The Nature of War - 9781845193782

Tira (a veteran of Israel Air Force intelligence and special operations) draws on Israel's recent experiences with war-making, as well as the broader history of 20th century warfare, in order to develop ideas that go beyond the classical Clausewitz doctrine of war towards a new theory of asymmetrical warfare that aims towards breaking the "enemy's paradigm" or the basic assumptions that the enemy's plans rest on. He tests his theories against the cases of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war and "Operation Cast Lead," the 2009 assault on besieged Gaza. An example of what he means by breaking the enemy's paradigm is found in this latter case, wherein he argues that "attacking the enemy's combatants and weapons wherever they were, even in the basements of mosques, public buildings, and residential quarters"--all within the limits of international law, he insists, contrary to the judgment of the Goldstone Report and large swathes of international opinion that saw the assault as an act of collective punishment aimed primarily at Gaza's civilians--"represents a measure of breaking the enemy's paradigm." Such a judgment appears to discount the moral level of war, emphasized by such fourth generation war theorists as William Lind, who commented during the assault that the enemy, Hamas, "will not only survive," (the only criteria needed to claim victory against an advanced state military, according to Israeli military theorist and historian Martin van Creveld), "but be strengthened by a worldwide flood of sympathy, which will translate in part into new recruits and more money." Distributed in North America by ISBS. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)