(Israeli) Cabinet decides not to broaden ground operation

[Ghost Dog]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3282314,00.html

Security Cabinet rejects IDF's request for large-scale reserve call-up aimed at expanding southern Lebanon incursion. Ministers call on army to 'pound villages from the air, turn them into sand boxes' before ground troops enter
Ronny Sofer

Saying no to the IDF: the Security Cabinet decided Thursday afternoon not to broaden the military operations in southern Lebanon, and to reject the army's request for a large-scale reserve call-up, aimed at expanding ground incursions in the region.

The Cabinet also stressed Israel had no intention of opening a new front with Syria, and that actions against Hizbullah will continue in the same manner exercised until now.

Justice Minister Haim Ramon said in the meeting that "a village like Bint Jbeil, whose residents were alerted to evacuate and had left the place, and in which only Hizbullah gunmen remained, should be pounded from the air and with artillery before ground troops enter."

Ramon also called on the Cabinet to authorize strikes against civilian infrastructure used by Hizbullah, including electricity. "Hizbullah must not be allowed to use civilian population as human shields," he stated. "Even international law allows to target places from which shooting attacks are being carried out, especially after they have been warned," he added.

/more...

And from Reuters at this time: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-27T125803Z_01_L22849465_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MIDEAST.xml
Israel pounds south Lebanon
Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:23 PM GMT

<snip>

"Ministers want to step up air strikes and limit ground operations," Israeli media reported after Olmert's inner security cabinet met to consider a response to the losses.

/more...

(See earlier DU thread on this meeting (and related topics) here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2416454 )

[Dhalgren]

1. Right. The Hezbollah have been putting up too hard a

resistance. too many Israeli soldiers killed and wounded. Juan Cole says that the casualty ratio between IDF and Hezbollah, since the invasion began is at or near 1:1. Israel has never experienced this kind of casualty parity in any of its "wars". It is causing the Israelis to step back and reassess. Bombing Lebanon back to the stone age is what they have decided upon - with the whole world's blessing (according to the Israelis). Is everyone ready for the Killing Fields of Lebanon?

[Kagemusha]

7. In all fairness, Israel has never fought a dug-in enemy before, ever.

It's all been wars of maneuver. Tanks, aircraft... and once Israel got full air superiority, aircraft against tanks, which is how the Germans got rolled up. Any attacker hitting well prepared defensive positions precisely where the defenders expect you to attack is going to face highly disproportionate casualties compared to the general disparity of overall military strength.

But for those same reasons, I fail to see how not putting in more ground forces with heavier artillery is going to contribute to success.

[rodeodance]

14. they only need to look at our military in Irag to know what can happen.

[bemildred]

10. Israel is fighting at a time and on ground of its enemys choosing.

It is very stupid. The Israeli leadership is incompetent. It relies too much on bombs and too little on brains. One should not assume on that basis that the IDF is not capable of being a formidable opponent under competent leadership.

[Rose Siding]

2. In the LAT: Israel Seeks to Align Public Expectations With Reality

JERUSALEM — Even before Wednesday's bruising day on the battlefields of south Lebanon, Israel's leaders had begun scaling back public expectations of a decisive — or a quick — victory over the guerrillas of Hezbollah.

Heading into the confrontation, senior Israeli officials had declared that the Shiite Muslim militia would be dealt a blow from which it could not recover. Its arsenal would be destroyed and its fighters driven out of south Lebanon, the officials said.
...
With the fighting in its third week, however, Israelis are being told that Hezbollah can be weakened but not eradicated, that Israeli forces will not be able to police the border zone themselves, and that Hezbollah's rockets continue to pose a threat to Israeli towns.

"The target is not to totally dismantle Hezbollah," said Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, a former head of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service. "What we are doing now is to try to send a message to Hezbollah."
...
So far, Israel's leadership has maintained public support for its war efforts. But some analysts predict that a drawn-out conflict could produce a backlash, even if the outcome eventually brings some long-term strategic benefits to the Jewish state.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-expectations27jul27,0,3881991.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines

[Ghost Dog]

4. Indeed. As the LAT remarks:

Days into the campaign, there was already widespread acknowledgment among Israeli policymakers and commanders that Israel could not achieve its goals by air power alone. On the ground, in their first major forays into the border zone, Israeli troops this week encountered tougher-than-expected resistance — and suffered heavy casualties.

