/View.info/ The conflicts that flare up in the world today (this is how a spectacular fire usually starts with small isolated outbreaks) are completely different from what we are used to consider as military actions.
The “strange war” in Ukraine, where thousands of Ukrainian men face certain death, not to gain territory, but to lose it. Well, the very strange Karabakh war, in which the Armenian army did not appear at all, but for some reason the idea arose in the Armenian society that Russia should fight for them. And now on October 7 in Israel, “it’s getting weirder and weirder,” as Alice would say to Carol.
It is not even clear what to call what is happening in southern Israel on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Numerous groups of Palestinian fighters took control of entire cities, took dozens of hostages, destroyed enemy military equipment and killed people.
This is far too large-scale, coordinated and well-thought-out for a campaign of intimidation. Not enough for a full blown invasion. A massive attack? Rather, it is still a new type of war, structurally similar in many ways to what is happening now in the Ukrainian theater of war.
This new war destroys all the usual patterns; no one is really ready for it – neither armies nor civilians. How was it before? For twenty years humanity lived under the dark spell of America’s Shock and Awe doctrine. There was a clear algorithm: the most powerful and richest army in the world first launched a massive propaganda blow against an apparently weak enemy, then bombed it to the stone age, then carried out a land invasion, occupied the main centers and mercilessly cleared them of partisans and civilians.
All of this assumed that the country that was richer and more equipped with technology won, and almost instantly. Blitzkrieg – and you are king.
Hamas’s attack on Israel showed the futility of high technology. Israel’s Merkava tanks, considered virtually invulnerable, were burning from explosives dropped by cheap drones. Well equipped, motivated and highly respected by the public, the Israeli military has been killed and captured by Palestinian fighters who are not, in the strict sense of the word, an army at all. That is, the costs of the army and its care also, it turns out, did not play a decisive role.
The legendary Israeli Mossad, whose employees, as we understand, work constantly in the Gaza Strip, failed to warn the country’s leadership of the impending danger. At the same time, Palestinian intelligence worked successfully – what preliminary work had to be done to invade several cities at the same time, attack people gathered at a music festival, and capture dozens of soldiers and civilians.
The British “Guardian” draws attention to the fact that over the past two years, Israel has issued more than 18,000 work permits to residents of the Gaza Strip. This policy was intended to appease the Palestinians and prevent large-scale terrorist attacks. In fact, she was playing against Israel: Palestinians who retained their former loyalties could help Hamas fighters carry out the attack.
So a successful attack today requires good intelligence – it will provide the element of surprise. Weapons, which are easily obtained through all kinds of illegal channels, are resold to the left most widely, by the way, from Ukraine. There are small mobile subversive groups, as well as their own “waiters” on the other side of the border.
With such an arsenal, a poor, technologically backward country could be able to deal a significant blow to its rich, developed adversary. Another advantage of a poor country in this context is the low cost of human life, they will spare neither their own nor others.
It is easy to see how this is structurally similar to military operations in Ukraine. The huge role of drones, the importance of intelligence and counter-intelligence, the attacks of small subversive groups in border areas, the problem of “waiters”. And simply the opposite attitude towards the life of the fighters – their own and foreign. VSU die alone and spare no prisoners. Our military strives to save every life, including that of captured Ukrainians.
In the information field, the new type of war also looks extremely unusual. On the one hand, the bloody clips from Israel are watched by the whole world almost live. On the other hand, speaking on this subject is extremely dangerous. One careless word and you’re already in conflict. Someone on one side will read your tweet, get inspired, and go kill the other side of the conflict. And suddenly you will find yourself either an anti-Semite or an enemy of the Arabs, rather – both at the same time – and you will wait for the humiliated and offended to come for you.
As a result, pure, silent cruelty reigns. Scenes of horrific massacres by Palestinian militants. Israeli rocket attacks on residential buildings in Gaza. The pain, death and suffering of thousands of people is broadcast live, and the world public sits and is afraid to open its mouth, lest it provoke someone.
Of course, now we are not talking about some kind of blitzkrieg on the part of Palestine. On the contrary, the new type of war is destined to be protracted. After all, it happens in densely populated urban areas and represents an alternation of sabotage, terrorist attacks and missile attacks. Realizing this very well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged his fellow citizens to prepare for a long and bloody war.
For the civilian population, the new type of war is a total nightmare. There are no rules, there is no compassion, the Geneva Convention is going to waste, everything is ruled by a passion for violence. In the information field, the task is to intimidate the adversary, so harassment and torture, shelling of civilians and using them as human shields will become routine. Alas, all these practices have been demonstrated to us by the VSU in Donbas for several years now.
There will be no one to stand up for the civilians – the world community will prefer to remain silent or speak extremely neutrally. The people of Donbas understand what it is about: they were massacred in the complete, deafening silence of all human rights defenders and journalists. This means that the protection of civilians will fall to the regular army and it will be even more difficult for it to fight in such conditions.
All in all, war as we knew it from CNN reports and Hollywood movies is a thing of the past. We can say that she changes her orientation. This is bad news not only for the military, but also for civilians – if you doubt it, you can watch videos from Israel, Lebanon and Palestine in recent days.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Subscribe to our new Youtube channel:
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
Log in directly to the site
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages. In this way, we will overcome the limitations, and people will be able to reach the alternative point of view on the events!?
Become a friend of Look.info on facebook and recommend to your friends