Daniel Pipes writes:
"Do not engage in exchanges with terrorist groups, such as the 2004 trade of one rogue Israeli civilian and the remains of three soldiers for 429 living terrorists and criminals. This returns terrorists to the field while encouraging further abductions."
I'm not sure that blanket prohibitions against negotiations work either. I think a better broad principle here is not to not engage with terrorists, but not to be stupid about it. There is always more than one way to skin a cat Mr. Pipes. James Heller has some very smart ideas about how to deal with these people, that might be pretty darn successful if Israel employed them. These are the ideas of David Galula, who literally wrote the book on the subject: "Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/23/AR2006072300579.html
He's writing about Guantanamo, but the same principle would work admirably (and a bit diabolically) with Hezbollah as well. Let 'em go!
He writes:
"Galula lived through this firsthand after he was captured in 1947 by Mao Zedong's forces in the Chinese civil war. Rather than being dealt with as a prisoner, he was treated as an "honored guest," as were all Chinese Nationalist soldiers in the camp. They were given two weeks of food and indoctrination, and upon completion of their stay, they had the option to return to their units."
"As it turned out, many of the prisoners had been in the camps before -- the knowledge that they would be treated well had led them to view surrender as an acceptable option. Eventually they were viewed with suspicion by their own army, and the Nationalists were forced to set up prisoner of war camps for their own people."
"Mao had perfected this technique while fighting the Japanese in World War II; many of the postwar leaders of the Japanese Communist Party were "graduates" of these camps. Mao succeeded in changing the minds of kamikazes -- something for us to think about."
But his best recommendation is:
"Finally, I would make sure that everyone knew that many of the detainees were very cooperative, and I would leave it to al-Qaeda to figure out who was. I would also leak that we had a "classified" ability to track these people no matter where they went. Let the combination of paranoia, fundamentalism and al-Qaeda do its fratricidal work."
And he concludes:
"Let us move away from the bullets, bombs and prisons that have so alienated those we are trying to convert, and instead move into the minds of our opponents. If this truly is jihad, then let us sow the seeds of dissension, and let al-Qaeda engage in an "internal struggle" to its own bitter end."
I know he is right, so why not try this approach. It kills two birds with one stone. It allows Israel to act on its just warfare principles -- and it returns Israel to the sort of moral high-ground that may just turn people's heads towards genuine peace. Folks like Castro and Nasrullah would be already gone by now if they didn't have an "enemy" (Us) to keep the people from focusing on their kleptocratic and autocratic ways.
"Do not allow Hezbollah to acquire thousands of Katyusha rockets from Iran and station them in southern Lebanon. The estimated current arsenal of nearly 12,000 Katyushas not only threatens all of northern Israel, as recent days have proved, it provides Iran with a strategic threat with implications for the entire region."
Who can argue with that principle. But how to stop them? I leave that analysis to you. I have no idea other than convincing the rest of the world to deal with the situation honestly -- and that requires doing a better job playing the information game so that the "propaganda-meisters" can be beaten at their own game; with the truth. Let the prophesy be fulfilled "And the Truth will be taught out of Jerusalem." The world promised to police the borders with Israel and then to turn that policing over to Lebanon. Hezbollah became a Lebanese Party doling out charity to the poor. Israel bombs Hezbollah, Israel looks like it is bombing the poor Shiah. Who wins here? Hezbollah. Haven't we learned that without the cooperation of affected governments we can't stop anything? That principle is true whether one is talking about Mexico, Iraq, or Lebanon.
There you have a learned principle. The previously operative principle was "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Sometimes that work -- however if the alliance is temporary so will be the results.
Nice idea, but every-day of radicalization increases the odds that whatever happens Hamas is going to dominate the outcome -- unless we can figure out how to pull their teeth out in Gaza -- and get them to drop the threat of extermination and come to the bargaining table.
