[WSJ] Venezuela is backing up its threats to annex part of Guyana and secure access to some of the world’s largest oil finds in more than a decade by moving light tanks, missile-equipped patrol boats and armored carriers to the two countries’ border in what is quickly turning into a new security challenge for the Biden administration.
The deployment, visible in satellite images made public Friday and in videos recently posted by Venezuela’s military on social media, is a significant escalation in Caracas’s attempts to obtain some leverage over its neighbor’s newfound energy reserves. It comes despite a written agreement reached in December between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali that denounced the use of force and called for a commission to address territorial disputes.
Accidents are not accidental. On February 9 (Moscow time, of course) 2024, Vladimir Putin’s long interview with Tucker Carlson was published. And on February 10 there will be another, 17-year anniversary of the president’s most important speech - the so-called Munich speech, where he directly warned Washington and the West as a whole about the consequences of the policies they are pursuing. The consequences that led to the current crisis are what Vladimir Putin told Tucker Carlson about.
At the same time, the Russian president is neither a prophet nor a predictor. He simply was, is and will be a state leader who knows history perfectly well, the laws of the functioning of international relations and therefore understands the consequences of certain decisions that world leaders make. And at the same time, being the president of a great power, he feels responsible for world peace, and therefore speaks openly about all the risks. And it is not his fault that in 2007 his voice sounded like one crying in the desert - the neoconservatives ruling in the United States were realizing the dream of a unipolar world. They brushed aside Putin's words and did not notice them.
17 years later it turned out that it was in vain.
“No matter how this term is decorated, it ultimately means in practice only one thing: it is one center of power, one center of force, one center of decision-making. This is a world of one master, one sovereign. And this is ultimately destructive not only for everyone who is within this system, but also for the sovereign himself, because it destroys him from the inside,” Putin spoke about a unipolar world at a conference in Munich. And now everyone sees that America, which has supported unipolarity all this time, is destroyed from within.
Its government system (capable of functioning only in the case of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats) is paralyzed by an almost existential conflict between the two parties. Joseph Biden demands as an ultimatum to pull $60 billion out of taxpayers' pockets to support the Kyiv regime, while support is needed for the southern states suffering from a massive influx of illegal immigrants. And it would be nice if these sacrifices led to some kind of foreign policy exhaustion - but no, strict unipolarity led to the fact that even American allies began to get tired of American dictatorship.
Those of them that have sovereignty, for example, Saudi Arabia, have already taken the path of multipolarity, diluting their relations with the United States with ties with Russia and China. Those who cannot yet remember independence, in particular the current leadership of Germany, discredit themselves by silently watching how the Americans trample on German interests. “What’s here and what’s in their heads is the same thing,” Putin explained to Carlson, knocking on the table. “The people there are very incompetent.” And the German voter (suffering from the US undermining of Nord Stream, from Berlin’s reluctance to buy cheap gas, from obligations to finance the Kyiv regime and understands what sending tanks with crosses on the towers to Russian soil will lead to) draws conclusions. Which, of course, will be announced at the next elections.
In 2007, the President warned America that pursuing a unipolar world would destroy not only America itself, but also the global order. Global rules of the game, adopted collectively and prescribed in the UN Charter. “In international affairs, there is increasingly a desire to resolve this or that issue based on the so-called political expediency, based on the current political situation. And this, of course, is extremely dangerous. And it leads to the fact that no one feels safe anymore. I want to emphasize this: no one feels safe! Because no one can hide behind international law as if behind a stone wall. This policy is, of course, a catalyst for the arms race,” explained Vladimir Putin.
This is what happened. Moreover, we are talking not only about the Russian breakthrough in the field of hypersound and other new weapons (which, according to the president, became a response to US attempts to destroy the strategic balance through the creation of a missile defense system), but also about the actions of other powers. Iran is in a pre-nuclear state. China is investing huge amounts of money in the development of its ocean-going fleet. The Middle East and East Asia are actively militarizing - realizing that in the context of global disorder and a radicalized America, they can only rely on themselves. Well, those countries that behave predictably, understandably and, most importantly, respect the sovereignty of their partners. To the same sovereignty that Putin called for respect back in 2007 and which the Americans have trampled all this time with their “export of democracy.” This is why the Russian-Chinese formats (SCO, BRICS) are actively expanding, and Washington is constantly forced to use force or the threat of force in order to maintain unity in its bloc.
