Ishikawa
One of the worst parts about living in a country that is constantly under attack is that you get used to it. Thursday night a couple picked up people waiting to hitchhike, unknowingly also picking up a palestinian terrorist who then killed them and two others that were also hitchhiking. If that doesnt really make headlines in world news, that doesnt shock me. But that here, 4 citizens are killed, murdered because they went out of their way to help people, and it only made page 6 in the paper (Maariv)?!?You could almost feel the aggravation of the editor that he had to give up one of his precious stories about the election to fit in a little blurb about it. Where is the public outcry? I waited all day Friday to hear the official response from our acting Prime Minister. I'm still waiting. Maybe Olmert didn't get to page 6 in the paper. Or maybe he's just "too tired of fighting" and he's decided to let this one go. I took an aimless walk this afternoon just thinking about this attack. What are we doing to prevent these attacks? What is the proper protocol to follow when one realizes there's a terrorist in his car. Is there a proper protocol? Is there a number you can dial or a certain worded text message that would alert the police that someone is in immediate danger without them having to talk on the phone? There should be. It might not have helped in this case but it can certainly help in case of a carjacking/kidnapping, like what happened today.
There's two dominant thoughts in business, the American way and the Japanese way. The American way is to avoid problems or cover them up. Instead of risking falling low on supplies, you buy tons of extra supplies and you'll for sure have when you'll need, but you never deal with the issue of why you're falling short. The Japanese way is to go back to the root of the problem. If you're running low in supplies, find out exactly why. Does it have to do with old machinery? Fix the machines. Unhappy workers? Then find out why they're unhappy and solve that problem.
Our way of fighting terrorism seems to be more about covering up the problem then dealing with it. Instead of asking ourselves, what could lead someone, and not just one person but hundreds of people, to kill themselves in order to kill us, we just build a wall. And we have plans to evacuate more than half the settlements. Or we assassinate their leaders, raid their villages and confiscate their weapons. But what does any of this accomplish? The wall? there are so many ways to break through it. Sure, it may stop lots of attempts at attacks. But it doesnt stop their desire to kill us, so they will find a way through it. There will always be Palestinians going to our hospitals, working in Israel, cargo trucks going through, the wall can't stop all the bombers. Evacuating territories is a joke. We evacuated Gaza, and now they can get Katyushas from Egypt without us stopping them. If the entire fight was over the West Bank, then there would be a plan. We evacuate the West Bank, they get what they want, we get the rest, and everyone is happy. But we know they want the whole thing. So what do we think is going to happen when we give them a small piece of the pie. They're going to say thank you and be happy? It's such a half-assed plan it's ridiculous. The last "win-the-war-quick" solution we have is to assassinate their leaders. I can't count the amount of times I've read that "the Israeli army shot a missile that killed Machmoud/Idbrahim/Abdul, the head of the Hamas/Fatah/Islamic Jihad cell in Shechem/Rammalla/Jenin". Proabably about as many times as I've read "suicide bomber kills Israelis." Sure, it feels good to know that we've killed another terorist-except that every time we shoot one down, his brother/son/sister/neighbor gets fed up and becomes a bomber. So what does any of this accomplish. It's time we stopped and realized there is no "get-out-of-war-quick" card. We need to find out what are the root causes of this terror, follow it back as far as we can, and then learn how to deal with it properly. Until then, with all our big walls and army, we will be waiting every day, even if its quiet for months or even years, just waiting for the next one to happen.
There's two dominant thoughts in business, the American way and the Japanese way. The American way is to avoid problems or cover them up. Instead of risking falling low on supplies, you buy tons of extra supplies and you'll for sure have when you'll need, but you never deal with the issue of why you're falling short. The Japanese way is to go back to the root of the problem. If you're running low in supplies, find out exactly why. Does it have to do with old machinery? Fix the machines. Unhappy workers? Then find out why they're unhappy and solve that problem.
Our way of fighting terrorism seems to be more about covering up the problem then dealing with it. Instead of asking ourselves, what could lead someone, and not just one person but hundreds of people, to kill themselves in order to kill us, we just build a wall. And we have plans to evacuate more than half the settlements. Or we assassinate their leaders, raid their villages and confiscate their weapons. But what does any of this accomplish? The wall? there are so many ways to break through it. Sure, it may stop lots of attempts at attacks. But it doesnt stop their desire to kill us, so they will find a way through it. There will always be Palestinians going to our hospitals, working in Israel, cargo trucks going through, the wall can't stop all the bombers. Evacuating territories is a joke. We evacuated Gaza, and now they can get Katyushas from Egypt without us stopping them. If the entire fight was over the West Bank, then there would be a plan. We evacuate the West Bank, they get what they want, we get the rest, and everyone is happy. But we know they want the whole thing. So what do we think is going to happen when we give them a small piece of the pie. They're going to say thank you and be happy? It's such a half-assed plan it's ridiculous. The last "win-the-war-quick" solution we have is to assassinate their leaders. I can't count the amount of times I've read that "the Israeli army shot a missile that killed Machmoud/Idbrahim/Abdul, the head of the Hamas/Fatah/Islamic Jihad cell in Shechem/Rammalla/Jenin". Proabably about as many times as I've read "suicide bomber kills Israelis." Sure, it feels good to know that we've killed another terorist-except that every time we shoot one down, his brother/son/sister/neighbor gets fed up and becomes a bomber. So what does any of this accomplish. It's time we stopped and realized there is no "get-out-of-war-quick" card. We need to find out what are the root causes of this terror, follow it back as far as we can, and then learn how to deal with it properly. Until then, with all our big walls and army, we will be waiting every day, even if its quiet for months or even years, just waiting for the next one to happen.
