RAND to U.S.: Learn Lessons From Israel’s Massacres in Lebanon and Gaza

The Beltway, quasi-government think-tank of warmongerers provides a sick glimpse into the craniums of how governments approach war.

The U.S. should use diverse tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan that best minimize its own casualties, no matter that these operations greatly raise civilian casualties, as Israel learned from its 2006 invasion of Lebanon and executed in the 2008-09 Gaza Massacre, one of the most influential think-tanks on global policy reports to the U.S. Army.

In “Military Capabilities for Hybrid War: Insights from the Israel Defense Forces in Lebanon and Gaza” [.pdf], a report published by the RAND Corporation, “insights to broaden the understanding of the capabilities needed to prevail against more sophisticated hybrid opponents” is derived from Israel’s U.S.-backed massacres. The 2010 study was sponsored by the U.S. Army, in part with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff and G-8 Headquarters. The report “examines the experience of the Israel Defense Forces (I.D.F.)” in Lebanon and Gaza.

The 2006 invasion of Lebanon ended with nearly 1,200 Lebanese casualties not belonging to Hizbollah—only 37 identified as soldiers or police officers—and 44 Israeli civilians. Reports, unanimously show evidence of crimes against humanity.

The Gaza Massacre began less than two months after Israel broke a four-month ceasefire between it and Hamas. While Americans and the rest of the world were anointing so-called “change” to lead the world, Israel Defence Forces (I.D.F.) raided Gaza in the middle of the night, killing six Hamas forces. A fact-finding mission endorsed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, known as the Goldstone Report, found the Israeli government and Hamas committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead. The so-called “conflict” resulted in over 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths, the ‘wanton destruction‘ of almost 40,000 Gazan homes and left tens of thousands homeless. Of the nearly 1,200 dead non-combatants, hundreds were children.
According to the study, in Gaza, the I.D.F. ” focused” on “using targeted assassinations (including air strikes) to ‘mow the grass,’”—what interviewed I.D.F. soldiers called the raining death in 2008—”and raids against high-value targets, all enabled by close coordination with Israeli security services.” These tactics are valuable because: More