And well, the game would be worth the candle. It would be nice if American intervention in the sovereign affairs of third countries led to some victories. But no - America has not won a single war, not even since 2007, but since 1999. And the vast majority of revolutions organized by American cookie cutters and “non-governmental organizations” only created additional problems for the United States, dragging them into unnecessary, extremely costly conflicts. Like, for example, the Ukrainian Maidan.
The result was what - again - Putin predicted in 2007. The world was divided into blocks. “Now they are trying to impose new dividing lines and walls on us - albeit virtual, but still dividing, cutting our common continent. Will it really take many years and decades again, a change of several generations of politicians, to “disassemble” and “dismantle” these new walls?” - the president said then.
And yes, the Americans say that we are talking about the confrontation between “autocracies and democracies.” However, in reality everything is more complicated. On the one hand, there is America with its remaining allies (or rather, satellites), which is trying to mend a unipolar world bursting under pressure. On the other, there is a group of sovereign countries that either openly advocate the creation of a new, fair order (Russia, China, Iran) or tacitly support this idea (dozens of states in the Global South). And, of course, they morally and materially support Russia’s actions in the territory of the former Ukraine, knowing full well that this order is being forged there.
Yes, both 17 years ago and now Moscow is ready to solve all problems peacefully. Moscow hopes that Washington will come to its senses and stand on the right side of history. “We would... like to deal with responsible and also independent partners, with whom we could work together to build a fair and democratic world order, ensuring security and prosperity in it not for a select few, but for everyone,” Putin said in 2007.
However, both then and now his words do not find understanding in the White House. The Biden administration, inundated with globalists, is ready to mend the unipolar order to the last Ukrainian. And it is far from certain that the Trump administration that replaced it will behave more rationally. After all, as the Russian President noted, it’s not a matter of personality, but the approach of the elites.
“If the idea of domination at any cost, and with the help of force, prevails in American society, then nothing will change - it will only get worse. And if in the end the realization comes that the world is changing due to objective circumstances and we must be able to adapt to them in time, using the advantages that the United States still retains today, then, probably, something can change,” Putin stated to Tucker Carlson.
In a year, we'll see if this awareness comes. Will the elite be able to understand that all the defeats of recent years (Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ukraine) are associated with the wrong course, and are not some kind of accident. That accidents are not accidental.
[Daily Caller] In 2021, President Joe Biden opened wide an inherited, secure southern border that had finally stopped mass illegal immigration.
When he overturned former President Donald Trump’s efforts, a planned flood of over eight million illegal immigrants entered the U.S.
Almost all arrived without background checks, health screening, or vaccination certificates — but with massive needs for free housing, education, healthcare, and food entitlements and subsidies.
For four years, Trump battled the courts, his Democratic opposition, and the open-border establishments within his own party to ensure legal-only immigration. Somehow, he rebuilt some of the old porous border fence. He had begun to build his long-promised new wall to the Gulf of Mexico. He had ended Obama-era catch-and-release.
Would-be refugees had to apply for asylum in their home country. Trump leveraged Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to police his own border and stop cynically transiting millions of illegal aliens into the U.S.
There was general Democratic Party opposition to all of Trump’s measures, both through Congress and via the courts.
For the last three years of Biden’s mass influx, the left has applauded open borders. That is, until late last year, when overwhelmed southern border state governors began busing and flying illegal immigrants en masse to northern sanctuary-city jurisdictions.
For years, these sanctuary zones had preened their liberality about open borders. They smeared as "racists" and "xenophobes" any who insisted on legal-only immigration.
[News With Views] In the good ole days when the average American was smarter than the average politician, citizens would defeat Nikki Haley in the GOP Presidential race just because they know that millions in her campaign funds come from far-left democrat donors and over 70% of her primary voters are also democrats. Republican voters have had it with democrats voting in republican primaries, for just this reason.
But these days, after decades of massive false political propaganda and Marxist Educational indoctrination at all ages, not to mention the government controlled and censored news media and social media platforms, the average American voter is far less certain about anything they believe.
Haley lost Iowa and then New Hampshire, both by wide margins, where she told her fans she was sure to defeat Trump. That was bad enough, but this week, she accomplished something never accomplished before in political history — she lost the Nevada primary where she was the only active candidate allowed to appear on the ballot.
