Dead Men Walking

 When a military attacks they have an objective in mind that's the focus of their movements. When the russians entered Ukraine, they were headed toward, Kyiv. All the murders, rapes, and pillaging were by products of that terrible misadventure, but they did have a place they wanted to capture.

Of course no one has ever accused Hamas of being an army. A real army doesn't swoop down on a music festival and massacre the attendees. No, Hamas more closely resembles a run amok biker gang nominally fronted by a few rogue politicians the likes of which haven't been seen since 1930s Germany.

When they roared into Israel Saturday it wasn't clear what their objective was--actually it still isn't--unless the objective was nothing more than rape, murder, and kidnapping. It might be. That sort of thing certainly seems their style. Some of them claim they want to trade their hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but that seems a tad altruistic for this bunch of barbarians.

They certainly haven't cared about the Palestinians in the past. They have received scads of money from places like Iran over the years and have never spent any of it on infra structure, or anything else which would benefit the Palestinian people in the long term. They have, however bought lots of weapons. Lots and lots of them.

If they are trying to prove to the Palestinians they can defeat Israel they will fail. It took them what has been reported up to two years to plan this whole nightmare and as a result they have overrun a couple of kibbutzes, destroyed a few police stations, and killed nearly 1,000 mostly civilians. They have caused chaos heartbreak, and horror. But all that bloodthirsty mayhem isn't defeating Israel. Their actions have however, caused most people in the world to look on in disgust and pissed off the most advanced military in the region to no end.

Yes, it would appear Hamas has made the same mistake a lot of people have made in the past. When you kill and terrorize civilians you can make them cower in fear, but you also cause them to hate you more. In the end, maybe that was their objective. If so, they achieved it. Everyone with a sense of common decency and humanity, if they didn't before, now hates them and everything they claim to stand for.

Indeed, Hamas might have won in the short term, but their, "troops" such as they are and their leadership aren't long for this world. Whether they know it, or not, they are--each and every one of them--dead men walking,

And where will their victory be then?

10-10-23