Israel's Olmert blames the army for being unprepared for Lebanon war - 11-May-07 - Generational Dynamics

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-May-07

Israel's Olmert blames the army for being unprepared for Lebanon war

Released transcripts show how completely oblivious the Israeli government was to what they had to do.

Last week we discussed the conclusions of the Winograd Committee report on Israel's conduct in last summer's war against Hizbollah in Lebanon.

With the release of additional information -- specifically, some of the transcripts of the testimony of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz -- it becomes increasingly clear that the Lebanon war is a prototype of a typical war in a generational Crisis era.

According to the transcripts, here's what Prime Minister Olmert said:

"I think the army let itself down. [There was] something faulty in the commanding philosophy, in the commanding perception ... they all proved their courage in battle … but something in the forces' operational perception, something in the perception of control over the forces, wasn’t what we expected – and there is no doubt that was what caused the gap between our ability to achieve, and what we actually did achieve."

And here's what Defense Minister Peretz said:

"On July 12 [the first day of the war], I was not presented with a situation that the army had not trained enough or that there was any problem with the army's preparedness.

I assumed that the international community would not give us any longer than that, although I thought that the longer we give our forces to operate, the more we will weaken Hizbullah."

These are the two men most responsible for the decision to go to war, and they were the two men most responsible for making decisions about prosecuting the war as time went on.

Their statements are quite remarkable in that they show that the two men had no idea what was going on. They thought that all they'd have to do is give the order to destroy Hizbollah, and it would be done.

This is how people in the Baby Boomer generation think. They actually believe that all you have to do is given an order, and what they order will take place.

This is exactly what distinguishes those who lived through World War II from those born afterwards. People who lived through the horror of WW II remember how panicked, anxious and desperate everyone was, and how many mistakes were made. The greatest mistake of all, of course, was allowing almost the entire Pacific fleet to be destroyed in one single day with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

People who lived through that experience understand that nothing can be taken for granted, and that every detail has to be managed. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would not have made the mistakes that Olmert made. Sharon would have provided a precise set of attainable goals and plans for the armed forces to follow. He would not simply have given an order, and waited for it to be followed.

The Boomers in Congress are exactly the same. One of the reasons that I call all their proposals moronic is that they're impossible. They think that if the President gave the order to pull the troops out of Iraq, then the order would simply be pulled out.

Quite the opposite, pulling out of Iraq is impossible. This may surprise you too, dear reader, because you may assume that it would be easy for the troops to leave Iraq, if only President Bush gave the order. But if that order were given, it would immediately become apparent what a disaster would follow, and the American public would become so anxious that the order to leave would be reversed.

Israel's Lebanon war is the prototype of what's to come. Generally speaking, postwar generations, like Boomers and Generation-X, are not capable of governing. They don't understand how to do it. As a result, they'll stumble into war, and the survivors of the war will be able to govern in the aftermath. (11-May-07) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-May-07 Israel's Olmert blames the army for being unprepared for Lebanon war

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-May-07
Israel's Olmert blames the army for being unprepared for Lebanon war