In the immediate wake of the October 7th, 2023, barbarities perpetrated by Hamas and celebrated by the Palestinian population, Israel had the opportunity to crush its enemies in Gaza and kill their leaders. The terrorists’ bestial behavior shocked the world, and, in the moment, a powerful Israeli response appeared justified even to those with no affection for the single civilized state in the Middle East.
Israel blew it.
The Israelis needed to strike without hesitation, without caution, and without concern for the prevailing anti-Semitism in most of the global media. No matter the short-term cost, Israel had to finish its campaign swiftly, before crippling handwringing about casualties—on either side—could save Hamas, divide Israel, and reinvigorate the complex hatred of Israel nourished by the global left.
Instead, Israel agonized—not least, about casualties in the IDF. Israel hit hard. But not hard enough and not fast enough. In hyper-modern warfare, in which the international and local media form a third party reflexively sympathetic to anti-Western savages, speed backed by steely resolve is the only way to achieve a military and strategic victory. We—the defenders of civilization—have to stop defeating ourselves with premature ceasefires or pauses of any sort that only allow our enemies to refresh themselves.
Casualty aversion is poison. It’s also all but guaranteed to result in far higher casualty numbers on both sides as conflicts drag on.
Get it done. Finish the military mission. Count the dead after they’re all dead. Act uncompromisingly before political leaders and military leaders emasculated by politics can collapse back into “Hamlet” mode, endlessly asking themselves to be or not to be (and recall that Hamlet’s equivocation results in a comprehensive mutual slaughter by the last act).
In the materially lopsided struggles of our time, the key advantage our enemies possess is strength of will, the resolve to pay any cost to win. If you’re not all in, stay out.
Certainly, the United States has botched this fundamental rule repeatedly, resulting in the defeat of the (on paper) greatest military power in history in one conflict after another. Where we should leave only corpses and ruins, we want to leave happy populations converted to a California lifestyle.
Make friends with survivors after you’ve broken their will completely—if you must. But do the killing you need to do first.
Does this sound harsh? Worse than two decades wasted in Afghanistan and Iraq? Worse than thousands of young Americans who died for nothing and many thousands more wounded in body and spirit?
Without the will to win, our marvelous military machines are expensive toys, and the courage of our soldiers is wasted.
Want to save human lives? Fight without mercy and win.
And yes, victory is still possible. Victory is always possible. But we need to want to win as fiercely as do our enemies.
