One of the books I have only partially read is called Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict by Obadiah Shoher. I am not prepared to give an opinion on Shoher’s ideas until I have finished reading the book and had a little time to mull it over, but I came to this paragraph today and it struck a cord in light of our own national dialogue and the role of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan:
Israel’s failure in Lebanon and the Soviet Union’s in Afghanistan, the two cases of successful defensive jihad after centuries of Muslim impotence have the same cause: the unwillingness of the stronger power to wage normal war, which let defenders hide among the civilians and strike at leisure. The only way to fight a war is brutally. The choice is not between humaneness and cruelty but between waging war and surrender. Starting a war without being prepared to fight it is a recipe for failure, emboldening jihadi.
I have no doubts that our armed forces can carry out the mission but are we, as a nation and a people, prepared to let them do what needs to be done to win? I think not. We are still far too busy trying to remake and sanitize the nature of war.
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