Modern Terrorists

On the final leg of my second return from Vietnam, as an Army major, I took a bus from Dane Country Airport to my father's home in Madison, Wisconsin. There, my father, stepmother, stepsisters, and my almost new 1970 Chevelle 396 SS with LZ2 cowl induction hood and black racing stripes were hopefully waiting for me. I was in uniform, having taken advantage of a free uniformed military "space-A standby" commercial flight from California, I was not surprised that the bus driver charged me the same fare as everyone else in the home of the so-called "pinko" University of Wisconsin.

As the bus was stopping and I was hoping to exchange my pole for a seat, a scruffy young woman strode threateningly up to me, shouted, "I think it's terrible to napalm innocent babies!" Then she pointedly spit on me and, without any opportunity for a response, hopped off the bus. So much for "Welcome home, soldier!"

In what follows, I draw upon my experience of 26 years in the military, and my military training, including graduation from the Army Command and General Staff College, the Air Command and Staff college, and partial completion of the course of instruction at the Army War College. I am also fortunate to have had a personal discussion of terrorism with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he was Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations. He referred me to the compilation of authoritative essays on combating terrorism in his book, "Terrorism, How the West Can Win." I have websites: "What To Do About Hamas" and "The Moral Implications of War" with additional observations.

In the most recent engagement, Palestinian terrorists suddenly attacked Israel early on the morning of October 7, 2023, Simchat Torah on Shabbat, with 3000 poorly aimed anti-personnel rockets that killed and maimed Israeli civilians indiscriminately. Simultaneously, their infantry breached the Gaza-Israeli border, murdered over 1139 Israeli residents, wounded untold numbers more, and took 243 prisoners, including 30 children and the elderly, back to Gaza. Some of these are known already to have been killed! Israel could have responded with one or more of the following options:

1) Do nothing and hope things would turn out all right eventually.

2) Demonstrate, complain, block traffic and annoy their neighbors with signs, bullhorns and campus sit-ins, perhaps while vandalizing other people's property or setting smoky fires.

3) Ask the United Nations to look into the matter and provide a recommendation.

4) Do the same thing to Gaza, fire rockets indiscriminately into Gaza, kidnap a bunch of Gaza citizens, and murder over a thousand others.

5) Search out foreigners, Arabs and non-Jewish citizens or others in Israel and hold them prisoner until the Gaza terrorists give back the prisoners they took.

6) Sue Hamas in the International Court of Justice to get the prisoners back and obtain compensation and reparations for Israelis killed or injured.

7) Begin preparations to dismantle Israeli government and move all Jewish citizens someplace else.

8) Set up a meeting with Hamas to find some way to reach an accommodation short of evacuating Palestine.

9) Close all the Gaza borders, implement a coordinated air strike and artillery saturation bombing in a "scorched earth" campaign to kill everyone in Gaza until all the prisoners are released, or until nobody is left alive there.

10) Invade Gaza with sufficient military forces to close with and kill or capture Hamas agents and terrorists and rescue the hostages.

So far, our own wars on terror have cost the US over 4,500,000 people killed, 1.9 times the total population of Gaza, and at least 38 million people displaced. Our war with Japan, a country of 72 million people, lasted 3.7 years, at a cost to all involved nations of over 30,200,000 lives, 12.7 times the population of Gaza. It forced unconditional surrender, and subsequent occupation and political and cultural reconstruction, of Japan by the development and only deployment of the atomic bomb!

Ghazi Hamad is a member of the decision-making Hamas Political Bureau. He was previously chairman of the border crossings authority in the Gaza Strip and Deputy Foreign Minister in the Hamas government of 2012. On October 24, 2023, he explained the 7 October attack: "Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation". "We are called a nation of martyrs and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs". Hamad called the creation of the Jewish state "illogical": "We are the victims of the occupation" he said. "Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do."