(Note it took a while but this finally showed up at Daniel Pipes Weblog)
Chris
Kill who with kidness? Here is some scenes you would rather not see. Let's rememberwhothe first terrorist waere. Shouldn't we rou8nd up every person who evetr had a tree planted in Isreal in honor of a deceased friend, and freeze their bank accounts. Because the real villain is the Zionist. I don't think we should be talking about killing anybvody else from the middle-east with kindness or any other way. If you want justice or peace force the zionists out of Palestine.
http://tinyurl.com/v7q5
http://www.halturnershow.com/IsraeliAtrocities.html
clown hidden
Posted by: clown hidden at July 29, 2006 12:36 PMThe first terrorists? Do we even know the answer to that question? What kind of propaganda have you been listening to? Terrorism as a tactic dates way back, can't really say how far. So this statement makes no sense because it lacks context.
The "real villain" is not the Zionists, nor is it the Jews. Hezbollah has no claims on Israel, it is a Lebanese Shia outfit, whose only claim on Israel is that they want to destroy it, kill every Jew, and they make no bones about it.
You seem to have the same designs judging from these words "we should round up every person in the world who ever had a tree planted in Israel." Well that just makes me want to plant a tree in Israel dude.
Hezbollah starts a fight, kidnaps soldiers, launches rockets at civilian targets, puts civilians all around it's launchers, and then makes propaganda from the deaths of its human shields? I'm supposed to be impressed that their efforts to kill every Jew have failed, and that instead they are putting their own people in the way of defense efforts so that they can be killed instead of the soldiers? These people are cowards and murderers, not the Israelis. I believe that Israel is not deliberately targetting civilians, because I know the history of Arabs deliberately putting their civilians in harms way so they can get killed and I know that Israel does not.
Still Israel is being played by these murderers and Machievellian style strategists. They are between a rock and a hard place with this strategy. Every time rockets are launched from a civilian site they only have two choices, shoot at the rockets to try to stop the attack and kill civilians or wait for the rockets to finish killing enough civilians to satisfy Arab blood lust, which will never end until every Jew is dead or is in chains.
So which is it? I would fight. I cannot allow others to die while i turn the other cheek.
Posted by: Chris at July 30, 2006 09:51 PMThe first terrorists were the ones who founded the modern Isreali state, coming up with a list of names wouldn't be hard. The people who have no claim are the zionists. The country should be destroyed but that won't happen because might makes right.
clown hidden
The first terrorists were the ones who founded the modern Isreali state, coming up with a list of names wouldn't be hard. The people who have no claim are the zionists. The country should be destroyed but that won't happen because might makes right.
clown hidden
Where is your moderate attitude? Your willingness to see both sides of an issue? What nonsense, and you claim to know this history?
1. The mideast has been soaked in blood and terror since before there was the first Israel.
2. Go ahead come up with your list. I know the history.
3. Of course they have a valid claim. And one worth fighting for and dying for -- which is what they are doing.
Chris
Posted by: Chris at July 31, 2006 06:32 AM Let thenm fight and die without the aid of the U.S. which has become complicit in the the murder. And certainly it is fair to kill them and those who support them. It is clearly a case aof right and wrong, though you prefer to pretend otherwise. The jews are certainly nothing special that they must be protercted though they are wrong. I never ever claimed to be moderate. So let them fight, and I cheer when they die because I believe they are the cause of their own suffering, no one else.
clown hidden
It is clearly a case of many wrongs making it nearly impossible to do right, and of folks who are so blinded by hate they don't really care. I won't deny I want to see Israel survive, I want to see the Middle east become a prosperous place where humans do business and live together in peace and multiculturalism. I wish Israel had real friends who could remove the rock that stands between them and peace without using it to pound Arabs.
I do not want to see the light of freedom replaced with the darkness of Islamofascism, and so while I find it deplorable that Israel is using Air-Warfare and American made missiles, I find it even more deplorable at the folks like you who want only genocide for them. I don't agree with the folks who would just bomb the stuff out of such people, but I wonder how else to deal with such stubborn nasty self-righteous bullies.
I fear that we are not going to live to see the day when "nations shall beat their swords to plow-shares and not learn how to make war anymore." Or when the "Messiah will come to Jerusalem, riding on a Donkey and led by an Ishmaelite." Instead we are seeing exactly what the nasty folks want to see -- a world ruled by the "Anti-Christ" -- figurative though that force may be.
And it seems hell bent on launching atom bombs and doing away with major portions of humanity.
There is always a choice when it comes to life and to prophesy. We can have either the peace of the graveyard, or human beings acting like decent human beings.
Chris
Posted by: Chris at July 31, 2006 08:20 PM