How Great Warriors Become Great Humanists

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Since Israel is at war, Israel’s General Staff would do well to emulate General George S. Patton, the warrior most feared by Nazi Germany.

On the eve of battle, Patton would admonish his soldiers: “The object of war is not to die for your country. It is to make the other poor dumb bastard die for his.” This requires confronting and killing the enemy on the battlefield.

“Never let the enemy rest.” No cease fires or hudnas. Unconditional surrender should be Israel’s proclaimed war aim!

“We want the enemy to KNOW that they are fighting the toughest fighting men in the world!” This precludes benevolence (which Arabs despise). Just as Hamas (or Hezbollah) warriors would show no mercy to you, so you should show no mercy to them. These warriors must be killed even if this results in civilian casualties.

“Forget about army regulations … [which] are written by those who have never been in battle…Our only mission in combat is to win.” Hence, general officers may sometimes have to disobey orders of the political echelon!

Patton’s famous admonition, “Grab the Enemy by the nose and kick him in the pants,” though simple, is profoundly significant in the war between Jews and Arabs. Israel must devastate the Arabs or Muslims from top to bottom so as to erase the Islamic arrogance that prompts them to wage war against “infidels.”

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak shy from these war principles, which would require them to order the IDF to confront and kill the enemy primarily on the battlefield. Bombing the enemy’s infrastructure should not obscure the importance of destroying the enemy’s ground forces. The defeat of these Arab warriors must be so thorough that it will eradicate their desire to wage war for a hundred years—the policy of the Allies powers that made militant Germany and Japan lovers of peace.

Olmert will be reluctant to pursue this policy not because he is a humanitarian—recall Amona—but because he fears world opinion, UN condemnation, and possible sanctions. This fear cannot but undermine the General Staff and the fighting spirit of Israeli soldiers. This fear is baseless.

It is of capital importance that Israel’s ruling elites pursue the war in Lebanon and in Gaza as a war between good and evil. They must shun the moral relativism that tainted Ariel Sharon who said, while Jews were being reduced to body parts, that he does not think in terms of “black and white.” This relativism modulated Sharon’s policy of self-restraint toward Arab warriors—a policy that resulted in more than 6,000 Jewish casualties under his premiership.

That Sharon did not think in terms of “black and white” indicates that he was unfit to be Israel’s prime minister, especially in a war where the enemy consists of Arabs whose leaders emphatically think in terms of “black and white,” and who therefore imbue their warriors (as well as civilians) with the most ferocious hatred of Israel. This hatred steels Islamic warriors. Hence the IDF will have to become a virtual killing machine to stop the killing once and for all!

Israel’s victory in this war will ultimately depend on whether its General Staff is animated by the profound sense of good and evil that inspired America’s greatest generals—suffice to mention, along with Patton, William Tecumseh Sherman of Civil War fame. Both generals inspired their armies with complete confidence in the justice of their cause. Yet both pursued a war strategy that actually minimized casualties on all sides. They imbued their soldiers with the will to win and in the shortest possible time. This requires the use of overwhelming force and the uninterrupted attack.

The general who believes in the justice of his country’s cause will not shy from cruelty against Israel’s enemies because it is by means of cruelty that he can shorten the war and thus minimize bloodshed. Thus, in this war between good and evil, those Israeli generals who implement the principles of war will be our greatest humanists.