Sunday, July 23, 2006

Pat Lang explains Israel's air-power strategy :
which holds that crushing the "Will of the People" is the correct objective in compelling the acceptance of one's own "will" by an adversary or neutral. With that objective in mind, all of the target country is considered to be one, giant target set. Industry, ports, bridges, hospitals, roads, you name it. It is all "fair game." In this case the notion is to force the Lebanese government and army to accept a role as the northern jaw in a vise that will crush Hizballah and subsequently to hold south Lebanon against Hizballah.

John Robb calls it a mashup.

2 comments:

John Powers said...

Haaretz "A voluntary 'putsch'" relevant to the strategy http://www.haaretz.com/
hasen/spages/741795.html

"In the history of the relationship between the political and military leaderships of Israel, the government has never made such a significant decision so quickly, operating in crisis mode just a few hours after the kidnapping of the soldiers."

It's worth comparing Juan Cole http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/
war-on-lebanon-planned-for-at-least
.html

However that the war was planned a year in advance isn't incampatible with Yagil Levy's concerns about the haste the political leadership exercised.

John Powers said...

I'm sure you seen John Robb's latest http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/
globalguerrillas/2006/07/
quote_systems_d.html

"IF this method of coercion is repeated in both Syria and Iran (and it looks like it will since an EBO is a war on the cheap for the aggressor and current tensions are leading in this direction), what we will end up with are failed states and global guerrillas from the Mediterranean to the Caspian seas. In my view, this is a recipe for the acceleration of the epochal war."

You know I'm not particularly attentive, but even I can see the great danger and folly here.

How frustrating it is trying to figure ways to employ my meager influence the widespread opinions among my fellow countrymen to steer away from the precipice of the epochal war!