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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Debka: Junior Officers and Enlisted Protest Against Ineffectual Command |
| 2006-08-21 |
| A group of hundreds of officers and men of the crack Alexandroni Brigade hurled charges against the Chief of Staff, Lt. Dan Halutz at a meeting in Hadera. One carried a banner with the motto: You prevented us from winning. Halutz received them after signs of mutiny appeared among the brigade’s reservists – the first ever staged by a complete Israeli combat unit against the high command. Brigade officers signed a letter in which they warned that if their willingness to fight for their country continues to be trampled on, there will be no one left to fight the next war. They spoke of a deep crisis of confidence and alienation between the officers and soldiers of the brigade and its commanders, the northern command and the general staff. The reservists repeated the grievances of other units that they were sent into battle without appropriate equipment, food or water. Worst of all, their orders were confused, contradictory and unrelated to what they found in the field. Tactical intelligence data was missing throughout the campaign, forcing them to fight blind. Last week, the brigade’s commander, Col. Shlomi Cohen, called the protesters “impertinent” and threatened them with court martial. When the chief of staff promised that every complaint would be thoroughly investigated, one of the participants at the showdown burst out: “Who needs an inquiry – government or judicial? The Lebanon fiasco is so glaring that it cries to heaven. We all know where responsibility lies - in the military and national leadership. They should all resign and not hide behind some probe else the crisis of confidence in the army will deepen.” In contrast to the chief of staff, the Chief Infantry and Paratroop Officer, Brig. Yossi Maimon, admitted: We have sinned. He confessed to a deep sense of responsibility for failing to better prepare the army and reserve units for battle. “Notwithstanding the heroism the army demonstrated in combat, we are left with a strong sense of missing out,” he said. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #12 Christ is the Messiah of the Christians, Saint Jimbo. The Jewish Messiah is 100 per cent human, with no admixture from Above. An area I've made a bit of a study of, actually. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-08-21 23:50 |
| #11 Proof once again that the on going confusion will open the door for the treacherous man of peace' mentioned in the Book of Revelation with a phoney 7 year covenant that he will break and the Israelis will then finally wake up just before Christ their Messiah comes back to clean house. But what do I know. |
| Posted by: Saint Jimbo 2006-08-21 21:42 |
| #10 Part of all this is more due to an emphasis on "chasing Palestinians", urban manouvering, and guard-post staffing, and less emphasis on combat-training, combat-related intelligence, and developing competent warfare-focused leadership. That is failure to be laid at the feet of the current and past regimes. |
| Posted by: Fordesque 2006-08-21 21:28 |
| #9 Nobody wants a repeat of this fiasco. O contraire, mon frere. They're forming a committee. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-08-21 18:49 |
| #8 And it appears that a war run by a PM and Defense Minister who have no real military experience was an unmitigated disaster. My understanding is that Peretz was actually slotted for the Finance Minister position but somehow ended up in defense. My guess is that Netanyahu and Likud move back into power. Nobody wants a repeat of this fiasco. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-08-21 18:38 |
| #7 remoteman---I like your comments. We seem to have a broad spectrum failure at all levels of the command structure, from the govt down through the IDF. They have serious institutional and command problems that need to be addressed now. Israel can win when it hits hard and fast, setting their enemy back on its heels, reeling. If the IDF cannot do it like that, Israel will be attritted to death. There are a lot more arabs than Israelis that can be fed into the cauldron. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-08-21 18:26 |
| #6 I thought that units were always sent to the front short of everything with confused orders. Isn't that what essentially happened in the Six Day War? That one turned out pretty well. |
| Posted by: gromky 2006-08-21 14:09 |
| #5 This report is talking about far more serious issues than Olmert being soft. It speaks to very bad command & control and logistic supply issues. Lots of confusion on the ground, poorly conceived tactical plans with resulting poor execution. There is an incredible amount of rework that needs to be done here. It is not going to be able to be done overnight. Seems like Israel needs this ceasefire just as much as the Hezzies. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2006-08-21 13:45 |
| #4 Only impressive if Israel can replace the current bozos with a decent crop of leaders. This appears to be not an isolated failure, but a broad based failure in many Israeli institutions. Why is Olmert still in office? Do the majority of Israeli Knesset members and voters agree with some here that Olmert and Halutz led Israel to a brilliant victory? I fear a generation of fools is in charge of Israel now and there are not enough true leaders available from it to get its institutions into the correct gear. They remind me of that Silent Generation between the "Greatest Generation" and the Boomers here in America. At least we were smart enough to keep them out of the White House. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-08-21 13:26 |
| #3 The Israelis won't stop short the next time. Annex the land to the Litani and deport all the muslims to Syria. It makes a lot of sense to shorten the border perimeter by half and make use of a river barrier. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-08-21 13:16 |
| #2 Damn impressive if you ask me. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-08-21 13:15 |
| #1 In Israel this is seen as a sign of a healthy, vibrant, engaged populace. Democracy at work. In the Arab middle east, this is seen as Israeli weakness (not to mention that if such a thing were to happen in those countries, the protesters would be "dealt with.") |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2006-08-21 12:02 |