Posted on 06/21/2002 8:41:11 AM PDT by robowombat
My pleasure.
No "if" about it. Remember Viet Nam is 30 years ago. He wass just a student then, and absorbed the conventional wisdom of the academy.
IMO, if Israel chooses to be decisive, as they have in the past, they will win. The question is how decisive must they be? But for the time being, it's moot, since their prime minister is both indecisive and insisting on calling the military shots. He's fubaring the whole situation.
This jerkwad will be a cheerleader for the evacuation of Judea and Samaria, which Olmert advocates.
The Israeli's forced their own settlers out of their homes at bayonet point for this blasted "land for peace" abomination. Gush Katif..Amona..Hebron..And this son of the devil believes more of that is needed.
Hitler took Czechoslovakia without firing a shot. He got all the heavily defended areas handed to him by Chamberlain at Munich. This is what this human serpent is advocating.
> Israeli defence forces will inevitably lose to the Palestinians
Wishful thinking...
No, he is just stating the obvious..
The Palistinians, just like Hezbollah, are masters of propaganda..
They have portrayed themselves as weak, defenseless victims, although the world knows they initiate the attacks, the bombings, the rockets, etc..
" A lie, told often enough, will eventually become accepted as truth. " ( Stalin ? Marx? )
Throughout my school years, ( until my senior year ) I was the smallest male in my class..
I also had the most fights..
I always made sure I fought someone bigger than me, however, and always in "self defence".. ( at least in my estimation )
Let me tell you from experience..
When you fight the superior opponent, even if you lose, you win..
Having nuclear weapons doesnt help when it's your neighbour who's throwing garbage over the wall and killing your cat. Sometimes the wind blows in the wrong direction.
You may disagree, but this is a man who deserves to be argued with seriously and not just put down with a few sneering slanders by an intellectual lightweight.
Van Creveld: Never is too much of a word. Nothing lasts forever. But history proves that walls work. The Roman wall the Limus(?) worked for hundreds of years... the Great Chinese Wall worked, not forever, but for hundreds of years... the wall in Korea has been working for fity years... the wall between Turks and Greeks in Cyprus is working.... the Berlin Wall worked beautifully.... Unfortunately, the Israeli army insists against all military logic on being present on both sides of the wall. We could formally finish the problem at least in Gaza, in 48 hours, by getting out and building a proper wall. And then of course, if anybody tries to climb over the wall we kill him.
This military genius was completely wrong about the effectiveness of a wall. Nasrallah/Hizb'Allah has proven this. Even back in 2002 I was posting that a wall would not keep out missiles and artillery and mortar rounds. Hizb'Allah has neutralized walls, damaged Israel's economy with the primitive Katushya rockets it deploys.
I will admit I got lulled to sleep for a while by the effectiveness of the West Bank fence/wall in stopping suicide bombers. When (if) Olmert gives away broad parts of the West Bank is when Iran will bring in Katushyas and anti tank missiles
A border is a perfect wall. Kill them inside the border. If they do not have a visa make them leave, I have to when my visa expires, why shouldn't an Arab have to.
Or are they too special...
I dunno about that. Israel has severely pounded the Gaza strip over the last month... over 130 Palestinians have been killed. While the Lebanon front has captured the news this has gone largely unnoticed. The Hamas has also been pushing to dissolve the Palestinian Authority.
What does it mean, what is the strategy of the Hamas and the Fatah? I can't say I can even formulate a good hypothesis. They claim it will force Israel to be recognized as the full occupier, but I don't know how that can hold water after an Israeli withdrawal. Perhaps they think that will give resistance "legitimacy", instead of being held to answer for violations the Oslo agreements?
Fatah does not agree to dissolve the PA.
There are many possible solutions but I don't agree that forcibly resettling the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and/or Gaza would be acceptable or accepted by any significant number of nations... least of all many the inhabitants themselves.
There are much bigger problems which do not come into consideration, one being the differences in economic, education, and religious adherence between the three camps of Palestinians - those in Gaza, those in the West Bank, and those in the camps of Lebanon et al. The West Bank residents are more wealthy, more moderate, and better educated on whole. It's highly unlikely they would accept 1 million immigrants from Lebanon let alone free passage for all Gazans to come settle in the West Bank.
It's easy to avoid these questions when they all have a common foe in Israel, but if there is to be a Palestinian state these differentials need to be worked out. I believe Palestinians in the West Bank would suffer from a severe case of NIMBY if 1 million claimed refugees with no money, no education and few skills were to arrive and attempt to settle in the West Bank. It's a big, never talked about yet obvious hurdle, but I'd wager it's one of the reasons why the Palestinian political class cannot reconcile themselves to peace. The status quo may very well be much easier to tolerate than what would happen if/when they could reach a peace agreement with Israel.
Thanks for the posts to note.
"If you are strong and you are fighting the weak for any amount of time, you will become weak". And you call me a lightweight.
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