Nicely done oms… but like everything else.. its got to do more with incentives.
the thugs in Congo couldn’t care less what cnn says and cnn doesn’t care much for what they do due to the commonality of it and ratings.
Israel does… world opinion constantly moves Israel. it doesn’t move hamas.
The terrorists bomb because it achieves results… and ppl whine cause it achieves results as well. They are afraid of their own muslim populations. They love the arabs no more than the leftist Israeli who agrees with the leftist European loves the arab. They just both fear. The oil, the population, the bombs, the influence.
Did the bombings in Spain cause the spaniards to love Al Qeida, Iraq and the arabs? No but they withdrew fast and reversed an election.
Imagine if Bush had invaded Iraq years ago and it had gone excellently, and it had brought years of stability. People would be looking back and saying that in hindsight it was very good and removed an evil dictator (and they may yet). Instead as it went badly, even the overwhelming majority of support of Americans reversed itself.
Look at the awe Israel got after the six day war. Look how at the start of the lebanon war 2 years ago the whole world supported Israel, amazingly even statements from Saudi Arabia and other arab nations. How quickly it turned negative as Israel failed. People like winners, dismiss losers and fear to be among them.
True evil may coalesce forces against you (even still related to fear), but short of that political morality is nonexistent.
Putin invading Georgia at first caused an outcry, but as they pressed on close to a victory, quickly was the media and the world starting to find fault in Georgia “starting it” (as did his own citizens). The outcry apparently (or Bush) was still enough to hold Putin back at the end, but had he pressed on to “liberation” of georgia or regime change or whatever… few now would have much to say about it. Had he pressed on, suffered casualties and been bogged down, the outcry would be monumentous right now. In Chechnya, he did get bogged down, the outcry WAS much bigger for much longer (as did the soviets in Afghanistan) though he didn’t seem to care much. Putin it seemed, was not Olmert.
This love of the “underdog” is not really that. It is an underdog that perseveres… even seems to win. A real underdog who loses quickly and vanishes will be missed by no one. Panama and Noriega is a perfect example under Bush sr. Even his war with Saddam is a good example. Big winner, big support.
WWII is full of examples. Few besides academics point negatively to the two Nukes the US used on Japan’s civilian populations. By strict definition, I cannot think of a single bigger act of terrorism (though the firebombing campaign prior killed many more). No one called it that then or for many years after. Few if any do now. On the contrary, the comparatively few soldiers the Japanese tortured are seen as horrendous acts of barbarism and terror. Not to mention Germany, even disregarding the Holocaust, the very meaning of Nazis and WWII Germany is pure evil. Obviously this is helped by the fact they lost.
To the victors the spoils.. one of which is to write History. (“… those who hanged heroes”)
The US wiped out thousands of tribes across a continent in endless aggressive expansion and though again some academics will point to it now, it hardly matters, and they certainly do not hand their home’s Deed over to the nearest Apache to make it right.
In a conflict there are two sides (or however many are opposing each other), and complete Victory changes this fact. There ceases to be two sides, a conflict, a problem or any option or reason for anyone to bother you about it. Endless conflict of course does the opposite, not to mention weaken the stronger side and strengthen the weaker side.
Proof of this is so overwhelming that even well known dogmas are complete fallacies based on this fact. For example, everyone “knows” you can’t win an insurgency, guerilla war, movement for independence etc. This comes from the fact that the only insurgencies anyone knows of are the ones that won. Be it Bar Kochba’s revolt, Tibet, the Boxer rebellion, Geronimo, Zapatistas, or Basques to this day, many have not won. So of course you can beat an insurgency! You can win or lose as in any other type of war.
Examples are endless. The point is the only thing that matters is what we do. We do not need to convince Icelanders to be pro Israel, it would suffice to convince Jews to be so.
Look at the american right, and the Republicans who are tirelessly pro-Israel (while the left is anti) only to be thanked by 75% of Jews voting for Obama.
