If Ehud Olmert has failed utterly in the discharge of his responsibilities, please tell me where the rockets are. Did the UN make them go away, please? Harry Potter's magic wand?
The present hysterical rage at achieving stated goals is not without precedence, and that precedent was as gracelessly exploited, too. During America's Viet Nam War, there was a mountaintop USMC base named Khe Sanh. For six months, the NVA and the vastly outnumbered Marines had it out. After the North Vietnamese retreated, 15,000 NVA were dead for a cost of less than 300 US Marine Corps dead.
The press claimed victory for the North Vietnamese. This fabrication was the thin edge of the wedge that led to the erosion of US civilian and world confidence in the ability of the forces of the USA, Australia and South Korea to maintain the sovereignty of Asia's most thoroughly betrayed democracy. All sin leads to murder, including, if not especially, the sin of lying.
The world press is conducting a similar deception respecting the present Israeli situation.
Israel went to war as per Prime Minister Olmert's lawful response to the act of war committed by Hizbullah, the murder and abduction of Israeli troops. In the process of this, he achieved the following:
1. creation of the framework within which the international community is forced to demand the return of the abducted Israeli troops;
2. total neutralization of the six-year Iran-Syria-sponsored $4.6 billion buildup of tunnels, trenches, observation posts, fortified positions and rocket launching facilities on Israel's northern border;
3. while the beating back of the illegally occupying Hizbullah force from Israel's border north 50 miles did not create a buffer zone between Israel and its enemies, Israel no longer faces a well-disciplined adversary of any significant magnitude within that perimeter;
4. forced the re-empowerment of the Lebanese government so that they may rule their own land instead of being Syrian and Iranian puppets (whether they become so is entirely their own choice now); and
5. set the conditions that now force all nations to seek closure in the Middle East respecting Israel's right to exist, once and for all.
Not a bad month's successful work for a former mayor. Or did the prior Lebanon incursion go as smoothly? The Yom Kippur War?
The question is not, ?Could we have done better?? The question is threefold: Who did the work of making the decision to finally end the rockets? How can we build on what was achieved? What can we all, as a unified body of interests, do to help? Please save the backseat micromanagement until the war is won. There is no present candidate who can perform as well as Olmert. And there cannot be a Third Fall of the Temple, because a) the Third Temple has not been built yet, may it happen in our time, and b) if we lose this one, there will not be an Israel again for a thousand years. Israel lost nothing now. Israel losing the war means every last man, woman and child in Israel is dead within 72 hours of raising the white flag.
Olmert's objectives were successfully achieved with a deployment of less than 2% of Israel's total military manpower capabilities, to answer those so substance abuse-addled as to raise the question of ?proportionate response.? A massive, full deployment would have achieved two things: showed the enemy how Israel has planned for full deployment, and wasted billions to achieve the same results.
Despite Hassan Nasrallah's fatuously inflated claims, Hizbullah lost. (Consult Debka for a full briefing of the losses of men, equipment and capabilities on the Islamofascist side.) If that is Hizbullah's best friend UPI's definition of victory, I relish the opportunity to witness the details of Nasrallah's ultimate defeat. The loss of fifty miles of depth and 30 miles of front ought to say it all to anyone with any military experience who can read a map.
As the broadcast media so thoroughly lied about Viet Nam, thus costing a fledgling democracy its existence and leading to the genocide of over a million middle-class South Vietnamese, so the media wish to flex their porky Boomer muscles one last time by destroying yet another democracy, Israel, likewise surrounded by genocidal medievalists.
I take issue with many of the points of ethical and procedural conduct raised by the gentlemen of the press and of certain illustrious members of the Knesset. These points shall be addressed at length, upon conduct of a board of enquiry, by those responsible for enforcing domestic Israeli law - after the nation that gave the world its first code of law steps down from its war footing. That an enquiry is needed is no excuse for cynical political corpse flies to come out of the woodwork to pitch their agenda before the bodies of the IDF troops are even cold.
Every party seems ready to spring their palace coup based on the indefensible premise that Olmert did not deliver the goods. The recurring complaint is always that our leaders are corrupt. So, now it is ethical to exploit the deaths of combat troops to advance dubious and untried political agendas, with cynical speeches over the bodies of Jewish warriors?
The only lesson to be learned from this incursion into enemy territory is that Israel has not been at war, genuine war, in 30 years. It is not Olmert's fault too many Israelis are now fat comfort addicts. What do you suppose it takes to neutralize radical Islam's determination?
For now, the unpopular, uncomfortable answer is that we should all be constrained by respect, duty and love of Israel to extend our hands in friendship and our talents in service to the man whom the Jewish people elected as prime minister, to aid him in his war efforts in whatever capacity we, as Jews and Christian Zionists, can. The work of reform requires a team effort, not accusations and slander.
As the Talmud extends its most well-deserved curses against those who engage in malicious slander, so do I extend my curse to those who engage in the same during wartime. This is but the opening round of hostilities. Let us then set our jaws and our hearts to face the fray, as did our forebears back to the beginning of Time. Israel, undivided, is invincible. Let us not make of some booze-hound AP stringer, filing their hackneyed copy from a behind-the-lines bar, the next Flavius Josephus.
Israel will never be a southern California soccer-mom paradise. That was never the deal. There is no hand-held TV remote that will switch the channel and make the Arab threat go away. Olmert should not have to apologize for this reality.
