Israel Is Losing By Killing Civilians

You have to kill fighters in battle, not babies in incubators

indi.ca
7 min readNov 14, 2023
“A destroyed city, exhausted, hungry and thirsty for more than a month and a week, and despite this, the tanks of the most powerful army in the region are reduced to rubble. (Via)

Israel is almost exclusively killing civilians in occupied Palestine. They’re targeting hospitals, homes, water supplies, and food. They’re burying people under rubble and trying to starve/dehydrate/sicken them to death; it’s a medieval siege backed by mass media. Israel is executing an openly genocidal campaign which — in addition to being evil — is a major strategic blunder.

The point of war is not to kill civilians. It’s to destroy militaries. As Carl Clausewitz said: “What do we mean by the defeat of the enemy? Simply the destruction of his forces, whether by death, injury, or any other means — either completely or enough to make him stop fighting… The complete or partial destruction of the enemy must be regarded as the sole object of all engagements… Direct annihilation of the enemy’s forces must always be the dominant consideration.

The point of war is ‘direct annihilation of the enemy’s forces,’ not the annihilation of an entire population. Israel, however, is doing precisely the opposite. Every bomb they drop on a refugee camp is one that won’t drop on a military target. All the snipers shooting patients are not shooting soldiers. All the children they kill create more fighters, with the strongest motivation possible.

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indi.ca
indi.ca

Written by indi.ca

Indrajit (Indi) Samarajiva is a Sri Lankan writer. Follow me at www.indi.ca, or just email me at indi@indi.ca.

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