Elite forces discovered an elaborate maze of fortified caves and tunnels from which Hezbollah fighters, armed with sophisticated weapons, were able to strike at will.

Israeli military intelligence officials believe about 150 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the offensive. Hezbollah has not acknowledged such losses, which would be a substantial number, considering that the force's hard core is thought to consist of only several thousand fighters.

Yet Hezbollah has maintained its ability to fight. A week ago, Israeli officials confidently said that they had destroyed large numbers of Hezbollah missiles and noted that the number of rockets fired into northern Israel was declining.

Instead, after a brief lull, the number of rockets launched at Israeli towns rebounded and the attacks have continued unabated, virtually shutting down a swath of the country that is home to nearly 1 million people.

/...

:cry:

[Kagemusha]

8. Message to Hezbollah: We're not all that.

That's what it looks like, anyway. And that's exactly what the Cohens and Liebermans deeply fear.

[hadrons]

3. but, but, but Dumsfeld and Big-Time told them it would be a cakewalk

instead Israel's preparing to eat some crow

[Roon]

5. Israel to call up reserves to boost campaign

JERUSALEM - Top Israeli Cabinet ministers on Thursday decided not to expand the country’s Lebanon offensive but ordered the call up of thousands of additional reserve soldiers to boost the campaign, officials said.

During a session with the security Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the goals of Israel’s 17-day offensive are being met, participants of the meeting said.

The ministers said the call up of three additional reserve divisions, comprising thousands of soldiers, was meant to refresh troops in Lebanon.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14055188/

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. Has nothing to do with getting their asses kicked in Bin Jbail yestreday

Uh huh.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/world/middleeast/27fighting.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast&oref=login

The spectacle of the storied Golani Infantry Brigade retreating from Bin Jbail under fire is just the kind of thing Israel wanted for this little war, yes?

[Gully Foyle]

9. Or this

http://www.counterpunch.org/ismail07252006.html
Why Israel is Losing

By ASHRAF ISMA’IL
......
Fifth, the age of great power warfare has been replaced by a world in which great powers must live and compete with non-state actors who possess considerable military capabilities. William Lind calls this transformation “4th generation warfare.”

Consequently, the age of Bismarckian warfare, or what William Lind refers to as "3rd generation warfare,” is effectively over. “Bismarckian warfare” is a term that describes large-scale wars fought by large-scale armies, which require national systems of military conscription, a significant population base, and enormous military budgets.

Bismarckian warfare seems to have become ineffective in the Arab-Israeli context, because Israel no longer poses the threat that it once did to the Arab regimes, and the Arab regimes much prefer Israel to the rising non-state actors growing within their own borders.

William Lind has also argued that non-state actors such as Hamas and Hizballah can checkmate the Israelis as long as these Muslim parties never formally assume power. If Muslim parties were to assume the power of states, then they would immediately become targets for traditional Bismarckian warfare. However, as long as Muslim movements retain theirnon-state identity, they are strategically unconquerable.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. That's been known for years

Yes, we are past the point of what this writer calls "Bismarckian Warfare."

But not to worry: the Israelis are studying poststructuralist theory in order to grok the new situation: http://www.frieze.com/feature_single.asp?f=1165


The Israeli Defence Forces have been heavily influenced by contemporary philosophy, highlighting the fact that there is considerable overlap among theoretical texts deemed essential by military academies and architectural schools by Eyal Weizman
The attack conducted by units of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on the city of Nablus in April 2002 was described by its commander, Brigadier-General Aviv Kokhavi, as ‘inverse geometry’, which he explained as ‘the reorganization of the urban syntax by means of a series of micro-tactical actions’.1 During the battle soldiers moved within the city across hundreds of metres of ‘overground tunnels’ carved out through a dense and contiguous urban structure. Although several thousand soldiers and Palestinian guerrillas were manoeuvring simultaneously in the city, they were so ‘saturated’ into the urban fabric that very few would have been visible from the air. Furthermore, they used none of the city’s streets, roads, alleys or courtyards, or any of the external doors, internal stairwells and windows, but moved horizontally through walls and vertically through holes blasted in ceilings and floors. This form of movement, described by the military as ‘infestation’, seeks to redefine inside as outside, and domestic interiors as thoroughfares. The IDF’s strategy of ‘walking through walls’ involves a conception of the city as not just the site but also the very medium of warfare – a flexible, almost liquid medium that is forever contingent and in flux.