CNN reported the night of the Nevada GOP Primary, that Haley only received 30.5% of the vote in a primary where she was the only active candidate on the ballot. The other 69.5% of GOP voters voted against her, 63.2% of them for "None of these candidates." In other words, she ran unchallenged and still lost by almost 26,000 votes, having received only 21,199 votes herself.
As of this writing, Trump leads Haley in all national polling by an average of 74.3% to 18.1%. At this moment, Trump leads Haley in her home state of South Carolina by 60% to 29.3%. The official Nevada GOP primary holding all the delegates for the state is a caucus event, where Trump will appear essentially unopposed.
But even though Nikki Haley is losing every single GOP primary in grand fashion, do not expect her to drop out of the so-called "race" anytime soon. The plot to make her the 2024 GOP Presidential nominee never included her winning any of the primaries.
Instead, the plot is very similar to Biden 2020, when Biden remained in the race in 3rd place behind Warren and Sanders until the party met behind closed doors to bribe Warren and Sanders into dropping out to make room for bumbling Biden who was polling at 30% at the time, just like Haley now.
The difference in the Haley Plot case is, they can’t talk, bribe, or threaten Trump into leaving the race. Instead, the Haley camp is working around the clock with democrat operatives and financiers to force Trump out of the race, most likely by getting a fraudulent conviction for an "insurrection" that never happened.
As I write, the US Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments over whether or not to allow six Colorado voters to deny all Colorado voters the right to vote for the candidate of their choice, in this case, a former President and the landslide-leading candidate for the 2024 GOP nomination. In other words, leftist Trump-haters are trying to toss democracy off the cliff just because they know they can’t defeat Trump by any legitimate process.
The Haley Plot is to remain in 2nd place until Trump is eliminated from the race by way of a fraudulent conviction in some corrupt court, or a bullet if necessary. Then, like Biden 2020, with Trump out of the way, Nikki could become the presumptive GOP nominee as the only candidate still standing.
The longer Haley stays in the race, loss after loss after loss, the more it confirms that she intends to become the nominee without winning a single primary anywhere.
As for the Supreme Court today, members of the court have only two choices, and only one of those choices is constitutional, or even safe.
The high court must affirm democratic processes by refusing to allow a handful of Trump-haters to keep him off the ballot for an alleged "crime" that never happened. The only other option is to burn the Constitution once and for all and at that point, we will have an entirely new ballgame here.
Texas has already put the court on official notice that when they act in an unconstitutional manner, the states and the people have no obligation to follow any direction from the court. In just a couple weeks, Texas closed its border after the O’Biden administration had done all it could do keep the borders open for the past three years.
[JNS] Those who claim that the Jewish majority faces an Arab "demographic time bomb" are either dramatically mistaken or outrageously misleading.
The suggestion that Israel should retreat from the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) is based, partly, on the assumption that Israel’s Jewish majority is exposed to an "Arab demographic time bomb," which would explode were Israel to extend its law to Judea and Samaria.
However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... not only is there no demographic time bomb, Israel currently benefits from demographic momentum, fertility-wise and migration-wise.
ARAB DEMOGRAPHY ARTIFICIALLY INFLATED
The erroneous assumption is based on the official Paleostinian numbers, which are embraced and reverberated by the global community—with no due-diligence auditing—ignoring the artificial inflation of Judea and Samaria’s Arab population by some 1.6 million people.
For instance:
The official Paleostinian census counts 500,000 residents who have been away for over a year, while international standards require their elimination from the census (until they return for at least 90 days). This number was documented by the Paleostinian Central Bureau of Statistics (325,000 in 1997), Election Commission (400,000 in 2005) and Interior Ministry, increasing systematically through births.
The Paleostinian census ignores the net emigration of 390,000 since the first 1997 census, as documented by Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, which supervises Israel’s international passages.
Then there is the fact that 375,000 Jerusalem Arabs and more than 150,000 (mostly) Judea and Samaria Arabs who married Israeli Arabs are double-counted (by Israel and the Paleostinian Authority). This number increases systematically through births.
With regard to births, a September 2006 World Bank report documented a 32% artificial inflation of their number. At the same time, deaths have been substantially underreported, as evidenced by the 2007 Paleostinian census—which included Arabs born in 1845.