"The things we do" are considered by Israelis, and many others, as terrorist acts. There is no universal authoritative definition of a terrorist. However, working definitions generally include those who: 1) commit one or more illegal acts, 2) against one or more non-combatants, 3) to create fear, panic or chaos, 4) with the purpose of forcing a political act or decision that would otherwise not occur. In the case of the October 7th invasion, The criminal acts included felonious assault, aggrevated battery, murder, and kidnapping. The political decision was to "remove that country (Israel)" from Palestine. So far, it isn't going well for Hamas! They're great at sewing chaos and terror by murdering and kidnapping helpless Israeli civilians, but not so tough when confronted by the Israeli Defense Forces intent on their destruction.

The following may help further to understand viewpoints of the United States:

The U.S. faced a similar threat prior to and for some time after its establishment in 1789. American aborigines, called "Indians" by early settlers, were descendants of people who had crossed from Asia to North America by means of a land bridge associated with the last ice age that ended around 6500 BCE. The Indians were living a hunting and gathering existence using Paleolithic technology when their lands were invaded by European explorers, and later settlers. The invaders were armed with 16th century weapons and a belief that it was their manifest destiny to conquer and exploit the Indians. Many of the settlers, like the ancestors of the Israelis, were fleeing political and religious persecution in Europe. Others were motivated by the potential wealth to be acquired from exploiting the untapped riches of the New World. By 1789, English settlers were firmly established in the original Thirteen Colonies, and have been engaged ever since in pushing the boundary of the United States westward to the sea. United States territory now extends to the western shore of North America, Amatignak Island in Alaska's Aleutian archipelago and American Samoa in the Pacific Ocean.

The Indians fought back and lost, fought back and lost, until they were forced, for the most part, to abandon their lands and to relocate to reservations selected for them by the victorious Caucasians. Terrorist acts were committed routinely by both sides, but the United States had overwhelming firepower and logistical capability. Eventually, the Indians were forced onto relatively worthless land. Many of them have left these reservations to join and participate in the "melting pot" that is United States cultural and ethnic diversity. Twenty five percent of my late wife's ancestors were among them. The Battle of Wounded Knee in December of 1890 was the last (and hopeless) major battle for Indian national sovereignty. Today, Americans other than military live in 50 states, 5 territories, and 326 Indian reservations, pueblos, rancherias, missions, villages and communities, The largest Indian reservation in the United States is occupied by the Navajo Nation. At about 71,000 square kilometers, it is over 194 times the size of the Gaza Strip, 22 times that of the State of Rhode Island, and a little smaller than South Carolina or the Republic of Serbia. The "Indian Problem" has been solved by a "376 - state solution," 326 of them Indian. Except for tourists and aliens, residents of all of them are American citizens.

An argument could be made that all of the land occupied by the 48 contiguous States rightly belongs to the progeny of those who were killed defending it or forced off of it into reservations. Regardless of merit, the argument is moot; the current residents aren't leaving! "Terrorist acts in pursuit of national sovereignty" still occasionally occur, but they are treated as other criminal acts and prosecuted accordingly.

Prior to the end of the Indian wars, the 37 United States at the time experienced a disastrous Civil War, in which 11 of them attempted to secede and form a new nation. The legal status of this action is irrelevant; the 26 northern states, with superior manufacturing capability, transportation assets and foreign trade, conquered, occupied and formally reintegrated the 11 rebellious states back into the Union in 1865. Three Constitutional Amendments were passed to rectify the problems that had led to the insurrection. Over 620,000 military personnel, in addition to civilian casualties, were killed, the most of any US war in history. From some viewpoints, the Civil War simply restored the temporary disrupted status quo. It's single greatest accomplishment was the abolition of slavery in the United States, a problem that had existed long before it became a nation.

The similarity of experience of the United States with the problems now existing in Palestine may provide an understanding of American perspective. As a nation founded on respect for our own law, we tend to view any terrorist activity with extreme disfavor. Our Revolutionary War, that established our freedom from England, was fought by colonist guerrillas generally according to existing rules of war. It was directed, not aginast British civilians, but against arguably the most powerful army in the western world at the time. So we tend to sympathize with those who employ similar tactics of asymmetric warfare. But we also recognize the essential difference between guerrillas and terrorists, and categorically reject the false assertion that "one man's terrorist is another man's guerrilla (or worse, "freedom") fighter!"

