Transcript: auto generated.
Why would a battle fought 54 years ago provide key Insight on what Hamas’s strategy is today asymmetric Warfare?
Asymmetric Warfare is a term that most people don’t really understand. Asymmetric Warfare is a type of war between belligerent whose relative military power strategy or tactics differ significantly and as a result of this the weaker opponent will use unconventional tactics in order to maximize one’s strengths against a stronger opponent’s weaknesses or vulnerabilities for instance an Insurgent force does not have the
freedom of movement or Firepower necessary to attack a Forward operating base or a heavily armed column so instead they focus on softer logistical targets they may choose to use a remotely activated roadside bomb instead of engaging in direct fire in many situations the weaker adversary has fewer personnel and resources and so a significant part of their strategy is to preserve those limited resources and use the Munitions that they have to the greatest possible Advantage but here’s the thing to pull this off longterm you generally need a consistent means of supply combined with enough territory to hit run and then hide and Hamas doesn’t have these things at least not in sufficient Supply to win against the IDF so what’s their strategy what can Hamas leverage that will allow them to conduct offensive operations against a much stronger opponent and then avoid getting destroyed by the IDF’s vastly superior military capability and the answer to that question as horrific as it is is civilian casualties but probably not the ones you’re thinking to understand this let’s discuss that example 54 years ago the Tet offensive in the Vietnam War virtually wiped out the Vietcong it was by every objective measure a complete tactical failure but strategically it was invaluable because while achieving none of its military objectives the Tet offensive shattered Americans perspective on the situation on the ground opponents of the war were able to effectively use the offensive as a demonstration of the futility of American involvement Hollywood. Academia and many in the mainstream media went to work convincing the American people that the war couldn’t be won or perhaps just wouldn’t even be fought and in a representative government when the electorate decides that a war is lost it is regardless of the situation on the ground Now understand something I’m not making an argument for the pros or cons of fighting the Vietnam War I’m merely illustrating a point about modern asymmetric Warfare.
The lesson of the Tet offensive is when fighting the West you don’t defeat their military you win their electorate and the way to do that is through the institutions which shape culture in the west namely Hollywood. the media. and Academia.
If Hamas had decided to engage in a conventional military attack directed at only legitimate military targets the IDF would have effectively destroyed their War fighting capability within days and Hamas knows it so they engaged in asymmetric strategy once we understand this their actions on October 7th as horrific as they are begin to make more sense Hamas didn’t just Target civilians because they were easy targets or because they despised Jews although both of those things are true the attack and the subsequent taking of hostages was actually designed to elicit a major response from the IDF but why well maybe it’s because to achieve their strategic objectives
Hamas needs civilian casualties and more specifically they need Palestinian civilian casualties and this is why the two entities in this conflict that lose the most from a greater peace agreement in the Middle East are Iran and the terrorist organizations they support.
Upsetting this process requires much more than the random launching of rockets into Israel or strikes against legitimate military targets. The IDF is more than capable of handling such incursions and the Israeli people have become all too accustomed to weathering such attacks without demanding an overwhelming military response something more significant was required and October 7th created the kind of conditions that demanded a significant and sustained response they needed something so obscene that Israel would have no choice but to hit back hard and this is where the second component of Hamas’ strategy plays out how to get Palestinian casualties any government actually worried about civilian casualties dedicates resources to evacuating their own civilians from hostile areas and attempts to separate the civilian population from legitimate military targets so what conclusion should we come to when a governing body decides to do the exact opposite in this asymmetric environment Hamas is not only incentivized to kill Israeli civilians they are incentivized to maximize their own civilian casualties in the short run in order to elicit Western intervention on their behalf as easy as it might be to explain Hamas’s strategy away as nothing but mindless blood lust it is actually more Sinister than that Hamas is responding to the incentive structures certain elements within the West have created Hamas understands that the real Battlefield is not in Gaza but in the streets University halls and newsrooms of the West and so that is their target and while a ceasefire seems like a humanitarian response to the tragic death of civilians leaving Hamas intact as an operational and governing body will ultimately just reinforce that the perverse incentive structure Remains the Same and that while the West may claim to not negotiate with terrorists they always seem to force Israel to as soon as it becomes politically inconvenient for them so here’s the hard reality if you actually want to achieve anything resembling a lasting peace in this part of the world you’re never going to achieve it by creating conditions where terrorists are incentivized to hurt both the civilians of their enemies and their own in order to achieve their political objectives so I thought this clip was very good and really helps us understand how it is that Hamas has any sort of chance at Victory it’s not through its military strategy but it’s through the strategy of the pr strategy uh sweeping across the west and in many cases kind of winning the war.
For those in the west every civilian casualty is a tragedy however for Hamas and other Islamist groups every civilian casualty is a strategy.
Kudos to Nick Freitas for his astute analysis and assessment of this matter.