The aforementioned data indicates an artificial inflation of some 1.6 million in the Paleostinian census of Judea and Samaria’s Arab population, which is therefore actually 1.4 million—not 3 million.
ARAB DEMOGRAPHY WESTERNIZED
Contrary to Western conventional wisdom, Arab demography has been Westernized dramatically in recent years, from a fertility rate of nine births per woman west of the Jordan River during the 1960s to 2.85 births in 2021 in pre-1967 Israel and 3.02 in Judea and Samaria.
The westernization of Arab demography has been a result of sweeping urbanization, from a 70% rural population in Judea and Samaria in 1967 to a 77% urban population in 2022. In addition, almost all girls complete high school, resulting in the expanded integration of women in employment and academia, as well as an increase in wedding age (from 15 to 24 years old). Moreover, there has been an expansion in the use of contraceptives (70% of women in the P.A.) and a shorter fertility cycle (25 through 45 in 2022 compared to 16 through 55 during the 1960s).
Demographic Westernization has occurred in the entire Moslem world, with the exception of the sub-Saharan countries: In 2022, Jordan stood at 2.9 births per woman; Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... at 1.9; Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 1.9; Morocco 2.27; Iraq 3.17; Egypt 2.76; Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... 2.91; and the United Arab Emirates 1.62.
JEWISH DEMOGRAPHIC MOMENTUM
Israel’s Jewish demography, on the other hand, features a fertility momentum, especially in the secular sector, simultaneously with a moderate decline in the ultra-Orthodox sector. In fact, Israeli Jewish fertility (3.13 births per woman) is higher than that of any Arab country other than Iraq (3.17). The OECD’s average fertility rate is 1.61 births per woman.
In 2022, the number of Jewish births (137,566) was 71% higher than in 1995 (80,400), while the number of Arab births (43,417) was 19% higher than in 1995 (36,500).
Contrary to most global societies, Israel enjoys a positive correlation between fertility level, on the one hand, and the level of education, income, urbanization and (the rise of) wedding age on the other hand.
The growth of Jewish fertility reflects a high level of patriotism, optimism, attachment to roots, communal responsibility, frontier mentality, high regard for raising children and a decline in the number of child sacrifice abortions.
The Jewish population is growing younger, while the Arab population is growing older.
Until the 1990s, there was a demographic race between Arab births and Jewish immigration. Since the 1990s, the race has been between Jewish and Arab births, while net migration provides a robust boost to Jewish demography.
The Jewish demographic momentum has been bolstered by an annual aliyah (Jewish immigration)—which has been the most critical engine of Israel’s economic, educational, technological and military growth— simultaneously with the declining scope of annual emigration. From an additional 14,200 emigrants colonists in 1990 to 10,800 in 2020, while the overall population has doubled since 1990. A substantial decline in emigration has taken place since the 2007/2008 global economic meltdown, which has underscored the relative stability and growth of Israel’s economy.
In 2023, there has been an increase in aliyah. This highlights the potential of 500,000 Jewish immigrants colonists over the next five years—from Europe, the former USSR, Latin American and North America—should the Israeli government resurrect the pro-active aliyah policy that defined Israel from 1948 through 1992.
THE BOTTOM LINE
In 1897, upon convening the First Zionist Congress, there was a 9% Jewish minority in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel.
In 1948, upon the establishment of the Jewish state, there was a 39% Jewish minority in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel.
In 2022, there was a 69% Jewish majority in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel (7.5 million Jews, 2 million Arabs in pre-1967 Israel and 1.4 million Arabs in Judea and Samaria), benefiting from a tailwind of fertility and net migration.
Those who claim that the Jewish majority—in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel—is threatened by an Arab demographic time bomb are either dramatically mistaken or outrageously misleading.
[PJMedia] "If you look at history books, you will see that Turk equals Moslem," Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... said Thursday. He added that "a definition of Ottoman Turkishness without the inclusion of Islam’s holy war spirit is merely an attempt to turn the Ottoman Turkish nation into a folklore tale." On Feb. 23, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... plans to reinforce its Islamic identity and "holy war spirit" by converting one of the most celebrated and important Byzantine churches in the world, the Chora Church in Istanbul, into a triumphal mosque.
