Firing from the air, especially with unmanned aircraft, is perhaps the most frustrating aspect of warfare that the terrorists in Gaza are experiencing. One of the newest forms of warfare is unmanned tractors that can literally level a 4-5 story building. It is extremely frustrating to shoot at a driver of a massive tractor driving in your direction, and fail to stop the advance because there is no driver to hit.
These kinds of technological advancements are game changers. But Israel and any other country with a powerful army should never make the mistake of thinking that with overwhelming power alone, it can win the war. Recent history has proven that powerful armies can find themselves bogged down against a group of several hundreds of terrorists fighting a guerilla-type war based on setting up roadside bombs and surprise attacks.
The unconventional tactics used by guerillas are more successful when employed by the side that has a home turf advantage. This is even more the case when the side fighting on their home turf also has a complex tunnel network set up beneath ground.
What Israel has basically concluded is that they need to destroy nearly all of the buildings in Gaza if they are going to take over Gaza. The alternative is to find itself losing soldiers in a manner that is akin to the Vietnam scenario. It is so easy to forget that the United States was killing many more Vietnamese soldiers than the Vietnamese were killing US soldiers. But the US still lost the war and 50,000 GI’s lost their lives. They were winning battle after battle, but the strategic planning was completely flawed and based on an unrealistic expectation that the enemy would ultimately buckle if enough of them were killed. This was simply wrong. Never underestimate an enemy that has their back to the wall and is willing to the fight to the end.
In Israel”s case, if they do not flatten the entire Gaza and gradually bus, ship, or fly out all of the Arabs to other countries, such as Jordan, Egypt, Libya, and yes – Qatar, then Gaza will continue to be the festering sore that bleeds Israeli soldiers on a constant level. War is terrible. But if Israel does not stick to a ruthless Dresden-like strategy, it will find itself mired in a Vietnam-like reality. Gaza deserves to be leveled and should be leveled.