CBS’s 60 minutes ran an informative piece on the Israeli Airforce, the IAF.
Unlike other nations where the airforce fighter pilots are selected from a group of volunteers,the IAF get first dibs from the entire pool of Israeli draftees. Only 1 in 40 who are selected make it through fighter training. In Israel these selectees are rock stars.
Israel responds to $50 home made rockets fired from Gaza with $50,000 rockets that are precision guided to avoid civilian casualties. Even under these conditions the pilots spoke of the moral dilemmma of having to kill civilians to hit their targets. I doubt that any moral dilemma is faced by the Hamas who willingly fires on civilian targets.
But the IAF pilots are ordinary citizens who if not for their situation would be school teachers, postmen, truck drivers, shop keepers and doctors or nurses: true citizen soldiers. They remind me of what our WWII forces must have been like: ordinary citizens who if needed would become efficient trained killers.
The broadcast noted a framed picture given to pilots of IAF jets flying over Auschwitz. The message is clear; that Israel can not and will not entrust its security to anyone but themselves. All Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tour Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, as the final step in their training. The message is clear: this is what happens if you lose. They are a motivated fighting force.
During my two recent trips to Israel I still observed that the Israelis are very American in their culture and in their lives. Americans, Jewish or not, would feel at home there.
tips to Deborah Adler for alerting me to the broadcast
Ralph Peters, a critic of the Rumsfeld fiasco period, is high on Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his selection of soldiers’ soldiers to run the war. The article, Gates’s Grand Slam.
General Robert Patraeus will take over US Central Command.
Lt General Ray Odierno will take over as head of the forces in Iraq.
Lt. General Peter Chiarelli will take Odierno’s place in the Pentagon.
It seems that we have often fumbled early in our conflicts, but changed and adapted to the reality and achieved victory. England did not quit after Dunkirk. While critics and cynical commentators lament the lack of a plan, the reality is that adaptability is far more important. It is America’s secret weapon.
Carter is like a case of diplomatic herpes; he is embarassing and never seems to go totally away.
It is comforting to know that Syria and Hamas is so willing to bring peace, if those pesky Israelis just would not be so paranoid about their survival and just give up more land. Certainly their withdrawal from Sinai and Gaza has done so much to prove that peace will come when they stopping being greedy about all that land they occupy in the Middle East.
A few questions for our deranged ex president:
Would you rather be an Arab or Muslim living in Israel or a Jew living in Syria or Gaza? (or Saudi Arabai, Kuwait, Iraq or Iran or Egypt?)
When most of the Arab countries surrounding Israel are religiously intolerant to any belief other than Islam, why do you not refer to them as ‘apartheid’?
When the Arab world expelled 800,000 Jews after the 1948 War of Independence, why did you not condemn them for ethnic cleansing or apartheid?
Why do you not insist that any Arab country recognize the sovereignty of Israel as a basic condition of peace?
Why do you condemn ‘undue’ Jewish influence in American politics for merely participating in the political process, yet you willingly accept millions of dollars from Arab nationals for your Carter Center (which you seem so reluctant to acknowledge) ?
Why do you believe you can accomplish diplomatic miracles when you are long out of office (Thank God!) when your own performance in office was a string of disasters?
HKO
Defending or even praising the state of affairs in Iraq and the Middle East is like arguing whether mustard based or honey based bar-B-Q sauce tastes better on a turd.
But ‘World War IV’ by Norman Podhorertz makes a solid intellectual case for the Bush Doctrine. It is worth noting what a strong change in foreign policy that was.
In today’s American Thinker, James Lewis, makes his case for the success and the decision to attack Iraq. I encourage you to read entire article.
An excerpt:
The strategic icing on the cake of the Iraq War is that Iran is now nearly surrounded by American-dominated countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf (where the US Navy rules the waves), Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, and for a possible tip of the spear, Israel. We may not be able to stop Iran’s nukes, but we now have sophisticated anti-missile defenses in every country in the Gulf, on the seas, in likely target countries like Israel, and even on the missile trajectory to Europe. Result: The oil supply remains safe, guarded by the US Navy and other US assets.
It appears that real clarity on Bush’s mideast policy is way in the future. But it does irk me to hear moronic talking heads (Bill Maher) that fail to see beyond yesterday’s casualty headlines.
Jon Caruthers hypothysizes in American Thinker, Whither Osama, (article) that Osama may be hiding out in Iran and that is why we have had no major attack on US soil. Iran realizes that a major attack would attract an Iraq like repsonse and could upseat their rule, where, unlike Iraq, the citizens really do hate their leaders.
Caruthers thinks that the tribal animosities in Pakistan would create too may incentives for warring tribes to turn him over. It would be necessary to have control of access in a way that only a nation could accomplish. Iran helped Al Qaeda operatives to escape after the invasion of Afghanistan.