Contemporary military theorists are now busy re-conceptualizing the urban domain. At stake are the underlying concepts, assumptions and principles that determine military strategies and tactics. The vast intellectual field that geographer Stephen Graham has called an international ‘shadow world’ of military urban research institutes and training centres that have been established to rethink military operations in cities could be understood as somewhat similar to the international matrix of élite architectural academies. However, according to urban theorist Simon Marvin, the military-architectural ‘shadow world’ is currently generating more intense and well-funded urban research programmes than all these university programmes put together, and is certainly aware of the avant-garde urban research conducted in architectural institutions, especially as regards Third World and African cities. There is a considerable overlap among the theoretical texts considered essential by military academies and architectural schools. Indeed, the reading lists of contemporary military institutions include works from around 1968 (with a special emphasis on the writings of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Guy Debord), as well as more contemporary writings on urbanism, psychology, cybernetics, post-colonial and post-Structuralist theory. If, as some writers claim, the space for criticality has withered away in late 20th-century capitalist culture, it seems now to have found a place to flourish in the military.

---snip---

[bemildred]

13. Thanks, it sounds like drivel to me, interesting drivel though.

I saved it for later.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. It's far from drivel, IMHO

The point is that the IDF is adapting to the new type of conflict, the very type that you describe in your post. If the Bismarckian War had a particular form of spatiality attached to its practice, so too does the new type of conflict. The IDF (and other militaries) are studying those who have thought and written most about the new forms of space, and why shouldn't they?

[bemildred]

18. "Trying" to adapt.

It's a question of what you think the problem is. If you think the problem is that you have the wrong tactical model for urban combat, then it looks fine. If you think the problem is that you cannot attain a sufficient superiority in arms to provide really high casaulty ratios, they it looks like drivel. War is, after all, a game of attrition.

Is the fundamental problem in Lebanon that Hizbullah is very motivated and has a good tactical model, or is it that they are very well-prepared and well very armed?

Opinions will vary on that, I expect.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. Whether it is effective in a given case is a different question

Clearly, nobody would argue that the models of urban warfare that the Israelis are constructing based on their readings of Debord and Deleuze, for instance, are effective in any given case (a notion that would not be at all "Deleuzian," in any case). They clearly were useful in Nablus, however. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the use of "drivel" in both these posts. If these theories help people formulate responses and reconceptualize fundamentals that can be turned to practice, I'm not sure how "drivel" would apply. They either work or they do not. In Nablus, they seemed to have worked. That said, the concept of urban space in the new forms of conflict is just one of a thousand complex angles (Mille Plateaux?) on the new form of warfare. It may be that attrition is a constant in warfare, but that attrition proceeds at different scales of time, say, in a guerilla war, than it would in what was being called "Bismarckian War." It's also clear that the space of a battlefield and identity of combatants is also undergoing historical changes. Now the question is how we respond to such a thing. The responses from the Big Powers has been to persist in Bismarckian War even as the ground is completely transformed beneath them. This explains the laughable fetishization of "holding" or "giving up" land in Vietnam, and the equally laughable "March to Baghdad" with its Mission Accomplished conceit - taking the terriotry is all there is to Bismarckian War, right? Er, three years later, no. ;-)

[bemildred]

21. Not necessarily completely irrelevant, true.

It is the use of jargon from critical theory to dress it up that I find "drivel"-y. I suppose I have a bias, I was exposed to changing fashions in military jargon for some time, and developed a very jaundiced view of it. I don't think I should spout off further without reading that piece carefully, so I will leave it there for now. Perhaps we will have a chance to discuss it further at a later time. In the meantime we will see how things develop in Lebanon, it should be instructive about these matters, and I suspect it may be just beginning.
:hi:

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. I have a bias too

I rarely hear people complaining about engineering jargon, yet critical theory jargon comes in for a beating all the time. Being in the critical theory business, I've always found this hard to understand. Yes, some of it is superfluous, I guess, but much of the so-called jargon in critical theory is aimed at precision, just as is jargon in other specialized fields. I guess the difference is that nobody expects to pick up a book in advanced mathematics without having learned some fundamental concepts, but everyone thinks they should be able to pick up Derrida or Deleuze and read through it with no background in philosophy, linguistics, etc. I find this especially bothersome because both these cats speak in plain language when doing television interviews, but, of course, they can be nowhere near as precise. It's a question of audience, really. When people without the requisite background pick this stuff up, and encounter the jargon, they say, oh it's drivel. They rarely say the same about a book in advanced number theory, though I'd wager that the same people would understand that even less. A strange phenomenon.

