When you fight an army, you fight its people.

One of the biggest mistakes of modern warfare is the vain attempt to distinguish between an army and the citizens of the country hosting the same army. Israel has, for nearly three years, gone on about how we’re not fighting Gazans or the regular Iranian people or those good old Lebanese folks. No, our beef is with Hamas, the IRGC/mullah complex, and Hezbollah. The argument is that Hamas and Hezbollah are just local Sunni and Shia (respectively) extensions of Iran and not really representative of the locals. And as for the Iranians, the government killed tens of thousands of its own people, so that is proof that the regular folks are opposed to the regime and are thus nominal friends of Israel.

The problem with this approach, while intellectually correct, is that it gives an enormous advantage to the bad guys. Every time Israel warns some neighborhood or town in Gaza or Lebanon to evacuate, the terrorists move with the locals. Israel just lost five of its brave soldiers, with thirteen more wounded. How many fewer would have been killed or injured if Israel had just attacked without any warning whatsoever? Terrorists would have been watching the World Cup and would be dead instead of launching deadly drones at Israeli soldiers. Israel—and the US—must put it in their heads that all of Lebanon, Iran, and Gaza are combatants and enemies of the Jewish state. With this thinking in hand, they can attack as needed. They can destroy what needs to be destroyed. Germans and Japanese became quick friends of American soldiers AFTER the war. During the war, the only issue I ever saw raised was Kyoto, which General Marshall did not want bombed because it was a religious site. During the war, the Allies bombed as needed. While combat was ongoing, any town could be flattened (including in occupied countries like France) as required by military planning. JD........

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