Category: War on Terror

An Israeli general finds it is his turn to fade away, but he does not go with any sense of optimism.

The outgoing head of the Israeli military, General Moshe Yaalon, has warned that a new wave of bloodshed – whether through “terrorism” or war – is inevitable even if a Palestinian state is established.

Gen Yaalon, who reluctantly retired yesterday after falling out with Israel’s defence minister, told Haaretz newspaper that Palestinian attacks were likely to resume after Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this year unless the government followed up by pulling out of parts of the West Bank.

“If there is an Israeli commitment to another move, we will gain another period of quiet,” he said. “If not, there will be an eruption … Terrorist attacks of all types: shooting, bombs, suicide bombers, mortars.”

Even the creation of a Palestinian state would lead to war “at some stage”. He said that the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, had not abandoned the right of Palestinian refugees to return to what is now Israel.

“And this is not a symbolic right of return, but the right of return as a claim to be realised. To return to the houses, to return to the villages. The implication of this is that there will not be a Jewish state here.”

The idea that a Palestinian state can be created by 2009, as President George Bush has said he wants, was “divorced from reality” and “dangerous”.

The idea that a separate Palestinian state could be created in the next four years is not ridiculous, but the idea that such a state would contribute towards a long-term peace in the region is fairly far-fetched. Abbas’ commitment to the Palestinian right-of-return cause is a deal-breaker as currently couched. Add that to a Palestinian people, poisoned for generations by the likes of Yasser Arafat, that is probably several decades of unforeseen progress away from cohabitation with their neighbors and the general is right — take off your shades, the future ain’t so bright.

Adding to the general’s bleak outlook is his take on the Israeli military.

“A combination of terrorism and demography, with question marks among us about the rightness of our way, are a recipe for a situation in which there will not be a Jewish state here in the end,” he said.

Gen Yaalon also warned of deteriorating standards in the army, including what he described as a “criminal subculture” that had reached senior officers.

In the course of my professional life over the last decade, I have known literally hundreds of Israelis. I’ve know men who saw action in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. I’ve known some who spent time as settlers. The Israelis are a very western people, an oasis in a cultural desert, and the Israeli youth are as much an Mtv generation as their American counterparts.

Why the deteriorating standards in the Israeli military? The answer is quite simple. In the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the nation of Israel fought desperately for its survival. The last two generations have only seen conflicts for peace, pacification and retaliation.

Nobody believes that Israel will lose its military edge over its neighbors any time soon, but it is certainly a low-key campaign of attrition, a test of wills. Can Israel keep its edge long enough for the surrounding Arab states to be brought, cheerfully or dragged kicking and screaming, into the modern era, into an age of some degree of acceptance? The current effort in Iraq may have a large part to say in this matter.

The media swarm upon stories, be they real or fiction, of abuse of detainees by American soldiers. A firestorm is launched after footage of an American soldier, engaged in an brutal urban conflict in Fallujah against an enemy known to attack after feigning death or injury, shoots a wounded, unarmed enemy in a moment of reaction. Pentagon announcements of abuse investigations are paid scant attention; months later, pictures that drove that investigation blanket the airwaves, smother the front pages of newpapers and covers of magazines, and drives calls for justice that was already proceeding.

Meanwhile, the atrocious nature of our enemy gets a relative pass.

The abuse story of Abu Ghraib draws far more sensationalism than beheadings by the terrorists. Every terrorist bombing against the Iraqi populace is cast as a failure of the U.S. and Iraqi forces to provide security rather than what it really is — murder. One particular filmmaker paints these murderers as revolutionaries and calling them Minutemen. Well, let’s take a little look at some recent tactics of these brave heroes.

I’ve pointed before to the story of a would-be suicide bomber who was being blackmailed with the safety of his kidnapped family. Now, there’s the tale put forth by some “Minutemen” bombers who are claiming they were lied to about their targets.

Wisam Younis’ sole ambition in life, he said Friday, is to kill Americans. So he claimed surprise when he discovered his car bomb had killed eight Iraqis and wounded more than 80 outside a Baghdad restaurant.

Younis and brothers Badr and Yassin Shakir are charged with murder and face the death penalty in the May 23 attack.

“We did not know that the attack would target innocent people and we were deceived,” said Younis, barefooted and with bruised and swollen hands. He said they were taken in by enthusiastic ideas and money, adding that an insurgent leader promised $1,500 for the bombing.

Ah, it just stirs to mind all of the tales of George Washington sending men to blow up colonists with promises of Redcoat victims. Hat tip to Inside the Bullpen, where Chad gives his thoughts on the story.

Remember the stories of the Abu Ghraib detainees being threatened with dogs? Remember the outrage? Well, where’s the outrage when the terrorists use dogs themselves, only in a far more ghastly, heartless manner?

Insurgents in Iraq attached explosives to a dog and tried to blow up a military convoy near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk.

The canine bomb went off but the only casualty was the unfortunate animal, said police. The militants wrapped an explosive belt around the dog and detonated it as the convoy passed through Dakuk, 25 miles south of Kirkuk, said the town’s police chief, Col Mohammed Barzaji.

“The dog was torn apart by the explosion which caused neither injury among the soldiers nor any damage.”

Col Barzaji said the bomb had been detonated outside a Shia mosque. “Eight suspects have been detained.”

This was not the first time that animals have been used in insurgent attacks. In 2003, donkey carts were used to conceal makeshift multiple rocket launchers in a flurry of attacks in Baghdad. Animal carcasses and human corpses have been used to conceal explosives.

Hat tip to Outside the Beltway, where Dr. James Joyner adds hopefully that this is “type of thing might actually generate some outrage from some quarters in the West” who refuse to face the fact that are opponents are cold-blooded, murderous bastards.

I hold know such hope. Neither seemingly, does The Moderate Voice‘s Joe Gandelman, who asks, “Well, if they’ve already used ambulences and kids, why is this surprising?”

It isn’t surprising at all, as this is the nature of the foe we face. It’s just that the true face of our enemy doesn’t carry any weight in the media.