Israel’s fight against Hamas has moved into a nasty phase. It’s a slow, arduous process of digging Hamas out of the many miles of tunnels they have dug over the past 16 years. One that the Israelis found recently was more than two miles long and wide enough to drive a vehicle through. It had facilities that would allow Hamas fighters to live for an extended period of time underground.
Tunnels have been used many times and in many places in defensive warfare. The Marines encountered extensive tunnel systems when they landed at various islandsduring WWII. These Islands had a lot of caves and Japanese troops had expanded these with and extensive system of tunnels. Taking shelter in these allowed Japanese troops to take shelter from pre-assault Naval gunfire and air bombardments. It also allowed Japanese troops to pop out at unexpected locations.
Our Marines had to root Japanese troops out of these subterranean shelters and highways. It was a slow process and a lot of Marines died doing this. With rare exceptions, Japanese soldiers fought to the death. On Iwo Jima, alone, 23,000 Marines were killed or wounded digging a determined enemy out of this labyrinth. General Kuribayashi Tadamichi, the general commanding the Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima, had ordered his men to fight to the death and kill 10 Americans before they died.
Rooting a suicidal enemy force out of a well-constructed underground maze is costly.
That is what the Israelis are facing in Gaza. Perhaps the Hamas fighters may not be quite as suicidal as World War II Japanese troops. However, a lot of them seem to be determined to die as martyrs so they will get their 70 camels, or whatever they think their reward will be. Some of these bearded fellows have surrendered, but not many. Israeli troops are going to have to kill most of them.
Israel is doing things to minimize the number of men they lose. They are scoping tunnels out with remote controlled vehicles and dogs before sending men in. In the northern part of Gaza, they are flooding some tunnels with seawater. This is too slow a process to trap and drown Hamas fighters, but that’s not the goal. The flooding is intended to make the tunnels unusable.
Joe and the Europeans have been pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties and wrap this war up quickly.
Netanyahu can possibly modify his tactics to reduce the number of non-combatants being killed. However, pressing him to set a timetable to complete the military action is unrealistic. Remember, he is being pressed by the same gang of idiots who thought Ukraine could break through heavily fortified Russian positions without first establishing air superiority. That turned out to be a disaster. It will also be a disaster if Israel is forced to bow to Joe’s pressure to set an artificial deadline for ending military operations.
Israel must destroy Hamas. This means continuing the military operation for as long as it takes to accomplish that. The extensive system of tunnels Hamas created means that accomplishing the goal of the war is going to take some time. Israel has made good progress, but clearing Hamas out of its burrows is going to take months, rather than weeks.
Stopping the war before that is accomplished will be a disaster. It will be as bad as it would have been if we had made peace with Nazi Germany after chasing German troops back across the German border. The Hitler regime had to be destroyed. So does Hamas.
