An unidentified reader sent me this video. Suffice it to say the boys of S13 violated every rule...I'm surprised a few of them weren't killed. Watch this and weep at the incompetence.
PS.
I previously stated that the IDF was too gentle in the initial assault. That was before I saw this video. These guys were sent on a suicide mission. No allowance was made for possible resistance and armed with clubs these people were able to repel (for a while) the best Commandos in the Israeli Defense Force. Amazing.
You know, I get the feeling that this whole flotilla may have been staged for something like this. The international uproar is just too good of an opportunity for Hamas (and/or Hezbollah) to pass up - especially considering Hamas is really getting desperate now as the blockades are working. Even Egypt is cooperating more and more.
ReplyDeleteThe other vids show S13 personnel getting stabbed in the back; that incident alone would turn everything ugly. Firebombs are even worse.
I was surprised by the earlier vids of Israelis rappelling down onto crowded decks. There was no rush to wait them out, at least to wait for a better spot to land (or create one with harmless smoke or teargas grenades).
So what was the rush? The Israelis aren't *that* stupid, there must've been a reason...
Should have brought stun guns or other nonlethal weapons. Sticky issue at hand indeed.
ReplyDeleteNote: The Israeli blocked the import of construction material because more often than not, they were used to build smuggle tunnels. They also provide authorized channels for other humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza.
i'm just surprised that no one is putting together the pieces at least as far as Turkey is concerned.
ReplyDeletelast year they fired the Army Chief of Staff (put him under arrest I believe)...then they basically cancel military cooperation with Israel once the Muslim government became more sure of itself...the Turkish government then made a deal with Iran with the aid of Brazil and now this.
Europe better be careful, their worst dream might become reality. Turkey as a fundamentalist Islamic state...an arrow aimed at the heart of Europe.
the best thing the EU has done is to deny them membership.
but back to the raid. it was so poorly done. so badly bungled that it defies description.
Israeli-Turkish-EU relations will survive.
ReplyDeleteBack to the raid, it always seems easier from 3rd person's perspective. i would not go beyond saying that "it could have been far worse."
Or that they should have brought 20 dozens tear gas canister.
Marcase: "You know, I get the feeling that this whole flotilla may have been staged for something like this."
ReplyDeleteGee, ya think?
Like I said before, there was a great deal of tactical and technical incompetence around this operation, and NOT just in the rules of engagement. Heads need to role, but this being Israel, I doubt it will happen.
4 of the 5 ships in the flotilla were captured without incidence.
ReplyDeleteThe 5th - MV Mavi Marmara - is a freaking 4,000 GT cruiser.
Yeah, "incompetence" - you bet. Be fair, if you wouldn't mind. Only Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and the Rambo that you are inspired to be could have done executed the raid better. Cheer.
Bullshit Anonymous. They fucked up. The raid was a cluster. I don't give a damn if it was a rowboat, the op was a mess.
ReplyDeleteRainbow Six and Rambo? Not on your life .... Plain, basic, Infantry tactics ... the type that are conducted at a lower (supposedly, not sure after watching the S13---Israeli Navy SEALs) level than the supermen that raided these boats.
hey cowboy, get a clue, you can criticize a military op without being a traitor.
I hear another ship is on the way.
ReplyDeleteEgypt just opened its border with Gaza...so in a way Israel brought about the exact opposite of what they were trying to do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/world/middleeast/02flotilla.html?pagewanted=2&hp
ReplyDeleteRead in the NY Times.
"An Israeli official said that the navy was planning to stop five of the six vessels of the flotilla with large nets that interfere with propellers, but that the sixth was too large for that. The official said there was clearly an intelligence failure in that the commandos were expecting to face passive resistance, and not an angry, violent reaction."
+++++++++++++
I don't know whether these groups are getting smarter, or the Israelis (from the top all the way down)are becoming stupider and more complacent.
i'd vote for more complacent. they were able to board 5 of the vessels successfully so awareness to danger probably went down. the biggest give away that mission awareness was out the window was the fast rope into a crowd.
ReplyDeleteyou just don't do that. i don't care how gung-ho you are, how hard core you are, you just don't do it.
Haaretz:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/fiasco-on-the-high-seas-1.293415
And one of the analyses on the 2006 war. The high level decisions are interesting, in a depressing way.
U.S. Army Combined Arms Center:
http://cgsc.edu/carl/download/csipubs/matthewsOP26.pdf
Ferran, BCN
oh i've read the analysis. the problem is that too many of our generals are politicians and neo-liberals.
ReplyDeletethe idea that war is about winning hearts and minds should be foreign to the military. NGO's can do that. the UN can do that but besides delivering relief supplies and killing bad guys, we shouldn't be involved in trying to make friend. especially when the cultures are so different.
Israel got screwed by its military and political leadership. just like the US has in the 'war on terror'.
On fastroping: I'm from Spain. Among many other things, this means that there's a "State", Euskadi, where 16% of the adult population votes --or tries to-- parties deemed illegal for terrorism advocacy. Seen some "nice" demonstrations --and they were not, by far, the harshest ones--. I also recall the battlecries when the police helos surveyed the demonstrations late 2003-early 2004 (I don't do demos, but 90% against it meant, basically, demos everywhere, anytime). I wouldn't use a single helo unto a ship full of a citizen crowd, much less one full of Hamas sympathizers.
ReplyDeleteBTW, that on fastroping was me; sorry.
ReplyDeleteNeo-lib here means quite the opposite, but yes. What I liked about that analysis is the picture it gives of high command. I can sort of understand that generals who've reached flag status during the late Cold War or later have problems with war urgencies, commanding from the rear [*]. Israel does not have the luxury; their war is not "far, far away". Or occasional.
Ferran, BCN.
[*] The signal-to-noise ratio in medals is very different if you compare 4-star generals to people who've deployed recently.
IDF account of Operation Sea Breeze:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060404272_pf.html
Sounds anything but bullshit or incompetent to me, unless again, you are looking for stuff from Rainbow Six.
yeah it does sound like comedy central with tragic consequences you moronic idiot.
ReplyDeleteno one is expecting Rainbow Six you arrogant fuck, what i do expect is competence from personnel carrying out an operation.
"When the first rappel rope was lowered out of the helicopter, the activists grabbed it and attached it to the ship. Because of the potential danger to the helicopter, the crew had to quickly drop the rope. That left only one rope left for the assault -- and the soldiers coming down it were quickly outmanned."
as soon as they tied off the rope that was a hostile act. they said so themselves....they had to move quickly because of the potential danger to the helicopter???? sounds like hostility to me.
they fucked up. once it was apparent that this was not going to be a nice, neat, simple operation---they had a responsibility to each other to back off and get help.
they didn't and several Commandos are in the hospital
so my statement stands and you're full of shit.