Friday, October 06, 2006
Hezbollah, Lebanon, and the "post heroic" war
Avi Kober of the Began-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies has examined the Second Lebanon War in a crisp analysis that should be read by anybody in Washington or Northern Virginia with an interest in military affairs (if you are one of many readers with a "dot mil" domain, that means you). The essay examines the "five central problems" in Israel's handling of the war, among them Israel's adherence to principles of "post heroic" war notwithstanding their limitations:
Since the 1978 Litani Operation, Israel has conducted its low-intensity conflicts in post-heroic fashion. "Post-heroic" warfare is characteristic of non-existential wars fought by Western democracies. It has two main rules: (a) avoid casualties to your own troops, and (b) avoid killing enemy civilians. Such warfare has enabled Israel to combine operational effectiveness and moral standards in combat with enemies fighting in "heroic" fashion, ready to sacrifice their own fighters and determined to kill as many enemy civilians as possible. After a long period during which Israel has conducted post-heroic warfare, quite successfully against the Palestinians and with partial success against Hizballah, the recent war has revealed its limitations. Israel found itself caught in a dilemma. On one hand, in order to achieve the ambitious political and military war objectives, it was necessary to sacrifice both troops and civilians. On the other hand, deviation from the rules of post-heroic warfare might have limited Israel's freedom of action. This indeed occurred when the pursuit of Israeli goals caused many Israeli casualties and much collateral damage in Lebanon.
The great victories of the IDF that established its reputation for invincibility were won in existential wars, and were in no way "post-heroic." As Israel's security has increased, so has the pressure on it -- both internal and external -- to adopt the post-heroic approach to war that has so defined American military efforts since the end of the Vietnam era. (Was Jimmy Carter's failed attempt to rescue the hostages held in the American embassy in Tehran America's first truly "post-heroic" military operation?) The question is, will post-heroic methods be sufficient to win wars against the oh-so "heroic" fanatics who fight for the Islamists?
Read the whole thing for its wider analysis of the Second Lebanon War.
2 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Fri Oct 06, 10:42:00 PM:
Will post-heroic methods be sufficient to win wars against the oh-so "heroic" fanatics who fight for the Islamists?
You can't beat the big dogs if you act like a puppy.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Oct 07, 03:08:00 PM:
