Are city fights the root of all evil? While I prefer to avoid such fights in large cities, sometimes you have no choice but to fight in a city if you want to achieve your war aims.
I thought this was going to be a nice warning about urban warfare challenges. Instead it spouted idiocy about the purported blowback from urban battles in Hue (South Vietnam), Grozny (Chechnya), Mogadishu (Somalia), and Fallujah (Iraq). I don't see the disasters the author claims the battles caused.
Hue was part of a counteroffensive in response to the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive that ultimately crushed the Viet Cong. Communist mass slaughter of civilians in Hue is what taught South Vietnamese a lesson. Rather than wrecking South Vietnamese support for the war, it contributed to subsequent counterinsurgency success that required a North Vietnamese conventional invasion of South Vietnam to win the war. American support declined after Tet--not Hue-- but defeat was achieved as Democrats sought to exploit Nixon's resignation many years after the battle to ensure the success of the 1975 North Vietnamese offensive.
Grozny has resulted in a Chechnya ally that serves Putin in Ukraine.
Mogadishu was a tactically decisive victory--a moving Roarke's Drift--that was pointless because our mission had escalated from popular famine relief to building a nation in Somalia--which we had no domestic support for achieving. In addition, it wasn't really a battle for the city. It was a raid gone awry and a rescue mission.
Fallujah saw our military crush a jihadi sanctuary in Iraq. Given the successful Sunni tribal Awakening begun just two years later, it can hardly be said to have alienated Iraq's Sunni Arabs. The jihadis and Baathists who continued to fight us were pre-alienated.
Who is this
author? What is he talking about? Is the only purpose to deter an Israeli operation in Gaza? I'm truly puzzled.
Although I will say his final paragraph, seemingly unconnected to his urban warfare discussion, has some possibilities for "bold and innovative solutions" for lasting peace.
You want a warning about urban warfare? Try my most recent article.
But I don't say only bad things happen because you fight in cities. Even I recognize that sometimes you have no choice but to fight those city battles. All I'll add is that you should only fight for what you need to take. That advice gets more important the larger the city you are fighting in is.
And we shall see how much Israel reduces the urban warfare problems by getting civilians out of Gaza City, disrupting Hamas defenses and weakening their fighters, and preparing their own troops and their campaign plan to fight effectively to destroy Hamas as much as possible.
Also, do keep in mind what the rules of war require rather than listen to almost anybody in the media tell you what it is.
NOTE: The image was made from DALL-E.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm still adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.