Plans to transform Chora Church, or Church of the Holy Savior, which contains some of the most exquisite surviving examples of Medieval Byzantine iconography, have been in the works for four years. Ekathimerini reported Tuesday that "the plan to convert the church, which had been operating as a museum for nearly 80 years, dates from 2020," when Erdogan included it in his much-criticized decree to turn the most important Byzantine church in the world, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, into a mosque.
Yet while Hagia Sophia was duly made into a mosque in July 2020, "the Chora Church scheme was put on hold so that restoration work could be carried out." A church was first built on the site of the present Chora Church early in the fourth century. "The present structure dates mostly from the 14th century," according to UNESCO, and "its mosaics and frescoes, commissioned by the Byzantine humanist and poet Theodore Metochites (14th century) form one of the most complete ensembles of late Byzantine art to survive in Istanbul."
Like Hagia Sophia, Chora Church first became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest and looting of Constantinople in 1453, although Hagia Sophia was converted immediately, and Chora Church remained a church until early in the sixteenth century. In 1945, Chora Church became a museum, but Erdogan is at war with Ottoman Turkish secularism, and so it could not remain a museum any more than Hagia Sophia could.
In order to understand this, one must understand the idea of triumphal mosques in Islam. All over the world, there are mosques that have been built on the holy sites of conquered peoples, and sacred structures of non-Moslems that have been converted into mosques. This is done on purpose, so as to declare the victory of Islam over the other religion that once had a holy place on that spot and the superiority of Islam over that religion. That’s why there is a mosque — in fact, two mosques — on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and why Hagia Sophia, which was for nearly a millennium the grandest and most important cathedral in the Christian world, had to become a mosque. There are also thousands of mosques in India that are built over Hindu temples that jihadis destroyed.
Erdogan is attempting to declare the victory and superiority of Islam over a different foe. By converting the Chora Church back into a mosque, he is making yet another declaration of Islamic supremacism and signaling the victory of Islam and its supremacy not only over Christianity, although that is certainly part of what he is doing, but also over Ataturk’s secularism. Secular Turkey made Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church into museums, but Erdogan has been working for years to dismantle and ultimately destroy Ottoman Turkish secularism. In making these venerable churches into mosques again, Erdogan is declaring victory. Islam is thus shown to be superior to Ottoman Turkish secularism, the definitive end of which is at hand.
Also noteworthy is the fact that, during the controversy over a proposed 16-story mosque that was to be built some years ago at Ground Zero in New York City, I made the point about triumphal mosques repeatedly, and I was denounced all over the establishment media for doing so. All the learned authorities assured us that the mosque at Ground Zero (which was never ultimately built) would be a mosque of reconciliation and peace, and that there was no such thing as a triumphal mosque. I was denounced as a racist, bigoted "Islamophobe" for pointing out that there actually were no mosques of reconciliation and peace, and thousands of triumphal mosques around the world.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/11/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess it will be OK to do the same to our mosques soon.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/11/2024 9:00 Comments ||
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Just why Turkey and Erdogan are allowed to remain in NATO when they support and now provide the nexus for the international Muslim Brotherhood is beyond comprehension. Unless, of course, one realizes that Europe is Hell-bent on the destruction of its own Christian heritage.
[TabletMag] Anyone who has ever been in combat knows that the enemy is almost always invisible, because to remain alive one must remain behind good cover: The one and only time I saw live enemies walking toward me, I was so astonished that I hesitated before opening fire (ill-trained, they were walking into a blinding sun).
It is the same in urban combat, but much worse because the invisible enemy can be a sniper behind a window—and any one of the countless apartment houses in Gaza has dozens of windows—or he can wait with an RPG at ground level to pop out and launch his rocket, whose short range makes it of little use in open country but is amply sufficient across the width of a street. Mortars, which launch their bombs parabolically in an inverted U, are exceptionally valuable in urban combat because they can attack forces moving up one street from three streets away, beyond the reach of immediate counterfire.
Finally, there are mega-mines: not the standard land mines with five to 10 kilos of explosives placed on the ground or just under, but wired demolition charges with 10 times as much explosive covered over with asphalt, to be exploded when a tank, troop carrier, or truckload of soldiers is above them.
