That Criticism is Applicable Here in Israel

Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp, in response to Richard Falk on "Asymmetric Warfare", makes points applicable to Israel and its situation vis-a-vis its situation:

He quotes Richard Falk, professor emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, who wrote recently on the Al Jazeera English website:

“American reliance on drone attacks in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) removes the human altogether from the war theater...Eliminating the presence of human soldiers from the battlefield is a chilling development: historically, the fact that war put soldiers’ lives at risk forced citizens to think about whether a war was morally right, or worth fighting...“Ultimately, what is at stake is the human spirit, which at the moment is being squeezed to near-death by technological momentum, corporate greed, militarism, and secular fundamentalism...Examples include The Gulf War of 1991, the Kosovo War of 1999, and the Gaza Attacks of 2008-09…”

Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp, who spent three decades fighting asymmetric wars and led British ground forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, wrote:

“In his apparent preference for combat operations that ‘put soldiers’ lives at risk’ over tactics and technology that reduce the risk to American forces, Mr. Falk seems to regard warfare as some kind of a game. Perhaps like boxing under Marquess of Queensbury rules, where sportsmanship and fair play prevail. Although the forces of Western democracies must of course rigorously apply the Laws of Armed Conflict, these demand neither sportsmanship nor fair play. On the contrary: no responsible military commander will put his own forces at unnecessary risk.

“Within the constraints of effective prosecution of combat, a commander must take all possible steps to safeguard the lives of his men. This is a practical necessity as well as a moral one - a soldier can’t fight the next battle if he is lying in a pool of his own blood...when an army does go to war it must use all legal means at hand to destroy the enemy and to protect it’s own forces. This patently does not mean giving the enemy a fair chance to kill your own troops. It means outnumbering and outgunning the enemy. Attacking his infantry with withering tank fire and attacking his tanks with vicious airstrikes. It means fighting dirty - with deception, deceit, subterfuge and overwhelming firepower...

...“I don’t know whether Mr. Falk is fortunate enough to have children. But I do wonder whether he would recommend the same ‘sporting’ approach to battle if his son or grandson was the young soldier bent under the weight of 100 pounds of weaponry, ammunition and water, sweating in 130 degrees of heat...

Of course, there is also that (laughable) principle of "proportionality".  Should we in Israel be now firing rockets indiscriminately into Gaza, just as they are doing to us?

From here:

On Thursday, August 18, 2011, eight people were killed and at least 40 others injured in a string of terror attacks on buses, civilian vehicles and soldiers near the Israel-Egypt border. In a premeditated attack, terrorists from Gaza targeted Israeli civilians, who were 20km from reaching Eilat, a popular tourist destination for summer vacations.

Following one of the worst terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians in recent years, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired almost 90 rockets into major Israeli population centers. In response, the IDF targeted several sites of terror activity.

Falk is such a...fool.

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