Yes, anyone who applies more morals and logic will tend to be more pro Israel (hence the right wing is), but most cannot and will not apply those things Oms. You told me yourself about that. Simple ignorance and emotion carries the multitude (a little anti semitism may help), and they know success and failure. As Bush sr had success carry him to record popularity levels.. so did the following recession (failure) plummet him to the point a hippy pot smoking draft dodger beat him in the election.
Success and failure. Victory and defeat. Today’s Israeli political landscape knows no such words (at least the positive ones, I think they do know failure and defeat). Just look now at their archaic obtuse and befuddled language they use in trying to explain what they are doing… a strategic change, a different security reality, a long lasting truce with foreign mechanisms, and maximum, a blow to hamas.
No one can side with that kind of garbage.. even if they tried, what does it mean? “If Hamas will still be there after, I don’t want to side against them for a strategic change. Then they will be mad! I know Israel will not bomb me if I am against them so there…” I remember tons of Israelis being scared horribly when we killed Yassin (Hamas leader)… “now they’ll be mad!” They already are mad, they are already trying to win… the worst thing that can happen to them is that we realize that and try to win ourselves.
So in essence, of course all pro Israel statements are good, and trying to explain to people is good, but I don’t believe the world is any more anti-semitic than it is anti Arab or anti anything else overall. Constantly complaining about that has gotten us nowhere (and if the world is, then it matters even less). The main reason it bothers me is because then our leadership has for too long been able to use that as an excuse to lead us from Humiliating defeat to agonizing surrender.
From Auto Ethnic cleansing (expulsion of Jews from Judea, ironically) by IDF soldiers to tolerating endless rocket barrages on our cities (which they consistently called “not tolerating”). No choice we are told, “World opinion”. What did that lovely restraint get us? Apparently not the support and approval of the world as the liberals claimed, but the opposite… the normalization of our restraint and of acts of aggression against us. What seems out of place now is OUR retaliation. This normalization also subconsciously works to make an impression of slow but assured victory and their part and slow but assured defeat on ours. Zero tolerance works much better. Victory works much better.
Do these people know the word Victory? Nitzachon in hebrew… the army does.. soldiers do, and if they would just let them, they would achieve it. (“Unite the Clans” haha)
And CNN would quickly find all the positives things about that, if we cared at that point.
The early warriors, Sharon, Dayan etc knew the importance of (and write about it) of getting the enemy accustomed to losing. The psychology of defeat was of great importance since they were always so superior in numbers. They have been able in part to reverse that. A real victory for us in Gaza or anywhere else, seems inconceivable.. and then why shouldn’t it to others?
If the world favors us giving up the territories we cry foul, but we forget Israel does too. We forget a “purple line” existed before the “green line” that the world wanted us to go back to, but they forgot about it as did we because we won more land in the next war. Quickly will CNN, our foes and our fearful citizens remember the purple line, once we go back to the green line.
Though the Arab is not confused and just wants to win, his side is more complex. He needs the CNN points, his “moderate” Fatah is a million times more dangerous than Hamas. Israel is in no danger from being conquered by Hamas, it is in grave danger of being given away to Fatah. The political lefts are not equal. The Arab left receives land “for peace”, while the Jewish left gives away land. I would be a leftist arab like that too. If Abbas was a true liberal, he would use his Palestinian Police (Israel and US funded and equipped) to kick Arabs out of their homes for Israel to have their biblical Judea “for peace”.
While the Arab wants to win, by one method or the other, we cannot make up our minds, and if we do not want chose to win, then we will lose.
Fortunately though, ours is far simpler, yet we are far more confused. We don’t have to win in Facebook or in CNN. We have to win in reality. As a soldier, I know our brave heroes are itching for that… they don’t all know all this, but they know something is amiss… and they long for a leader who points to the enemy and yells “Forward” Even better, “Follow me” as is our tradion.. and then we would make short work of our enemies.
I was glad to see the Cabinet apparently approve more operations… I hope it goes on, and we do not crumble. Bush did not crumble in 6 years, we can handle a few weeks I would hope. I also hope the IDF is given a green light to proceed faster as even the appearance of bogging down will encourage Hizbolla and others in the north to join the parade. We can take them all, but good strategy would prefer one at a time.
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