The press here in Israel has been very focused on the war in Georgia and actually quoted Russian sources that Russia learned from Israel's failure in Lebanon. They have also been discussing why the Russians succeeded so quickly and Israel failed.
There is a very simple reason why Russia succeeded and Israel failed. Russia used overwhelming force while Israel did not, basically fighting with one hand tied behind our backs. Israel's leaders need to learn this simple lesson from the Russians, overwhelming force wins. You can't fight a war with 1 hand tied behind your back and win. Until we learn that lesson the war in Lebanon will repeat itself again and again.
4 comments:
The correct doctrine, "Get there fustest [first] with the mostest," dates back the the US Civil War. More recently, the (U.S. General Colin) Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force was proved correct in the first Gulf War (1991). Israel's inept leadership has spent its best capital--the enemy's fear--by its stupidity.
I would suggest other reasons why Russia succeeded:
1) Journalists - Israel, being an open country, allows a huge journalistic corp to criticize and overanalyze its every move. The Russians, well they know how to treat reporters they don't like so no one messes with them.
2) Media - whatever Israel does is criticized. Whatever lies the Arabs spun, the media reported as certifiable fact. The media now is giving equal weight to Georgian statements and obvious Russian lies.
3) Morality - Georgians are decent folks who don't believe in using ambulances to transfer weapons, hiding bases in stadiums in schools and killing their own people for propaganda purposes. The Arabs, on the other hand...
1 & 2 were not so true this time. The Russians got a lot of criticism in the Western media. The difference is that they don't care for a number of reasons:
1. They have a security council veto
2. They make all their own weapons
3. They have a lot of oil and natural gas
What exactly is the Western world going to do to them?
Unfortunately, Israel has none of the above.
Regarding 3, you are correct, however, I don't think that made a huge difference.
Keep in mind tremendous psychological advantage of russians over georgians- russia has very powerful and numerous army compared with georgia. Giant versus a midget.
dovid komarov
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