Posted by
thinker on Wednesday, August 02, 2006 3:21:35 AM
Perhaps we need to rethink this asymetrical warfare. If you read histories of war, the victor often traps the enemy into fighting the battle on grounds and at times predetermined by the victor. There are famous stories from Julius Ceasar of the timing of battles due to forced marches, or in the Bible of battles with the Sun in the eyes of the enemy, or our own battle with Britian in the revolutionary war where we used trees to hide behind or the night to launch battles.
Western armies excel in "conventional" war-- the Israelis famously defeated combined Arab forces in the six day war. Our enemies have learned from these defeats, and now fight guerilla wars, seeking to hide among civilians, kill our civilians, manipulate our media, and use increasing sophisticated and mobile weapons.
We need to rethink this war, and choose the ground of battle to our advantage. For example, it seems that increasingly sophisticated and smaller weapons (think portable missile launchers) favor insurgents. But wars have always included attackes on supply lines. In ancient and medieval times, sieges were a common tactic against walled cities.
We have overwhelming technology advantages. Battles in the past were decided on these kinds of advantages-- for example the devastation inflicted by the long bow by the English on the French. We need to rethink our current battle, and begin to choose the ground to our advantage.
If supplies to southern Lebanon were disrupted (the old siege approach) how long would the "civilian" population remain? What if the Israeli army planted IED's on all the major roads into southern lebanon? Is there any way to turn the tactics of the enemy against them? Could food deliveries be disrupted without the outcry for "humanitarian" aid? Could army units include video documentation, much as the police in this country now have cameras in many police cars? Instead or real TV with the police, think real TV with war coverage.
The enemy has an entrenched, very old tribalistic patriarchal society. Could this be exploited? In Japan, the Samurai's adherence to ancient weapons resulted in their extinction. Islamic fighters have updated their weapons, but not their social structures. Are there potential weaknesses here? Certainly there is the potential for a divide and conquer strategy, given the large number of factions. But I believe there are many more innovative approaches available to us and the Israelis that would play to our strengths.