by Robert M. Traxler

The war in Israel is waging and our media is wall to wall with talking heads who fancy themselves experts, telling the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) what to do and how to do it. The media is full of veterans of the Israeli military going en masse to join up with the IDF. That sure sounds good and makes a great video.

The problem is that a military cannot function with untrained, undertrained or people with dated military skills. Indeed, the new arrivals will need training, food, water, clothing, medical care, housing and transportation. Julius Caesar said after a full year of training, he would only allow a newly formed Legion to guard the baggage trains. His point was that a military unit needed time to train as a well-oiled machine, to develop leaders and hone the skills necessary to fight effectively as a unit.  

Even our best trained Reserve and National Guard units need time to fully bring their skills to maximum efficacy, time to receive necessary equipment and supplies, to fill their ranks with any vital personnel and equipment that may be needed. 

Our media is asking when will the IDF attack into the cities in the Gaza Strip. Attacking into a city, built up area, house to house fighting, urban combat is easier said than done. In the urban battle the advantage is with the defenders, even more so than the four -to-one advantage normally given to the defenders.

We want a war to be over in a 90-minute movie, home by Christmas and the like. The truth is that war is a dirty business that takes time. The Israelis need to isolate the battlefield to deny the enemy resupply and reinforcements, to conduct a pincer operation to cut off the enemy. The average Hamas soldier’s morale is still sky high after their “great victory” over the Zionists. It will take time to degrade morale and sow dissention in their ranks.      

An axiom holds that amateurs study tactics, while professionals study logistics. During my studies at the Army Command and General Staff College, we spent nearly 5 percent of our time on tactics; the vast majority was spent on other areas: logistics, discipline, leadership, maintenance management, among them.

As Napolean Bonaparte said, an Army travels on its stomach. It requires an enormous logistics support system for a military operation. It requires a daily ration of one to five gallons of potable water for each terrorist in Gaza, two to 4four pounds of food, fuel, medical supplies, munitions, clothing, indeed all classes of supply. Every day that the IDF is able to isolate the enemy, to cut the supply lines, weakens the terrorist force. We should not be so eager to tell the IDF to attack a fully supplied enemy with a high morale.  

The murder of Israeli women and children is denied by the hard corps Islamists, and the legion of white progressive/socialists people who suffer from white guilt in our nation. It is easy to be a denier, just say an action never happened. How can a United Stated House of Representatives member have a Palestinian flag and a LBGTQs++ flag side by side in front of her office? It is simple — just deny the truth that the radical Islamists fighting in Israel and Gaza will decapitate or toss gay folks from the roof of tall buildings.  

Ask the progressive supporters of the radical Islamists how they justify the beheading of children, and you will get two answers: either that it never happened, or that all Israelis are soldiers and there are no civilians in Israel.  We must ask how any one-year-old is a soldier and a threat; a true believer will say they will grow up to be a threat. Hate is irrational.  

We are hung up on what the current radical Islamist movement calls themselves, ISIS or Hamas, as if it makes a difference. They hate us and Israel, no matter what we call them or they call themselves.

Time will see our media becoming more critical of Israel, painting them as evil and oppressive, murdering innocent Palestinians and as the purveyors of hate. The leftists are keeping their powder dry, to let us forget the dead children in Israel and focus on the dead Palestinians. It may take a few weeks for white guilt to set in, but it is coming. My opinion.