Historical Parallels
Reader comment on item: [Michael Oren's] "Six Days of War"

Submitted by Charles Daggs (United States), Jun 5, 2002 at 15:34

Thanks to Dr. Pipes for another excellent commentary. I find it most interesting that Israel's experience with the the 1967 war and the American experience with the Gulf War share similar military successes and political failures.

Just as the Arab Bloc of 1967 and Iraq's vaunted Republican guard were dispatched with relative ease, the politicians of both countries failed to capitalize on military victories. In victory, Israel had the choice of incorporating the territory or aggressively negotiating a settlement with its enemies. Instead, the ensuing years of land for peace negotiations have allowed a terrorist war of attrition to develop.

Israel could force the issue today by either a) annexing the "occupied terrorities," b) returning the Gaza to Egypt, and the West Bank to Jordan, or c) unilaterally declaring the West Bank and Gaza to be an independent Palestinian State. In any case, any further acts of aggression against Israel would be more clearly an attack by another State, not just some stateless "aggrieved" individuals.

The United States will also be forced to make choices it avoided a decade ago. In fact, the preemptive strike defense doctrine outlined by President Bush should be put into practice. Why allow Iran to bulid a nuclear reactor? Follow the Israeli example against Iraq.

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