One thing I admire about the American Army is its ability to change. It is the most difficult thing to do at a large organization's level as well as at the personal level. In October 2008 the Pentagon took a close look at its war strategy in Afghanistan in the face of rising violence from an increasingly complex insurgency. If I understand well, the new strategy shifts the focus of American effort from fighting and killing the rebels, to some kind of ultra-ethical Peace Corps campaign. The Army turns its skin and start supplying baby formula and medical attention to the civil population, to train local police and facilitating the local political mechanisms, but never becoming too prominent or too involved. The Army let the locals play it out among themselves. And they become super-moral. If an Army jeep hits an ass, it searches for the owner to pay him full compensation. Soldiers never walk through cultivated land, they avoid damaging the crops. If they have to, they ask for permission and pay generous damages. This unsoldierly behaviour is intended to reduce the fiction between the Army and the local population that is uninvolved in the war. Robert Gates defended this innovative strategy (which is so untypical of occupying forces):
We have seen the Russians before us. They had no moral problems in burning down villages and killing civilian population. They lost.I dont know if it is international pressure or President Obama's coldness, or just because we are always copying the Americans, but the Israeli Army is adopting the same strategy. Soldiers at the checkpoints are ordered to be extremely polite when in contact with the Palestinian population, they are instructed to be sensitive toward mothers and sick Arabs, they are forbidden to search them, they cannot cut up cakes to see what is inside as they used to do, etc. Cameras have been installed at the checkpoints to document their behaviour, and when caught acting rudely, the Army sends them to jail in a cloud of publicity. The Army is prosecuting soldiers who stole from Arabs and sending them to jail like common thieves (Many soldiers are Russian immigrants and resent this "bizarre" attitude. Everything in a conquered territory is supposed to belong to the conquerors, pon'yemay?). Also once more I am seeing large crowds of Palestinians from Samaria looking early morning for day jobs in Kever Benjamin City.
Apparently, the new strategy is working, because we in Israel are having a terror-free period like never before. No suicide bombers and only isolated attacks by Arabs going amock because of the heat. It may be conceivable that the right-wing nationalistic hard liners (we have some of these types in Israel, even bloggers) asking for revenge and punishment of the Palestinians, have been wrong all this time. Is sensitivity and gentleness the new way of making war?
4 comments:
I dont know if it is intenational pressure or American pressure, or just because we are always copying the Americans, but the Israeli Army is following the same strategy
It could be the general trend across the West. If the Israeli army is going to be required to behave like this, shouldn't the checkpoints be manned by the police instead? By having the Army do this it could reduce their effectiveness at their primary mission (crush, kill, destroy) by requiring them to learn two different sets of behavior.
J, I'm sure you've heard of the term tinfoil hat. Well, I just built a really thick one, and since I've started wearing it I've been picking up some strange things. Let me share these thoughts with you:
1. China admits defeat, and buys up its domestic currency with its massive reserve of dollars, dollarizing its economy the way Ecuador did. In the wake of such a move China achieves complete price transparency, and suddenly 1.2b people realize they have been screwed by their government.
I have no idea what they would do with their massive hoard of US bonds.
2. A lot of internet libertarians associated with the Gold Anti-Trust Association have been claiming that various investment banks in NY have been suppressing the price of gold through market manipulation.
I have not reviewed the evidence, and as such I have no idea if they are right.
But what if the GATA people are wrong and the price of gold was being inflated by these scams run by the NY investment banks?
Having the current system collapse, and having the price of gold collapse along with it, would probably humiliate a lot of the internet libertarians that make up the core of America's near defeated right wing movement. Such a supposed discrediting of gold would be to the benefit of our rulers, who may engineer it, or use such an incident to propose a global currency.
3. Barack Obama is the anti-Christ.
4. The US is really a Catholic country and the rest of the world, and the US itself, is blind to it.
5. If #1 and #2 both come true the US would have a lot more geopolitical power, unfortunately it would come at a time when the US is run by explicitly evil men.
6. We could see Holy Roman Empire 2 forming soon, including the whole world.
OK, I need to take the tinfoil hat off now, I'll put it away for safekeeping.
Interesting! Some of the tinfoil hat thoughts are quite sensible. Regarding the Chinese, they are such a a-political comformist race that they dont care about being screwed. They are happy as they are governed.
Regarding the price of gold, it is very difficult to supress the price a commodity.
Regarding the USA being a Catholic country, I dont really understand what do you mean by that. There is a separation between State and the Church. People is becoming less religious and the churches are empty.
You miss my point, what if they are inflating the price of gold, and paranoid market watchers think it is the other way around? It would be interesting if the intervention suddenly failed and the price of gold....dropped. Related, I read a pro-gold article claiming that the average lifespan of a fiat currency is 40 years, implying that the dollar is well past its 40-year limit.
Interesting! Some of the tinfoil hat thoughts are quite sensible.
So you agree that Obama may be the anti-Christ?
Regarding the USA being a Catholic country, I dont really understand what do you mean by that. There is a separation between State and the Church. People is becoming less religious and the churches are empty.
J, supposedly we live in an era of atheism, but in reality there is much hidden religion. I remember a preacher stating that all men are made by God with a natural religious inclination, a hole in the soul that is intended to be filled by God, but that man tries to fill with other things. I think such need for religion is an extension of being able to reason. We seek a unified explanation for our lives.
It is my opinion that this hidden religiosity has more power when it is hidden since we don't realize it is there. At the same time nothing is more likely to inspire actual atheism than an encounter with religion, especially a corrupt religion.
My personal opinion is that the general goals of the liberal movement in America are identical with the goals of the RCC in America. In addition there are a lot of people who could be called latent Catholics.
But that is why I said America's status as a Catholic country was hidden.
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