Discussion thread for the Hamas Attacks Israel thread, October 2023

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

Pulled from another thread, to avoid hijacking it:

@Alessan

I’ve been an infantry squad leader. If I was advancing through an enemy city, and someone opened fire on my men from a house, I would call an airstrike on that house, whether or not I knew whether there were civilians in it. Any squad leader in any army in any war would call an airstrike on that house; hell, Captain America would call an airstrike on that house. That’s the sort of situation we’re dealing with here.

Tempting though it is to debate whether Captain America would call in an airstrike on a hospital with a working neonatal unit, I’m not sure that’d prove productive. It does seem to me that much of the airstrikes in this campaign are being called in with much less provocation than someone actively firing from within a specific building. Do you agree?

@Babale

He has been pretty firm about keeping politics out of the IDF, so it is not always easy to tell what his personal stance is on things like that. He has both during this war and in speeches to other IDF leaders or troops repeatedly emphasized the importance of behacing humanely during war, and has harshly criticized actions taken by the IDF or by other commanders at various points.

I appreciate that. That said, the actions taken by the IDF in this war seem really harsh to me. As the war has progressed, I’ve found myself more and more outraged at the approach to the war.

Certainly Hamas is carrying on a propaganda campaign, and critics of the IDF need to be aware of that and look with a skeptical eye on all sources. At the same time, the IDF is carrying on a propaganda campaign, and I worry that too many defenders of the IDF aren’t viewing their actions with a sufficiently skeptical eye.