The Information War Continues

The current war in Lebannon is just another example of the necessity of understanding not only how to fight the militarily, but also the proceeding information war.

Strategypage reports a chilling "almost," demonstrating yet again how strongly the Hezbollah Islamists grasp this concept:

Israeli troops operating in south Lebanon captured a Hezbollah safe house, and found the usual weapons and other equipment, as well as a supply of Israeli Defense Force uniforms. This indicated plans to stage a major "atrocity." Committed, as the evidence would clearly show, by Israeli troops. But perhaps this will never happen, for Israeli raids into southern Lebanon have captured many Hizbollah documents, as well as some live Hizbollah members. These, combined with Israeli electronic eavesdropping, reports from agents inside Lebanon, give the Israelis a pretty good idea of what Hizbollah is up to. Without much fanfare, Israeli commandos and aircraft will respond to Hizbollah plans.

This is the kind of information war that American troops faced when they were conducting the first battle of Fallujah. During the battle, al-Jazeera broadcasted the massive "atrocities" that American troops were committing against the "civilians" of Fallujah. While our troops on the ground were defeating the armed insurgents, the provisional government almost came apart based on the images and stories that al-Jazeera was reporting. The American halted their offensive and then pulled out. The battle was a strategic, but temporary, loss for the Americans, and we'd spend many more lives to retake the infamous city for good months later.

The Islamists focus directly on the soft underbelly of Western and Israeli hesitation towards the use of force. Regardless of its virtue, it is what the Islamists target in the information war. The world doesn't get outraged when an entire country is held hostage by a proxy army of radicals supported by Iran and Syria. They don't even blink when al-Qaeda marches into Iraqi cities and diliberately starts slaughtering men, women and children in their efforts to turn the town into an Islamic stronghold.

Ralph Peters discusses how this double-standard is playing out with Israel's ability to effectively wage war:

THE airstrike on the Lebanese village of Qana has been a tragedy for Israel. A publicity debacle, the deaths of 57 civilians united Israel's enemies, complicated American support - and may lead to a cease-fire that rewards Hezbollah. The Qana attack can't be excused. But it can be explained.

The images of children's bodies dug out of an apartment building's rubble were a gift to Hezbollah, Syria and Iran - and a direct result of the Olmert government's attempt to wage an "easy" war.

All efforts to make war easy, cheap or bloodless fail. If Israel's government - or our own - goes to war, our leaders must accept the price of winning. You can't measure out military force by teaspoons. Such naive efforts led to the morass in Iraq - and to the corpses of Qana.

Despite one failure after another, the myth of antiseptic techno-war, of immaculate victories through airpower, persists. The defense industry fosters it for profit, and the notion is seductive to politicians: a quick win without friendly casualties.

The problem is that it never works. Never.

Peters ends up being more pessimistic about Israel's situation in this article than I am at this point, but he's dead right here. There is a major fallacy in the Western world that needs to be put to death: the idea that we can wage a clean, neat war--preferrably from the air.

Qana revealed how technology can be turned around and used against a superior force, not by matching it with something more sophisticated, but by changing its calculus. Hezbollah initiated the current conflict, but world opinion, for the most part, was allowing Israel to defend itself in against an act of aggression. After Qana, Israel again became the agressor--they halted bombing for 48-hours.

Israel is on the offensive again, but Olmert must realize that he cannot defeat Hezbollah by hitting their missiles from the sky. Like every war since the inception of air power, it will take an aggresive and unapologetic application of boots on the ground to finish and secure victory.