Carolyn Glick | JNS | March 12, 2024
Caroline Glick speaks with the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute John Spencer about, in his analysis, the wrongful comparisons between the Israel/Gaza war and other urban warfare conflicts. Spencer first made waves when he posited in several Newsweek articles that the civilian casualty number is actually quite low, that Israel was in full compliance with international law and that any comparison to urban warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq is entirely incorrect. Spencer breaks down his arguments and explains that despite what the international community thinks Israel is actually winning the war “spectacularly”.
John Spencer’s analysis of the Gaza war is truly brilliant. He seems to be the only military analyst who really understands what the war is all about. The sheer size and complexity of the tunnel system, and its integration with civilian homes and facilities, such as hospitals, means that it cannot be compared with any previous war. Maybe the American-Vietnamese war, in which the Viet Cing did employ a tunnel system to hide its forces,with some success.But even theVietnamtunnel networks were not nearly as vast and thoroughly integrated into civilian communities as the Hamas networks. Whoever designed the networks was something of a genius, although an evil one. But he was enormously helped by the willingness of the of Israel and the”internationalcommunity” to supply Hamas with unlimited amounts of cement, supposedly to build homes, schools, hospitals etc. but actually used to construct the tunnel system. The one thing that I would disagree with in Spencer;s analysis is conclusion that Hamas’s main objective in launching its war against Israel was to increase its prestige and influence in the Arab world. I believe that its actual objective was what Hamas always said was its objective–the destruction of Israel.