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Among military circles, the current fad is to attack terrorism by crunching civilians. Their operational tactic is to kill, maim or displace about 20% of the population. This makes the civilians more docile and persuades other nations not to give a haven for terrorists.
This is an American invention to justify the overload of sophisticated [and expensive] weapons in her arsenal. Tanks, F-16's and Apache helicopters are useless against insurgents, but devastating to civilians. Indeed, the Americans 'succeeded' in Iraq after they killed, maimed or displaced 20% of the population.
[The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pott tortured and murdered 20% of the Cambodian population during four years.]
In 2006 in Lebanon and in Gaza Israel responded harshly to provocations like an elephant trying to step on elusive ants. Probably, she injured more civilians than combatants.
To replicate the American 'success' in Iraq, however, the Israelis would have had to kill, maim or displace 300,000 Gazans. Such carnage is impossible for Jews to carry out. It is simply not in our culture. Our critics err when they liken us to Americans.
