69 million page views

Mowing the Grass

Reader comment on item: How Much Can Air Power Achieve?
in response to reader comment: Not quite accurate

Submitted by Michael S (United States), May 29, 2015 at 03:53

Hi, Yuval

You give a fair analysis, from someone who has to live in the shadow of Gazan rockets.

During Israel's most recent "lawn mowing" of the Gazan rocket-weeds, I was hoping Israel would completely take over the territory, destroy the Gazan weapons and kill or imprison its soldiers. I can see now, that would have been a costly operation in terms of Israeli lives and money, and would have been followed by an israeli withdrawal and a quick return to the pre-war situation. As long as the Americans and Europeans side with Gaza and prop them up with a steady influx of cash rewards for their bad behavior, Israel is continually at a disadvantage. What Netanyahu did, therefore, bombing them to relative quietness and then ceasing fire, seems to have turned out to be the best policy.

This reminds me of something from Orwell's "1984":

In one combination or another, these three super-states are permanently at war, and have been so for the past twenty-five years. War, however, is no longer the desperate, annihilating struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference This is not to say that either the conduct of war, or the prevailing attitude towards it, has become less bloodthirsty or more chivalrous. On the contrary, war hysteria is continuous and universal in all countries, and such acts as raping, looting, the slaughter of children, the reduction of whole populations to slavery, and reprisals against prisoners which extend even to boiling and burying alive, are looked upon as normal, and, when they are committed by one's own side and not by the enemy, meritorious. But in a physical sense war involves very small numbers of people, mostly highly-trained specialists, and causes comparatively few casualties. The fighting, when there is any, takes place on the vague frontiers whose whereabouts the average man can only guess at, or round the Floating Fortresses which guard strategic spots on the sea lanes. In the centres of civilization war means no more than a continuous shortage of consumption goods, and the occasional crash of a rocket bomb which may cause a few scores of deaths.

The Muslims seem, for the most part, like children who keep on getting scalded by putting their hands on hot burners, yet they never learn not to do it. As long as they persist, I can't see any end in sight to their current plight.

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Submit a comment on this item

Reader comments (24) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Air strikes will not work [174 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
PrashantJun 5, 2015 13:41223694
where is this going? [60 words]FrankzApr 9, 2015 00:21222770
1Not quite accurate [164 words]yuvalApr 8, 2015 05:11222749
1Winning is possible [83 words]BamagujeApr 10, 2015 21:09222749
Accuracy Limited in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and Nuclear Ambitions [302 words]M. ToveyApr 17, 2015 15:24222749
Ho-hum again. [282 words]Michael SMay 1, 2015 19:58222749
The Hum of Running Silent- Running Deep [323 words]M. ToveyMay 6, 2015 13:05222749
It really is ho-hum lately. Caliphate not radical enough? [230 words]Michael SMay 7, 2015 21:45222749
Marxist Leadership of the West in Agreement With Marxist Papacy-Aire Superiority of a Different Sortie [107 words]M. ToveyMay 13, 2015 15:30222749
Mom and Apple Pie [528 words]Michael SMay 15, 2015 04:32222749
Mowing the Grass [434 words]Michael SMay 29, 2015 03:53222749
Control of Gaza is a chimera [28 words]BG DavisJun 29, 2015 14:05222749
Air war [32 words]WallyApr 6, 2015 23:33222697
What's the end-game, if survival is the issue? [166 words]JIMJFOXApr 6, 2015 22:50222693
1Dan is right but only for conventional air power [134 words]YususfApr 6, 2015 21:33222690
Israel can eliminate Iran's threat, using conventional weapons. [161 words]Michael SMay 15, 2015 12:19222690
1Also, unstable dictatorships prefer to use air forces [169 words]John in Michigan, USAApr 6, 2015 18:20222689
Wars and relativism. [76 words]steven LApr 6, 2015 17:01222687
What About Gaza? What About State-Sponsors? [178 words]AlexApr 6, 2015 16:42222686
Continuous Warfare [161 words]Michael SApr 6, 2015 16:14222685
Vietnam bombing ? [27 words]KaiserDerdenApr 6, 2015 15:49222683
Air Superiority Does Not Ensure Conquest - For it is the Expensive (Therefore Limited) Option [353 words]M. ToveyApr 6, 2015 15:38222681
settled long ago [79 words]Larry SeltzerApr 6, 2015 15:25222680
Of course [85 words]Lars NielsenApr 6, 2015 15:17222677

Comment on this item

Mark my comment as a response to Mowing the Grass by Michael S

Email me if someone replies to my comment

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

See recent outstanding comments.

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)