gazans puke all down their pant legs reflexively. As such, Bibi, this is no time to be going wobbly or weak in the knees just because a handful of Gazans have decided they aren’t happy with life under Hamas rule all of a sudden.
Our old chum Stephen knows all this too, of course, which the remainder of the piece confirms quite nicely, thanks. To wit:
That’s why I’ve often found the phrase “forever wars” so frustrating. In context, complaining about “forever wars” is often more of a way to shut down debate than a historically accurate assessment. What makes our poor military performance in places like Afghanistan sting so much isn’t that we were mired in so-called “forever wars,” but that they were wars of choice, not of national survival, that we chose to conduct inconclusively. All that spilled blood, and for what?
But sometimes a World War II comparison is spot-on, which brings us back to the Middle East and the Hamas terror invasion of Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas’s aims were explicitly genocidal and their means — including uploading videos of murdered civilians to the victims’ social media accounts for their families to see — were so horrifying that Hamas and Gaza must be smashed as badly as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
If the Israel-Hamas War is to end, it ends in the ruined streets of Gaza.
Indeed so—and not a moment before then, either. Sad as that may be, it also happens to be the plain, simple, and unadorned truth.
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Love it. Yes I’m a cynic question probably was planted, but hey what better way to get the word out the day before they start arresting people from Epsteins list for which Ghislaine has gone to jail but no one else.
Oops wrong post
Read the fourth turning by Strauss and Howe. The other three turnings explain how this happens. It’s old news really, history repeats(rhymes)
Nothing should be left breathing in that pos place.