Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Good riddance to a bad general

Israeli defense chief General Dan Halutz has abruptly resigned. This is the military genius who thought that he could bomb Lebanon back to the Stone Age and destroy Hisballah that way. Reality is that the only way to destroy Hisballah is genocide, so that didn't quite work the way Halutz thought -- all those photos of dead children being pulled from the rubble because bombs don't ask you whether you are a child or a terrorist before blowing up were a real bummer and got Hisballah even more recruits. So then he sent in ground troops, reservists who, thanks to the fact that Israel has destroyed its economy by locking out the Palestinian labor that once was critical to its economy (much in the same way that locking out the Mexicans rather than legalizing them would damage the American economy), were inadequately trained and armed because Israel now lacks to money to adequately train and arm their reserves. The reservists did a reasonable job considering Halutz sent them into combat without any food or water, but they didn't -- and couldn't -- produce the "victory" that the Israeli politicians were promising the Israeli public (i.e., the destruction of Hisballah).

All in all, good riddance to a hide-bound air-head who, like the neo-cons in the United States, hasn't figured out that the world has changed since those days when the IDF could pick any random Middle Eastern state and pick it up and throw it against the wall and smack it across the mouth just to prove it could with complete assurance that there would be no meaningful consequences. The world has changed. Nowdays, you try mucking around inside a Middle Eastern state as an invader, you get your ass bled to death, if not handed to you outright.

Of course, Halutz's replacement will be just as stupid as he was. All the smart Israelis have seen the writing on the wall and are now living in Ft. Lauderdale or San Jose. The ones left behind are the ones too dumb or too hidebound to be able to emigrate somewhere else (heck, even France is now getting Jewish immigrants from Israel, and some of the Russian "Jews" are even going back to Russia!). The Israeli experiment is doomed, and was doomed from the start, because it was based upon racism and ethnic cleansing rather than upon a genuine desire to build a multicultural democracy in the Middle East with liberty and justice for all. The only question is when it'll finish imploding. Right now, only the money that the U.S. provides (either via foreign aid from the U.S. government, Israeli-owned enterprises in the U.S., or via Jewish fundraising in the U.S.) keeps the country afloat. What happens when the U.S., beset by its own economic problems, is no longer capable of providing that support? Hint: What happened to the Communist government in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union collapsed and was no longer capable of providing monetary support to said government?

-- Badtux the Military Penguin

Posted by: BadTux / 1/17/2007 08:23:00 AM

Comments:

I tend to agree fully with your view of Halutz. It seems the lineal descendents of Giulio Douhet get so testosterone loaded zooming around that they ignore history and every few years we go through this horror again.

Air power is a very inefficient tool, unless your goal is to create parking lots. Sixty years later the USAF is still bobbling around pretending they can bomb with pickle barrel accuracy.

I also think you're right about the rapidly decreasing manpoower pool for the Spartans of the Middle East. Economic power still depends on manufacturing, most especially if one intends to have a powerful military.
# posted by Lurch : 18/1/07 10:24 AM

Ah. I had forgotten that, for this one special occasion, Marty Peretz actually got something right.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/spine?pid=72493
# posted by Lurch : 18/1/07 10:26 AM

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More to follow, after I finish cursing SOB chickenhawks and get my breath back...

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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