Warre to the Knife

As 2008 closes the big news (after the Mumbai attacks and the global economic slump, both of which will be affecting things for a while yet) is Israel putting the boot in to the Gaza Strip. As of this writing, the media death toll stands at 375 dead Gazans with a thousand or so wounded.
There is the usual handwringing about civilians and children killed, how war never solved anything, and of course the “Muslim world” is (in some cases literally) up-in-arms about “Israeli aggression". The UN has condemned both sides and demanded a cease-fire, so you can expect more of their vigorous non-action in the days and weeks to come.

By any objective measure from the Israeli side, this is long overdue. The Israeli people are as sick of war and security crises as anyone, but Hamas has made it clear that ignoring them will NOT make them go away.

The Israeli government is stating that this is “all-out war” but I rather doubt it. Sure, it’ll look like that to a lot of people when the tanks, APCs and armoured bulldozers roll over the border after the mini “shock and awe” period is over, but I for one will be only actually shocked if the IDF does what is actually necessary to put Hamas, Al-Qaeda, etc. out of business in the Strip.
Back to the title of this post; the opposition will have to be ferreted out, root and branch and that will mean a LOT of bodies on both sides and levelling the Gaza Strip. Hamas will not stand out in the open and say “here, shoot me”, and will of course hide behind the civilians to make the Israelis look as bad as possible in the Press. Israel will only achieve their aim of knocking their opposition out if they are willing to kill a shitload of people, many of them not active combatants.

Ugly? Damned straight, but as per my favourite line from Pournelle/Niven’s Burning City, “Never start half a war.” When fighting someone whose stated aim is your extermination you hoist the old red flag (NOT the Communist one, the older one) and keep killing enemies until you can’t find any more. Quarter neither asked nor given.

Again, unlikely and really not my immediate problem. You will note that I have taken sides here, but I never claimed this blog was politically correct or impartial. The Israelis have their problems, but I’d far rather see them on top over there than, well, anyone else in the neighbourhood. My prediction is that the Americans will apply pressure to Israel to stop when the Yanks think the job is done. History since 1945 doesn’t suggest that the Americans have any idea any more when that point actually is, rather when international and/or domestic opinion becomes sufficiently outraged.

I am no strategic or geopolitical genius, so I’m sure there are a lot of people over there (‘tho less in the U.S.) who know this as well as I do, but of them, it’s only the groups that oppose us that are prepared to put it into action. Of course they’d first take out or take over the media, then start liquidating. Today it’s not all of the lawyers you have to kill if you want to do the dirty work. The IDF will of course not do that, but they can keep most of the media out. The BBC page I linked to is obviously also not impartial, proving the necessity of this.

Total blackout is of course impossible in the era of camera smart phones, etc., but I’ll be interested to see how this unspools.

Onward to 2009

I've been pondering the future of this space for some time. It being free and all means I lose nothing by leaving it fallow, "fallow" being hopefully the right word. I have stuff to say, but it seems increasingly like the same stuff, or close variations thereof which is less than motivating.

2008 has also on a personal level been not my best, but it being an anonymous blog even that isn't grist for the writing mill. In a small breach of that protocol, I did at least want to mention the passing today of my cat. Yes, my cat. She was with me for over 16 years, so her death (euthanized before she died of slow malnutrition due to diabetes, etc.) marks some sort of transition. Buggered if I know what, but it's a long time and deserves some more lasting mention than just telling people.

One thing I have hoped of this spot was to generate some discussion, but there was little or none of that. That isn't the end of the world, but even I get tired of listening to myself, so it's been tough to keep it going.

Things look like they may be stabilizing a bit for me in the new year (at least for a while), but either way I'll leave AotF up as long as Blogger will. I did some good stuff, and even my half-arsed pieces are worth reading, if only to note the deliberate logical lapses and other lazy things I do to try to get a rise out of "my" public. There may be more to come; in fact probably, but that requires spare time, Internet access and stuff that gets my goat.

The latter is abundant, but I really need all three to indulge this particular vanity/fancy. Don't hold your breath (sounds familiar; I think I've used it) but keep this spot in your peripheral vision, or at least the rear view mirror, 'cause it's not dead just yet.