Cheers!

[bemildred]

23. I sympathize.

I was trained in math and worked a long time in computers, and I would be happy to complain about engineering jargon, at least the computing part of it. Much of that looks like drivel to me too, repetitive drivel in an arena where clarity is both difficult and imperative.

My wife is working on her masters in Eng. Lit. and I've had occasion to read some of the work and discuss with her, and I have always had an interest in epistemology, which the math studies accentuated. I think it's very important. I enjoy getting into it when I have my brain running on all cylinders, I like Said and Derrida of those I've read. Some of the others I don't have a lot of use for, Focault for example, de Man, Lacan. I suppose some of that is a matter of taste, and I can't claim any deep knowledge of the field. It is hairy stuff and people lose their way easily.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. Indeed

I find it odd that I'm here defending "jargon," since I've had more than one complaint in my day. Of course, I'm guilty of it as well, but those are all cases of precision. ;-)

I'm a Foucault guy myself. It is a baroque style, but he's right more than he's wrong. :-)

[bemildred]

25. Yes, it is (often precision).

I suppose it's the baroque style then, I tend to shy away from that, the math training I suppose. De Man was like that too, a lot of work to follow. Lacan was pretty clear, but I didn't much care for what he was saying. Derrida for some reason seemed lucid, and Said was fun to read. I have "The World, The Text, and the Critic" around here somewhere, but have only read parts of it.

What do you think of Bucky Fuller? I've tried to read him a number of times, and my mind almost immediately rebels. Yet some people seem to find him very meaningful. I used to be convinced it was him, now I think it might be me too. Don't feel obligated to have an opinion, I'm just looking for clues.

[Ghost Dog]

31. We shall not cease from exploration

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot -- "Little Gidding" (the last of his Four Quartets)

[bemildred]

34. You aint going nowhere

Ride so swift, rain won't lift
Gate won't close, railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You aint going nowhere.

Ooh, whee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh, no, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair.

Buy me a flute and a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself to a tree with roots
You aint going nowhere.

Ooh, whee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh, no, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair.

I don't care how many letters they sent
Morning came and morning went
Pack up your money, pick up your tent
You aint going nowhere.

Ooh, whee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh, no, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair.

Ghengis Khan, he could not keep
All his kings supplied with sheep
We'll climb that hill no matter how steep
But you still ain't going nowhere

Ooh, whee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day my bride's gonna come
Oh, no, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair.

Copyright, Bob Dylan

[High Plains]

29. Where is General Debord when we need him?

Probably rolling over in his grave.

[alcibiades_mystery]

32. Oh, no doubt

I'm pretty sure neither Deleuze nor Guattari would be particularly happy either, though both would find the trend utterly predictable given their writings.

[daleo]

27. It sounds like Ortona, Christmas week 1943

Canadian soldiers called it "mouseholing".

[alcibiades_mystery]

28. Oh, there's no doubt that it is not "new"

This is, of course, the trouble with any periodization. Someone will always find an example of the form in a previous period. But I go with Jameson on this point. Periodization doesn't mean the emergence of something totally new. Rather, a form that was previously secondary (say, mouseholing as a way of conceptualizing and practicing spatial maneuvers in war) becomes primary, while a previously primary form (the ways of conceptualizing space in state-state warfare, for example) becomes secondary.

[Ghost Dog]

30. Reminds me of Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil (1985)

... where the paramilitary police cut a neat hole in a living-room ceiling and drop down, laden with equipment, on ropes to arrest, without the slightest display of humanity, our hero (totally, surrealy unnecessary in that case, of course! - and therein lay the terrible humour). Then, later, our hero is rescued by a maintenance man, a technician of the interstices, of the fabric, the entrails, of the post-modern (but strangely Brit 1950s-flavoured) city, and latter-day revolutionary.

Great film. Wonderful movie. http://www.trond.com/brazil/

[bemildred]

33. OK, I took the time to read it carefully.

I want to thank you for pointing it out to me, I think I can use some of it. Mr. Weizman is a good read, and M. Deleuze is a fascinating fellow. His ideas tie in nicely with some other writers that I have "interest" in. I'm going to have to look further into Bateson's "abduction" too.

