Mark Phillips: The American Question
10/30/03: Expert advice.
Israel's most senior military commander has an expert suggestion for the
American occupiers of Iraq: stop.
In remarks that suggest a dramatic split with the approach of the current
government, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, chief of staff of the Israeli armed forces,
said that crackdowns, curfews and roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
were crippling the lives of innocent Palestinians and that the military's
tactics were now threatening Israel's own interests.
Yaalon's remarks, echoed by equally vociferous criticism from other military
officers interviewed Thursday, revealed a schism between military and political
leaders over the government's handling of a conflict that many officers and
soldiers say they believe is not winnable through military force, incites
more terrorism than it prevents and mistreats innocent Palestinians.
'We're in a more serious situation that the U.S. was in Vietnam,' said
reserve Brig. Gen. Yiftah Spector, one of the most decorated fighter pilots
in Israeli military history. Spector was grounded as a flight instructor last
month after signing a letter, along with 26 other reserve pilots, calling
the military's targeted killings of militants in crowded civilian
neighborhoods 'illegal and immoral.'
(Washington Post, 10/30/03.)
For sixty years Israel has pursued a strategy of repression against Palestinians.
If its best soldiers say the experience has been a disaster for Israel, why
are America's leaders adopting the same failed strategy?
Support our troops! Bring them home now!
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