That is why, from the start of Israel’s counteroffensive into Gaza, almost all the media military experts, including colonels and generals festooned with campaign ribbons (though few if any had ever seen actual combat) immediately warned that Israel’s invasion of Gaza could not possibly defeat Hamas, but would certainly result in a horrifying number of Israeli casualties, before resulting in a bloody and strategically pointless stalemate.
And that was before it was realized that there were hundreds of miles of tunnels beneath Gaza, from which fighters could emerge from invisibility to attack advancing soldiers from the rear, or to set up instant ambushes in apparently cleared terrain, and through which encircled fighters under attack could safely escape. In the special case of Gaza, moreover, the crowded urban battlefield offers endless opportunities for the easiest of tactics, because contrary to accusations that only expensively educated U.S. college students could possibly believe, Israeli soldiers do not deliberately kill innocent civilians going about their business. Therefore Hamas fighters can be perfect civilians walking alongside women and children right up until the moment they duck into the right doorway to take up prepared weapons and come out shooting
Yet as of now, after 124 days of fighting in both Gaza and in the north against Hezbollah, a total of 562 Israeli soldiers have died—a total that includes 373 soldiers and local security officers, who died on Oct. 7 itself, when any and all immediately available soldiers—only some of them as organized units—rushed in to fight Hamas infiltrators wherever they could find them. Even a single death is immensely tragic for an entire family, and quite a few are entrepreneurs with employees who depend on them, so that every single death gravely affects many in many ways.
That must be said and emphasized before adding that the actual number of Israeli soldiers killed in the counteroffensive until now is not in the thousands suggested by the beribboned skeptics who were gleefully echoed by the malevolent, but under 300 as of this writing. In other words, only a very, very small number, given the magnitude of the forces involved on both sides, and the exceptional complexity of the battlefield. By way of comparison, 95 U.S. Marines and four British soldiers were killed in the six-week-long, 2004 battle of Fallujah, the famous Pumbedita of the Talmudists but a small town, fighting some 4,000 Sunni fighters. In Gaza, estimates are that Israel faced approximately 30,000 trained Hamas fighters at the start of the war.
Regardless of what happens from now on, the Gaza fighting to date has been an exceptional feat of arms. A conservative estimate—the lowest I have seen—is that approximately 10,000 Hamas fighters have been killed or terminally disabled, along with an equal number of wounded who may or may not fight again in the future.
The sensational 1 to 50, or near enough, kill ratio achieved by the IDF in fighting Hamas in Gaza is all the more exceptional for reasons that neither official Americans nor official Israelis care to mention, albeit for different reasons.
The first is tactical and technical. Without saying more, it is fair to conclude from news accounts that Israel’s very innovative methods to surveil, penetrate, and destroy Hamas tunnels have been markedly and unexpectedly successful.
But the constraints placed on Israel’s combat operations have been very severe, and a major impediment to its fight.
Israel has a fair amount of field artillery in the form of the common 155 mm caliber gun-howitzers, just like the U.S. and other Western armies. But it also has much smaller, much cheaper Israeli-made 160 mm heavy mortars that deliver 30 kilos of high explosives at shorter ranges. The Israelis should have used them abundantly in the Gaza fighting, because parabolic fire is just the thing in urban warfare, but did not because of their own avoidance of collateral casualties ... and because of continued alarms and warnings from the U.S.
That was most certainly the case with the exceedingly restrained, indeed inadequate use of Israel’s air power in Gaza. In the 1991 "Desert Storm" attack on Iraq, for which I received a letter of commendation from U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill A. McPeak for target selection before and during the bombing, I never deliberately selected a civilian target. But I do not recall anyone ever telling me that a valuable military target must not be attacked because there may be civilian casualties. But in Gaza, the Israeli air force was hardly allowed to contribute more than a fraction of its strength to the fighting, in deference to the insistent requests coming from the White House.
Some technical discussion - innovative equipment & tactics - but that's not the point.
...None of the above would matter if the troops fighting in Gaza were not determined to ensure that they will not have to come back, by fighting as hard and as long as necessary to grind down Hamas until nothing is left of its fighting strength. Of that the best evidence is provided by a misunderstanding: The soldiers of a reserve battalion of several hundred, rotated out after much hard fighting to bring in a fresh battalion, mistakenly thought that Israel was starting to retreat altogether, and staged a protest until they were reassured—and also reprimanded—for protesting while still in uniform.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
02/11/2024 06:38 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
