Thursday, February 5, 2009

from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals The Stories Behind the News






from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals
The Stories Behind the News

Link to Sultan Knish





How to Take the Human Shields out of the Equation


Posted: 04 Feb 2009 07:43 PM PST


No one does something for no reason, that includes terrorists.
An enemy force will use a tactic because it's successful. Which is
why there's only way to stop them from reusing that tactic, render
it a failure.






Terrorists use human shields because the strategy pays off. The
enemy has identified a particular weakness in us, we have difficulty
causing the deaths of civilians. That is because we're moral and value
human life, and they don't.

This is a strategic strength when it comes to intelligently
deploying troops in a way that spare lives and reduce casualties.
The use of Human Shields by errorists however turns this strength
into a weakness, when it protects the terrorists directly through
hesitation allowing them to escape, or indirectly through media and
public outrage when the human shields are wounded or killed.

Each time that happens, and the use of human shields is successful--
we're insuring that human shields will be used again. It's like paying
ransom every time pirates seize your boats. It turns an individual
crime into a profitable venture, and creates an entire industry built
around it. So too when civilized countries directly or indirectly reward
the use of Human Shields, it increases in scope and becomes a
vast problem.

In Lebanon and Gaza, Hamas and Hizbullah built much of their
defensive strategy around placing high priority targets and
weapons embedded around facilities such as schools or
hospitals, betting that either they would not be bombed, or
that bombing them would enable them to pull off a media blitz that
would force Israel to withdraw and sign an agreement. Both times
their bet paid off.

Such tactics were not unprecedented, but nevertheless Hamas and
Hizbullah used Human Shields as a defensive strategy on a scope and
scale that demonstrated just how vital it had become. Hamas and
Hizbullah understood that they could not defeat Israel on the battlefield.

The one ace in their deck was the civilian population they
could employ both offensively and defensively. While the US
had disregarded Saddam's use of Human Shields, rendering it a
virtual non-factor by Baathist forces and terrorists-- Israel
failed to do so, and was rewarded with a more extensive use of
Human Shields than ever.

The problem is that rewarding Human Shields strategies
quickly lets terrorists know that they can use entire populations
as Human Shields. The more you allow it to succeed, the
larger the use of Human Shield grows, as terrorists begin using
thousands to protect high value targets. The end result of failing to
suppress the use of Human Shields is that soon you're dealing with
entire populations turned into Human Shields.
And the only real way to put a stop to it, is to cut the Gordian Knot by
never allowing Human Shields to be used as a successful strategy in
the first place. Once it's already in use, only ruthlessly demonstrating
that it is futile, will end it. This will unquestionably carry a severe toll
in the lives of non-combatants, but in the end it spares more lives by
terminating the Human Shields strategy. Only by demonstrating that
the use of Human Shields will not stay our hand, will terrorists stop
employing Human Shields in the first place.

President Jefferson understood that the cycle of ransom and
kidnapping could only be broken by cutting through
the pirate's premise, that kidnapping would result in rich rewards,
rather
than death. Terrorist groups who use Human Shields must get
the same message, that this tactic will no longer grant them any
special protection. That media outrage will make no difference
and that soldiers will do their job regardless of Human Shields.
Only then will terrorists begin to see Human Shields as a useless
handicap, rather than as a handy defense. And only then will
the use of Human Shields and the civilian death toll that results
from their use, finally come to an end.













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