Today PM Ehud Olmert said something very stupid. He was meeting with kids in a school in the northern town of Nahariya. He was in the school in which Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser had attended. He was asked about the war and why he stopped it without having achieved his stated goal and purpose of returning the abducted soldiers to israel.
His response was, "it is preferable that they spend a little more time in captivity than having more soldiers die".
In other words, it was not worth it. The price to get the boys back was too high.
Let's not forget that the motto of the army, of every army, is never to leave a soldier in the field. An army goes after and protects its soldiers at all costs, yet PM Olmert is saying they should sit in captivity.
Let's not forget that these same people are the ones responsible for the disappearance of Ron Arad, Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman, and Yehuda Katz (Guy Hever simply disappeared and as far as I know we do not know that Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria or Iran were involved, though they might have been, so he is not in the list), well over 20 years ago. Is that the attitude we used in reference to those soldiers? Better they should sit in captivity a little longer? Is Ehud Olmert signing them off to the same fate?
Let us not forget that these boys have families. These families must not be too happy to hear that the Prime Minister did not feel their childrens return was important enough. Let them sit in captivity a little longer.
Let us not forget that the stated goal of the war, the whole impetus for war, was the abduction of the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
Let us not forget that many soldiers died in war attempting to retrieve Udi and Eldad safely and by Olmert saying that "it is preferable that they spend a little more time in captivity than having more soldiers die" he is saying that the all soldiers that did die and all the soldiers that were injured and all the soldiers that put themselves at risk was all for naught. There was no need for them to go to war. The ones that died already - oh well.
Let us not forget that the basic responsibility of an army is to protect its soldiers at all costs.
Let us not forget that the basic responsibility of a country and its government is to protect its borders and provide security to its citizens. The purpose of an army is just for that purpose, even if at times it entails soldiers deaths, sad as that may be. By saying it was not worth soldiers dying for that cause, PM Olmert is absconding his responsibility. The enemy sees that we are not willing to protect our borders nor to provide security for our citizens.
There is something rotten at the top.
I hate to say this, but stupid people say stupid things.
ReplyDeleteWhat Olmert says shouldn't surprise anyone.
I agree 1000% with everything that the author of this article said. It is so infuriating and depressing how the Israelli government abandoned its boys.
ReplyDeleteOn top of this, Israel failed to disarm Hizbullah, which was the other major objective of the war. Further the Israelli government failed to hold the UN into upholding their resolution for the disbanding of Hizbullah.
President Bush acted just as reprehensibly as Olmert did. President Bush started and certainly understands deeply the war against terror and the manner in which it must be faught. (I wholeheartedly support President Bush's actions in Afghanistan and in Iraq.) In this vain President Bush pledged strong support to Israel in the matter of the Lebanon war; he understood that Israel is doing what it needs to do in the fight agasint terror, and President Bush said that the war should go on until Israel eliminates Hizbullah. I respected Bush greatly for saying this. But somewhere along the way Bush (along with Condalleza Rice) got "cold-feet" and pressured Israel to pull out. Bush still has not pulled out of neither Afghanistan nor Iraq- how dare he pressure Israel to pull out of Lebanon!!!
I am infuriated and deeply saddened by the whole matter. Israel could have crushed Hizbullah, but instead they empowered them by giving them great confidence, by getting international public opinion to side with them, and by leaving them in a situation of military strength and allowing them to rebuild.
And to exchange living terrorist criminals (including that animal Samir Kuntar, may his name be blotted out) for the bodies of our sons...this makes the war a total success for Hizbullah and a total failure for Israel. It tells Hizbullah and all the Muslim Arab terrorist organizations that if they kidnap and kill Israellis, then Israel will give them back living terrorist criminals in return for their remains.
At this point the only thing I can say is that Israel and the US should both wage war against Iran, before things become much worse for everyone.
thanks for commenting YK
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