The essential difference between a guerrilla fighter and a terrorist is that the guerrilla fighter uses only tactics sanctioned by international rules of war against enemy military forces or military targets to achieve a military objective. Guerrilla warfare is just as moral (or immoral) as any other kind of warfare, and is equally unhealthy for children and other living things. The terrorist uses any tactic he considers expedient against noncombatants or non-military targets to create panic and severe public emotional reaction. He is basically a bully and a coward!

This is especially true when the terrorists use weapons of mass destruction on civilians who constitute no possible threat to anyone. There are logical reasons to attack military targets such as manufacturing centers, supply depots, troop concentrations, and even administrative facilities if their destruction is likely to produce a tactical or strategic advantage. This is true even if the enemy chooses to locate such targets in civilian neighborhoods or interpose willing or unwilling human shields. But we view simply targeting civilians for the sake of killing civilians, whoever they are, as wholesale murder, however well they defend themselves. We regard people and nations that do these things as best removed from the face of the earth, preferably in a way that deters others from trying the same thing!!

We also recognize that starting a war is likely to be unhealthy for children and other living things. We are dedicated to ending any in which we are forced to participate, such as our historic war with the Empire of Japan, by the most expeditious means possible. We consider the military objective legitimate even if it involves the invention and employment of the most terrible weapons ever known to man! A military theory known as the "Horner Doctrine" maintains that maximum violence should be applied to the enemy forces to end the conflict and stop the suffering as soon as possible. Postwar statistical analysis strongly supports the validity of this principle.

Another factor in our view of the conflict is that the United States is home to about 6.3 million Jews, about 40% of the world's total. Only 2.2 million of us claim to be of Arab ancestry. There are reportedly almost three times as many Jews in New York City as there are in Jerusalem! The United States was the first to recognize Israel as a state in 1948. In addition, we financed its birth and growth through the sale of Israel bonds and massive foreign aid that continues to this day.

The term "genocide," the removal of an entire "genus" of people (Homo), is used inappropriately emotionally to refer to what military people call "collateral casualties." Anyone who believes that a legitimate military action is possible against an aggressor so that casualties are sustained only among its military is at best misinformed. War is inherently not healthy for children and other living things, regardless of who they are. The legitimate and lawful purpose of any military operation is to accomplish its mission, with as little collateral damage as possible, but to accomplish it, nonetheless! The tragedy of civilian suffering is an unavoidable consequence of the tragedy of war! People opposed to wars perhaps ought not to vote for governments that tend to start them!

The United States is helping as much as possible to alleviate that tragedy in Gaza by providing weapons of improved accuracy. This allows the Israelis to hit the military targets at which they are aiming, rather than to waste ammunition killing inoffensive civilians, as Hamas is doing deliberately. It is not Israel's fault that the Palestinians locate their explosive caches in densely populated areas or their bunkers and tunnels, which are appropriate and legal military targets, under schools and hospitals. It is also not their fault that war is not so precise that combat activities always go as intended. Mistakes happen! There wouldn't be any combat mistakes, or combat activities at all, if the terrorists would have just stayed home, or immediately returned their prisoners, which so far they have demonstrated no real intention of doing!

The Israelis understand genocide, though; The attempted genocide of their own people by the Nazis is what created the State of Israel in the first place. Even if the Israelis have to kill every single one of the residents of Gaza in their attempt finally to get rid of Hamas, that will be only about 1/3 of the number of their potential ancestors, men, women and children, who were murdered by the Nazis simply because they didn't like Jews!

It may appear to many that the United States is doing nothing to resolve the very real problems in Palestine, but the opposite is true, even though the U.S. is not a party to the conflict. We are, however, allied with Israel and are providing various means of material, political and moral support. Our Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has spent almost all of his time over the past six months, coordinating efforts to achieve some sort of peace, however temporary. We have been providing massive aid and humanitarian services in Gaza at the risk of the lives of our own citizens, who are now trapped in the conflict. The United States recently finished construction of a floating pier on the Gaza shore. This allows international agencies such as the World Food Programme to get humanitarian supplies, much of them paid for by Americans, to Gaza through the Netzarim Corridor at greatly reduced threat that they will be stolen by Hamas, which is a continuing problem.

