A More Savage War

A good article in the LA Times about the Infitada. What it most interesting about this is that Sharon's military victories have wearing down effect on the Infitada, despite fears that more brutal measures would increase the hatred. It's odd - the less brutal you fight, the more it energizes and emboldens the enemy. I guess that's why they say, if you get in a fight, put the guy down hard and quickly - don't let him keep coming after you.

We're so concerned with civilian casualties and world opinion - these are luxuries when you're not at war. The insurgency in Iraq is growing because of our perceived weakness and unpopularity - not because it's some legitimate form of resistance.

This war on terror will not end if we're nice enough to the terrorists, if they find riches elsewhere, if we start treating them nicer. That is not how it will end. It will end when we bring the cost to the terrorists and those who support them too high to make it worth fighting. That means killing.

The famous Air Force General Curtis LeMay, that McNamera talks about in the Fog of War said about war, "You have got to kill people, and when you've killed enough people, they stop fighting."

We did not start this war on terror and to deny we are at war, to me, is both irresponsible and wrong. We cannot fight a war with kid-gloves. We will lose, because our enemy fights for keeps. These fuckers are serious. I watched a beheading the other day. I was too chicken shit to watch them before, but my producing partner watched it and started crying, so I felt I needed to watch it also. They're serious. But they're also vulnerable because their message is bullshit and their world vision is horrible. They are only appealing because of a lack of a better option and they strut around, confident and strong because no one fights them.

We need to mimic the tactics of the Mossad who made it a point to track down all of the 1972 Munich murders and get them. We should have similar policies. If Osama is being protected by villages and tribes in the mountains in Pakistan, we should light the whole place up. In Dresden we firebomb an entire city of civilians. In Tokyo we killed 100,000 Japanese civilians in a single night. Can you imagine? And in history, WWII is considered a just war. A just war? What the hell does that mean? 50 million people died.

Sharon's has raised the stakes on the Palestinians - he attacks them in Syria, he uses F-16s in Gaza, these were things unthinkable years ago. But it's having a debilitating effect. The Israeli's stopped two 15-year old bombers and 19 girl blew herself up at a checkpoint. As for kids being safe - fuggetaboutit - another luxury of peace.

I need to think about this more and outline a more coherent strategy, but I think we're losing this war because we're not fighting it right. In soccer, if the other team is playing tough, you don't complain to the ref, you start playing tougher.