Copyright 2006 Walter James O'Brien
The present hysterical rage at achieving stated goals is not without precedence, and that precedent was as gracelessly exploited, too. During America's Viet Nam War, there was a mountaintop USMC base named Khe Sanh. For six months, the NVA and the vastly outnumbered Marines had it out. After the North Vietnamese retreated, 15,000 NVA were dead for a cost of less than 300 US Marine Corps dead.
The press claimed victory for the North Vietnamese. This fabrication was the thin edge of the wedge that led to the erosion of US civilian and world confidence in the ability of the forces of the USA, Australia and South Korea to maintain the sovereignty of Asia's most thoroughly betrayed democracy. All sin leads to murder, including, if not especially, the sin of lying.
The world press is conducting a similar deception respecting the present Israeli situation.
Israel went to war as per Prime Minister Olmert's lawful response to the act of war committed by Hizbullah, the murder and abduction of Israeli troops. In the process of this, he achieved the following:
1. creation of the framework within which the international community is forced to demand the return of the abducted Israeli troops;
2. total neutralization of the six-year Iran-Syria-sponsored $4.6 billion buildup of tunnels, trenches, observation posts, fortified positions and rocket launching facilities on Israel's northern border;
3. while the beating back of the illegally occupying Hizbullah force from Israel's border north 50 miles did not create a buffer zone between Israel and its enemies, Israel no longer faces a well-disciplined adversary of any significant magnitude within that perimeter;
4. forced the re-empowerment of the Lebanese government so that they may rule their own land instead of being Syrian and Iranian puppets (whether they become so is entirely their own choice now); and
5. set the conditions that now force all nations to seek closure in the Middle East respecting Israel's right to exist, once and for all.
Not a bad month's successful work for a former mayor. Or did the prior Lebanon incursion go as smoothly? The Yom Kippur War?
The question is not, ?Could we have done better?? The question is threefold: Who did the work of making the decision to finally end the rockets? How can we build on what was achieved? What can we all, as a unified body of interests, do to help? Please save the backseat micromanagement until the war is won. There is no present candidate who can perform as well as Olmert. And there cannot be a Third Fall of the Temple, because a) the Third Temple has not been built yet, may it happen in our time, and b) if we lose this one, there will not be an Israel again for a thousand years. Israel lost nothing now. Israel losing the war means every last man, woman and child in Israel is dead within 72 hours of raising the white flag.
Olmert's objectives were successfully achieved with a deployment of less than 2% of Israel's total military manpower capabilities, to answer those so substance abuse-addled as to raise the question of ?proportionate response.? A massive, full deployment would have achieved two things: showed the enemy how Israel has planned for full deployment, and wasted billions to achieve the same results.
Despite Hassan Nasrallah's fatuously inflated claims, Hizbullah lost. (Consult Debka for a full briefing of the losses of men, equipment and capabilities on the Islamofascist side.) If that is Hizbullah's best friend UPI's definition of victory, I relish the opportunity to witness the details of Nasrallah's ultimate defeat. The loss of fifty miles of depth and 30 miles of front ought to say it all to anyone with any military experience who can read a map.
As the broadcast media so thoroughly lied about Viet Nam, thus costing a fledgling democracy its existence and leading to the genocide of over a million middle-class South Vietnamese, so the media wish to flex their porky Boomer muscles one last time by destroying yet another democracy, Israel, likewise surrounded by genocidal medievalists.
I take issue with many of the points of ethical and procedural conduct raised by the gentlemen of the press and of certain illustrious members of the Knesset. These points shall be addressed at length, upon conduct of a board of enquiry, by those responsible for enforcing domestic Israeli law - after the nation that gave the world its first code of law steps down from its war footing. That an enquiry is needed is no excuse for cynical political corpse flies to come out of the woodwork to pitch their agenda before the bodies of the IDF troops are even cold.
Every party seems ready to spring their palace coup based on the indefensible premise that Olmert did not deliver the goods. The recurring complaint is always that our leaders are corrupt. So, now it is ethical to exploit the deaths of combat troops to advance dubious and untried political agendas, with cynical speeches over the bodies of Jewish warriors?
The only lesson to be learned from this incursion into enemy territory is that Israel has not been at war, genuine war, in 30 years. It is not Olmert's fault too many Israelis are now fat comfort addicts. What do you suppose it takes to neutralize radical Islam's determination?
For now, the unpopular, uncomfortable answer is that we should all be constrained by respect, duty and love of Israel to extend our hands in friendship and our talents in service to the man whom the Jewish people elected as prime minister, to aid him in his war efforts in whatever capacity we, as Jews and Christian Zionists, can. The work of reform requires a team effort, not accusations and slander.
As the Talmud extends its most well-deserved curses against those who engage in malicious slander, so do I extend my curse to those who engage in the same during wartime. This is but the opening round of hostilities. Let us then set our jaws and our hearts to face the fray, as did our forebears back to the beginning of Time. Israel, undivided, is invincible. Let us not make of some booze-hound AP stringer, filing their hackneyed copy from a behind-the-lines bar, the next Flavius Josephus.
Israel will never be a southern California soccer-mom paradise. That was never the deal. There is no hand-held TV remote that will switch the channel and make the Arab threat go away. Olmert should not have to apologize for this reality.
Copyright 2006 Walter James O'Brien