My opinion as to the military fellows remains essentially the same. They are attempting to find their way out of the strategic box that they find themselves in - indicated by the obsession with control - by "looking aside" and devaluing conventional social reality. It won't work because they will not give up the rigid value system that underpins their efforts and consider different goals at the higher levels in their conceptual space. They are just looking for new tactical tricks, not re-evaluating what they are about in the first place. That misstates the problem, they already have the best technical means available, a few new tricks will not change the dynamic.

The mousehole technique only will work with disarmed civilians. Against a well-armed and prepared adversary it will get you killed in short order. The Israeli's success in keeping the Palestinians relatively disarmed has been fundamental to their ability to keep them "under control" to the extent they have. "Mouseholing" is a desperation measure caused by inability to control the exterior environment as one would like, that is, another sign of loss of control, but it also allows these military fellows to pretend that they still are on top of the situation.

There is, of course, much to be said for training troops to be imaginative and innovative in combat, within certain limits. If you follow that road too far, however, at some point you no longer have a modern army, but something else.

It is interesting that they have been forced into, and accepted, the semantic and conceptual relativity or malleability these ideas imply. It does suggest indeed a recognition that the old Bismarckian model is obsolete.

[MrPrax]

16. It would appear to be the case...

Smoke signals from the battle of Bint Jbeil send a warning to Israel

By Robert Fisk

06/27/06 "The Independent" -- -- Qlaya, Southern Lebanon --

Is it possible - is it conceivable - that Israel is losing its war in Lebanon?

From this hill village in the south of the country, I am watching the clouds of brown and black smoke rising from its latest disaster in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil: up to 13 Israeli soldiers dead, and others surrounded, after a devastating ambush by Hizbollah guerrillas in what was supposed to be a successful Israeli military advance against a "terrorist centre".

...

In Bint Jbeil, meanwhile, another bloodbath was taking place. Claiming to "control" this southern Lebanese town, the Israelis chose to walk into a Hizbollah trap. The moment they reached the deserted marketplace, they were ambushed from three sides, their soldiers falling to the ground under sustained rifle fire. The remaining Israeli troops - surrounded by the "terrorists" they were supposed to liquidate - desperately appealed for help, but an Israeli Merkava tank and other vehicles sent to help them were also attacked and set on fire. Up to 17 Israeli soldiers may have died so far in this disastrous operation. During their occupation of Lebanon in 1983 more than 50 Israeli soldiers were killed in just one suicide attack.

The battle for southern Lebanon is on an epic scale but, from the heights above Khiam, the Israelis appear to be in deep trouble. Their F-16s turn in the high bright sun - small, silver fish whose whispers gain in volume as they dive - and their bombs burst over the old prison, where the Hizbollah are still holding out; beyond the frontier, I can see livid fires burning across the Israeli hillsides and the Jewish settlement of Metullah billowing smoke.

It was not meant to be like this, 15 days into Israel's assault on Lebanon. The Katyushas still streak in pairs out of southern Lebanon, clearly visible to the naked eye, white contrails that thump into Israeli's hillsides and border towns.

The Independent reprinted at ICH

[HuffleClaw]

11. translation: they are losing the war

and haven't been able to accomplish even one of their objectives, and are facing a very prepared opposition, not to mention a lot of international pressure to stop the slaughter. also, they have yet to drag syria into the war, which was one of the real goals. basically, this has been a complete cock-up.

[donkeyotay]

15. Yes, a complete cock-up. It's easier to start a war than to finish one

That great ambassador of world peace, Condi, did her part in granting the Israelis a few weeks to make sure peace is not obtainable in our lifetimes. Somebody make these vile neocons explain what their plan is. She says she doesn't want a ceasefire, what does she want? How many Lebanese will die? How finely will the rubble be pounded? How many unintended consequences will take place? How many really, really good excuses will there be to expand and continue this war in 2 or 3 weeks when Condi and Olmert declare they are through?

I wish the American congress would spend as much time worrying about the country they supposedly represent as they do supporting the right wing of Israel as if their neocon plans were a significant improvement over our own neocons' plans for world domination.

This is beyond FUBAR. The neocon idiots who were not held accountable for Iraq are carrying out the next phase of bankrupting America with a so-called Pax Americana - a philosophy so stupid it could not withstand honest debate and procedes under deceit.

[hadrons]

20. well said

[Ghost Dog]

26. Such... Beautifully powerfully intellectual (and useful) people

(also with good contacts). But.

¿Where's the heart?