Article: "Diplomacy: War and piecemeal"

Here is a Jpost article from the Friday edition that sheds a little bit of light on the piecemeal factor I have been talking about.

It cannot be understated just how demoralizing this type of war fighting can become on troops and commanders, as well as citizens. It will result in a reverse attrition in terms of morale, upon us. Decisive action is required to reach even minimal goals and Olmert has been completely incapable of achieving them in any form. He has failed time and time again in two separate theaters of combat--pointlessly risking our civilian soldiers lives. 

Imagine the same piecemeal strategy employed against Iran (which is what is happening based on the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah are both Iranian proxies). I can see Olmert sending bombers out over Iran just to call them back as they are about to drop their payloads just so he can announce on TV: "See we could destroy their weapons if we wanted to, now they will see just how serious we are and destroy them themselves. Now they have seen our power!"

Ridiculous.


Diplomacy: War and piecemeal

By Herb Keinon

Throughout a tense and dramatic week - a week of battles in Jabaliya and Grad missiles falling on Ashkelon - the government's leaders have repeatedly deflected questions about Israel's tactics and strategy in the Gaza Strip by saying they don't want to give the enemy any foreknowledge of what the country will do.

"Everything is possible: aerial and ground raids, special operations and other operations; everything is up for discussions," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. "We will not be revealing what we are considering, or when, because we don't want to give our enemies the chance to prepare," he continued.

Fair enough. But there is one collateral problem: Not only is the enemy confused; so are the country's citizens. If asked what their government was trying to do in Gaza this week, most people would probably say the policy was aimed at protecting the citizens of the South and stopping the rocket fire. But follow-up questions - whether Israel was trying to topple Hamas; whether Israel wanted to go back into Gaza; whether Israel was aiming not only to stop the rocket fire, but also end the massive arms buildup there - would probably be met with befuddled looks, a scratch of the head, and a goofy "I dunno."

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Talk about Piecemeal Conflict...

This is spectacularly amusing!

Olmert is already pulling out. "That fast?", you ask? Indeed that fast. Seems almost a bit premature, doesn't it?!

He's attempting to micro manage the conflict to protect his image. Olmerta's (kind of like Omerta, but his code of silence is in never admitting he made a mistake, which if he did might balance out his favor a little in more feeble Israeli minds) goal here is redemption. He wants to redeem his failures in Lebanon by doing the exact apposite of everything he did there--or so he will portray. But since he is a crummy leader and a crummy poker player too  he F'd up again by allowing Hamas to declare a victory over Israel.

I cant wait for his pathetic spin on the issue that will probably transmogrify over the next several days if not weeks in ever more feeble attempts to justify his leadership.

Even if he goes back in, he will never get passed the shame of this premature withdrawl, which any man who is half his salt knows is a garaunteed recipe for...well... you get the idea.

Here is more validation for me:

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5078 

Israeli troops abruptly withdraw from Gaza. Seven-story Ashkelon building hit by Katyusha Monday

March 3, 2008, 11:59 AM (GMT+02:00)

Shortly after Israel’s withdrawal, Monday, March 3, the Palestinians stepped up their cross-border attacks. One of three Katyusha rockets fired from Gaza at Ashkelon hit a seven-story building sending a dozen people into shock and sowing wide panic in the city of 120,000. Four missiles exploded in the Eshkol farmland area south of Sderot, while mortar fire was aimed at Sderot, Kibbutz Yad Mordecai, Nahal Oz and Netiv Ha’asara.

DEBKAfile reports: Prime minister Ehud Olmert suddenly decided on the pullback of Israeli ground and armored units from northern Gaza before dawn Monday before they reached their goal of halting Palestinian fire. Stage one of Operation Hot Winter was announced at an end. He was later attacked by members of the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee for aborting the operation in contradiction of the pledges he and the defense minister made Sunday. Both had vowed that military ground action would press on until the Hamas missile-rocket offensive against Israeli civilians was stamped out.

Up until late Sunday night, Qassam rockets continued to explode in Sderot and surrounding villages and Katyusha rockets in Ashkelon at the average rate of 50 per day since Wednesday. The three-day Israeli infantry, tank and air incursion left more than 100 Palestinians dead, most Hamas combatants, some civilians and children. Two Israeli soldiers were killed.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Aborting this action in mid-stream leaves Israel with the options of air, surface missile and artillery raids - or short, shallow forays – all of which have long proved ineffectual.

Olmert’s order to the Israeli ground force to turn around and withdraw in mid-offensive was astonishing and unprecedented. Senior officers fully expected the Palestinian Hamas terrorist leaders to rush into declarations of victory and claims that they had beaten the Israeli army into a retreat. And indeed, Hamas staged a victory march in Gaza City later Monday.

Our political sources disclose that Olmert, during his absence in Tokyo last week, was far from happy with the way acting PM Tzipi Livni and Barak handled the sharp spike in Palestinian missile attacks. He felt they had caused an unnecessary escalation of the crisis to the point that a major military operation became unavoidable.

Olmert insisted that short, sharp military strikes would have defused the crisis and obviated the need for a broad military offensive in Gaza, which he had consistently prevented.

By aborting the operation Monday night, he rapped them both and also moved to put down the incipient revolt in his government and Kadima party, spearheaded by two senior ministers – Avi Dichter, internal security and former Shin Bet chief, and Shaul Mofaz, transport, ex-defense minister and chief of staff. Both publicly urged a stepped-up ground offensive to crush Hamas rule of Gaza, arguing that all other tactics - military, sanctions and siege - had failed.

DEBKAfile’s political sources report that Hamas won useful points in the propaganda war by getting images and footage of Palestinian women and children casualties of Israeli strikes onto TV screens and front pages way ahead of the suffering of Israeli civilians from the gratuitous Hamas blitz.

This eased the way for Washington to lean hard on the prime minister to break off the operation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened to call off her visit on Tuesday, March 4, and laid the blame on Israel for the breakdown of peace talks with the Palestinians, although it was Mahmoud Abbas who formally suspended all contacts with Israel. She accused Israel of undermining the Bush administration’s entire Middle East strategy. Olmert found it politic to bow to this pressure.