Di Leo: The Hamas Reality and the Challenge of the Unknown

American Free News Network ^ | January 8, AD 2024 | John F. Di Leo

[jfd1776]

Once upon a time, there was a board game called Risk. It was a war game, billed as a game of world conquest. Every player had a number of armies, and as the game played out, battles would result in each side’s armies either growing or diminishing, until eventually someone wins.

The game depended on an understanding that we all took for granted during the Cold War: that we always knew every participant’s numbers. Looking back on that era, it’s almost incredible:

We discussed our military budget and the Soviet Union’s military budget on television; we shared the data in press releases. We knew how many men were active and how many potentials were in the reserves. We knew how many tanks, fighters, and bombers each side had – maybe not precisely, but close. We knew how many ICBMs each side had, with roughly how many nuclear warheads; they were discussed in the SALT I and SALT II talks. We even signed an ABM treaty to publicly announce how many strictly defensive weapons we allowed ourselves.

This was possible only because both sides were sensible enough to realize that a full-fledged unlimited war between the two then-superpowers would be devastating for both sides no matter who won. Enough information was available that each side would be permanently scared out of starting such a direct conflict. And it was dependent on both sides adhering to the most basic rule of honorable war: that through the use of uniforms, the difference between military and civilian populations would always be clear.

The West does not enjoy this same blessed sanity, in our battle with islamic jihad...

[marktwain]

Yes, it is many millions.

[Uncle Miltie]

“as the IDF has continued the slow, difficult and dangerous house-to-house / apartment-to-apartment stage of the operation, they are finding weapons caches everywhere. These aren’t the self-defense weapons that American citizens keep handy; these are attack weapons for military operations. And they are everywhere. Every other household is turning out to be a sleeper cell.”