A fight to the death

 

 

"Israel has finally said 'enough is enough'. This will now be a fight to the death..."

A while back, we saw the movie "Lone Survivor". It is a "must see" movie that demonstrates valor and heroism. When a four man SEAL team is discovered by the enemy while on a mission in Afghanistan, the SEAL team knew it would be a fight to the death. The enemy had no plans for a truce, a cease fire, or POWs. To lose the battle meant to die. Plain and simple as that.

What we have seen in the continuation of hostilities in Gaza is somewhat similar. As hard as the US or the UN have tried to broker crease fires or truces, Hamas really wants to part of it. Oh, there might be a small lull in the fighting, but the war goes on. While things might appear to be peaceful on the surface, Hamas is furiously digging more tunnels which would allow them to unleash terror and murder on Israeli citizens. 

One would have thought that Hamas would have understood Bebe Netanyahu by now. He is battle hardened and experienced. He was see war - lots of it. Like many who have see war, he prefers peace. However, he also will not walk away from danger. If he sees Hamas as a clear and present danger to his country, he will eliminate that danger.

What happened yesterday with the 72 hour humanitarian cease fire was another example of how Hamas can play dirty. With an agreement set that both sides were to stay in place for the 72 hours, barely ninety minutes into the cease fire, a young Israeli officer was kidnapped and dragged into a Hamas dug tunnel. Then all hell broke loose, and it is still breaking loose today. Israel has figured out the only way to restore peace to the region, the only way to keep rockets from landing on their territory, is to eliminate Hamas for once and for all. And it is going to be bloody.

It is unfortunate that Hamas has set the battlefield up for maximum collateral damage. The Israelis have been as careful as possible, but there are limits. They have the airpower and artillery to carpet bomb and shell Gaza until nothing moves. But they have not. Instead, they are using a much riskier strategy of boots on the ground. Urban warfare. And the body count on both sides keeps going up.

War is an ugly business. Most war fighters will tell you that. Sometimes to break the will of the enemy, you need to break the will of the civilians. In World War II, the allies fire bombed Dresden Germany. We dropped almost 4,000 tons of bombs on this city. We bombed Tokyo almost into the stone age. We dropped two nukes on two Japanese cites. All of this was done to break the will of the enemy as to bring about a lasting peace. 

All we can do now is pray for the innocents living in Gaza who are caught in the middle. As for Hamas, they might have kicked sand in the wrong face. Pound for pound, the IDF is one of the toughest and most capable fighting forces in the world. Not the people I would chose to be on the wrong side of at any time.