The Gaza terrorists have also been targeting the humanitarian truck convoys, a clear violation of international law, thus increasing ths suffering of their own people! The Palestinians are showing little cooperation with international efforts to help them! Other than their hatred of western people, culture and influence, there seems to be little that unites them for their own benefit. They seem to lack a basic understanding of the concept of winning, as opposed to suffering. They are consequently poor at all forms of competition, such as organized sports, games of skill, technological development, diplomacy, or war. They publicly proclaim that the highest achievement in combat is to get themselves killed by the enemy, and they seem to be achieving that goal with reckless abandon!

The value of perseverance in the face of incredible suffering finds its epitome in the Palestinian concept of suffering for its own sake, as an end in itself, being proud to sacrifice martyrs! Their tactics thus prefer prolonged campaigns that result in the most profound misery of the greatest number of people. They emphasize urban warfare to kill, wound and maim as many non-combatant victims of their enemies and their own people as possible in the suffering that civilized military units (on both sides) would attempt to avoid. Their terrorist attacks on military valueless civilians are no doubt motivated by blind hatred, but often achieve their primary goal of provoking retaliation against those whom they believe will be forced to join their cause as the lesser of two evils.

Hamas, the freely elected government of Gaza, is definitely achieving the Palestinian strategic goal, which is to continue, and enhance, if possible, the suffering of their own civilians, including children and the elderly! Safe in their underground warrens, they can thus blame it all on the Israelis. Their sense of identity depends largely on imputing their monumental social problems to somebody else. Their arguments of very real oppression are simply excuses, about which they are, in fact, doing nothing constructive at all! They want the Israeli tanks to come rumbling into Gaza, killing their women and children, so they can show off thousands of dead women and children, and grief-stricken relatives, as well as those they themselves have already intentionally murdered, on CNN. What they will not do is admit that none of these victims would be dead if Hamas terrorists had not suddenly and deliberately attacked Israel, in blatant disregard for international rules of war.

So far, they haven't demonstrated any realistic intention of giving back their prisoners, either. Their brutal murder of random Israelis in cold blood, and kidnapping of totally uninvolved "hostages," including children, have guaranteed the current Israeli determination utterly to destroy them.

The people of Gaza as a whole bear total responsibility of electing a government dedicated to constant turmoil! To be sure, there are some Palestinians who are completely innocent, such as infants and small children. They have the appalling misfortune of being born to parents who have simply not done what is necessary to eliminate deathly threats to the people for whose safety they are primarily responsible. That the adults now want peace is not particularly significant. Since they have already squandered it, they will have to do what it takes to get it back! They may have to leave it to Israel to achieve that for them, in spite of the terrible cost they will be, and are in fact being, forced to pay!

Unfortunately, the war in Gaza will continue to be unhealthy for children and other living things until the option they have forced upon Israel, that of eliminating Hamas, is achieved, however catastrophic or long it takes! Palestinian women and children will continue horribly to die in ever increasing numbers because the Gaza residents didn't do what they should have done to get rid of Hamas themselves! They let Hamas plan, organize and execute the heinous coordinated terrorist attack to which the Israelis are now responding, and they are doing nothing whatever to reduce the conflict by locating and giving back Hamas prisoners! None of this would have happened if the people of Gaza had acted responsibly by electing a benevolent government in the first place and getting rid, however difficult, of the "militants."

And whether they are "victims of the occupation" or not, or whether "it's all because of Israeli oppression," does nothing whatever to relieve their unimaginable suffering, or make so many thousands of them one bit less tragically, and needlessly, dead!

The United States is on the verge of electing a government that in many ways resembles Hamas, with a chief executive who doesn't hesitate to lie and cheat to get his own way. Gaza is a stark warning of how this is likely eventually to play out. WE HAVE BEEN WARNED!

John Lindorfer