Israel & The Next War

I don't claim to be the smartest pundit or pseudo-pundit around. I don't need to own the title of strategist, envoy, ambassador or hayseed to be able to comment on this.

All I need are my own two eyes and ears and the tiny lick of common sense that was granted to me.

Another war is coming. Israel will take up arms again and be forced to fight.

I am not the only one saying it. There are plenty of others who get paid to think and write about these things. I am just a ordinary Joe sitting here at the keyboard ruminating about the crap that happens around me.

This last go around wasn't enough. Three soldiers are still missing and the other side is still crowing about its victory.

Unlike some others I don't buy their rhetoric. I don't accept their claims. They have to say these things. They have to continue to push their PR. And you know what, it works. People buy into this crap.

Here is the thing. War is hell. War is brutal. War is the nastiest thing that you can think of and it should be. War is not fought from the air. The air force is just a tiny part of this.

When you go to war the real fighting is done by the troops on the ground. Sometimes it is hand-to-hand and sometimes it is with guns at close enough range that you can see the effect of bullets and bombs upon flesh.

Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. They are pushing and baiting. They are prodding and poking and trying to establish the terms of warfare and the results prior to the end.

Some people will read this post and call me a warmonger, a chickenhawk and any number of nasty names. Go ahead.

I don't like this. The people in danger are not just nameless, faceless souls. Many of them are family and friends. Some are former neighbors.

The last war wasn't brutal enough. The death cult did not feel the real consequences of their actions. But I saw the grief of those left behind, on both sides. I saw the pain and recognized that some families have forever been torn apart.

I have to pick a side. It is pretty obvious who I root for.

I don't like it. I wish that it were otherwise, but I just don't see how we are going avoid the coming storm.

So when the next war comes I hope that it is fought differently. Take off the gloves and unleash hell. Spend time letting the civilians know well in advance that it is time to get out. Give them plenty of time to leave because the day will come when anyone and anything left in the battlefield is classified as us or them.

The punishment must be swift and severe. The consequences should be seen as being so dire that the participants fear to even think about trying again.

Just writing this makes me feel sick inside, like there is something rotten and fetid. Dead flesh. G-d help us all. Because if he doesn't then the future I see truly is filled with sulfur and ash.

May this post come to be the cries of imagination and nothing else.