War, Transformed

On Monday, ChicagoBoyz carried an excellent piece by Steven den Beste. Here's the last three graphs of SDB's short but excellent analysis of how war has transformed and how countries like Israel can benefit from the maturing of terrorist groups:

Israel botched this war, but that's not the question I wanted to address in this discussion. The question I began with was, why did so many people demand "proportionate" responses from Israel, and condemn Israel's bombing campaign as being "disproportionate"?

It's because Israel refused to play the game. Israel opened up an offensive which ran at a logistically unsustainable rate for Hezbollah, which Hezbollah could not avoid fighting. The code word "proportionate" really meant, "Israel, you have to limit yourself to fighting at a level that Hezbollah can sustain. Otherwise it's just not fair!"

Of course that's idiocy; war isn't about fairness. But that's what they were really saying. Hezbollah did make a major mistake in that attack, because they had developed to the point where they actually presented a target Israel could fight against at a tempo Israel could sustain but Hezbollah could not. Israel had the opportunity to crush Hezbollah, but Olmert lost his nerve.

That's just the last three paragraphs. You should read the 11 that precede them.

Hat-tip: Jim
Related Tags: Politics, Terrorism, War, den Beste, Israel, Hezbollah, Hizbollah