The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Blame the Victim If He Fights Back
by James Dunnigan
June 20, 2003
The Palestinian terror groups are blaming the Israeli
armed forces for prolonging the violence. The terrorists insist that the Israeli
armed forces attacks on their leaders makes it impossible for them to halt their
attacks. The Israeli attacks kill Palestinian civilians, because the terrorist
leaders, quite naturally, live among civilians (and take advantage of the fact
that, at least in the past, the Israelis tried to make their attacks only when
the terrorist leaders were away from innocent civilians.) The Israelis, on the
other hand, have been bluntly telling American or European leaders who criticize
them for such attacks that the Americans or Europeans would do the same if their
populations were subject to the same kind of terrorist attacks. The citizens of
the US or European nations would not tolerate the death toll from groups calling
for the destruction of their countries. It's a hard argument to answer, because
terrorist attacks against the civilian population of a democracy does trigger
that kind of response and politicians have not got too many options in dealing
with it. The US is pressuring Israel to make more gestures to get the
peace process going. Things like stopping the attacks on terrorist leaders,
shutting down more Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory and withdrawing
troops from northern Gaza. Israel will probably go along with all, or most of
this, even though it will probably not be enough for Palestinian leaders to get
all the terrorist groups to stop their attacks on Israeli civilians. If the
Israelis comply and the attacks on Israeli civilians continue, then the Israeli
leadership will face an enraged population wanting all out war on the terrorists
(and any Palestinian civilians in the vicinity.) Meanwhile, the
terrorists, looking at Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon after years of
terrorist attacks, and growing calls by Israelis to get all the Jewish settlers
out of Palestinian territory because of terrorist attacks, as proof that their
tactics are working and feel that continuing the attacks long enough will
eventually cause all Jews to leave the Middle East. Meanwhile, the
terrorist attacks continue, as does the Israeli military operations against
terrorist groups. Since September, 2000, 3,349 people have died in the violence
( 2,523 Palestinians and 766 Israelis.)
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