posted by stillruleall at 2:27 AM
3 Comments:
First of all, targeted killings have worked. Yes, another head pops up the second another one is dead, but it's not the same head. The replacement is not as well trained and organized, and they're so busy worrying if they're going to make to the end of the day without a missile falling on their head to plan a successful or inivative attack. These micro-tactical missions have drastically reduced the amounts of terrorist attacks. If not for these kinds of missions, the amounts of terrorist attacks we would see would be horriffic, and they would make it back to the front pages every day.
Getting to the "root of the problem" with Palestinian terrorism has no point and wouldn't solve anything. Unless, it was done as a country wide project that the world wouldn't allow. Israel would have to tear apart the PA and install military law into the territories. They would have to control the schools and print Pro-Israel text-books. They would have to take over the media, so that only Pro-Israel and Pro-peace programs were shown. It would be a re-education program of types in which only after it worked, would Israel allow the PA to reform in the way they want. Even if we could do it, it would take more than a generation to see positive results. It's not like fixing the problems in an assembly line. You have to reprogram an entire society that's based on hate and destruction. That's a Sharansky principle. In the mean-time, you tactically handle the Palestinians. Eventually, Israel will have no choice but to declare a full-out war. That should be a lot of fun.
-OC
Here's a few examples of two lists-terror attacks and targeted killings. In June 2001 30 Israelis were killed. In July we killed 9 of them and they killed 10 Israelis. In August we killed 4 and they killed 30. In November 2002 we targeted 6 and they killed 50. In a specific case, we killed (I dont know if we ever confirmed it) the Engineer, who was responsible for over 70 Israelis being killed. A month later they bombed a bus and killed 26 Israelis. Point being, nobody can really say if targeted killings actually help. It may set them back a bit, they'll need to reorganize, take cover for awhile, but then they get right back to business. It isn't in any way a solution, it's a quick fix that calms people and sounds good. It may stop a bombing from happening to day, but may also cause two more bombings in a month.
You're missing the point of getting to the root. Your "plan" would be good if the end goal was the total integration of our two cultures. The point is to identify and isolate the phenomenon of suicide bombings. I don't care what they think of us, I want them to think higher of themselves, to value their own lives.
OK, targeted killing has been shown to work and has been one of the main factors to contributing to the low number of terrorist attacks that have occurred in the past year and a half. It, in no way, "causes" more terrorist attacks to occur. Terrorist attacks actually take planning and thought. They do not happen over-night. Therefore, when a reporter makes an idiotic statement like a bus bombing was in "retalitation" for the killing of say, Sheik Yassin, they have no idea of what they're saying. Attacks don't get planned in a day. And, they're carried out with an excuse or by a pre-planned date, so it looks like some sort of "retaliation". There's also the fact that Hamas', IJ's, and company's threats of horrific retaliations in response to targeted killings are not taken as seriously as they once were. Why? Because they don't have the man-power, more importantly, the brain and management, to inflict the kind of carnage they threaten. The targeted killings go after management, not perpetrators. The low amounts of terrorist attacks is all in part to the immense amount of work, and targeted assissinations are a part of that, of the IDF. The first and second Hudnas are direct results of the targeted assassinations. Your listing makes the assumption that the terrorist attacks are in direct result to the targeted killings. Therefore, you're saying that if the targeted killings hadn't have happened, than the succeeding terrorist attacks wouldn't have happened. You're basically saying that if we stopped, so would they. That's just not true. Targeted killings are also part of the greater picture of the arsenal that the IDF is utilyzing to stop terrorist attacks. It is supplamentary to the arrests, interrigations, the security fence, and the rest of the work that is being done to prevent terrorist attacks. It's part of the greater package. Once a terrorist is dead, there's a 100% probability that they're not getting up and planning another terrorist attack. If that's not effective, what is?
My "plan" is not to integrate the 2 cultures. The root of suicide bombing has nothing to do with self-esteem. It has to do with education and religion (mixed in with cultural norms and values). I guarantee you right now, a 14 or 18 year old who straps on a bomb values themselves pretty damn good. They've just bought themselves a one-way ticket to paradise, what could be better? You're going to have to re-write many parts of the Qu'ran in order for your "values" to coincide with theirs. They believe that the after-life is what the goal of a Muslim's life is. Life is all about how you get there. They value death above life. What you're talking about is teaching them your "Western ideals" of what life is supposed to be about. You want to root out suicide bombers. You have to completely reeducate and reprogram their entire culture exactly as I said. They commit suicide bombings not because they don't value life or because they don't think highly of themselves. They believe that martyrdom is the ultimate expression of life and purification of their souls. You want to get to the root of it, you first have to understand their culture and what they do value. They value death, shaheedim, and mujuhadin (sp?). So, basically the only way to root it out is exactly as I said.
-OC
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