The Real Forever War
Americans talk about “forever wars,” as if our wars in Afghanistan or Iraq could qualify as such.
The real forever war began in 610 A.D. when Islam was founded. It has never lived in peace with equals, only with peoples it has rendered subjects. The latest version of that forever war began in 1948, a few months after Israel was declared a nation by the UN, when its Arab neighbors began their wars to destroy the Jewish state.
I learned from Marine General Peter Pace … that the war terrorists are waging against the West is, at its core, a fight between ideologies.
Of necessity, Israel won that war — and the 1967 and 1973 wars and the wars since — because it is fighting for the lives of its citizens.
The outbreak of the latest war, on October 7, 2023, was brought about by the attack by the Hamas terrorist network. It has since spread to Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon. For the Arabs, the objective remains the same: the destruction of Israel.
No nation, not even Israel, can sustain a forever war. The current war’s costs are staggering.
More than 600,000 reservists have been called up by the Israeli Defense Forces, taking people away from their jobs. That — and the money that the fighting costs — account for the approximate 20 percent drop in the Israeli gross domestic product since October of last year.
The Moody’s credit agency reduced the ratings of Israel’s bonds from “A2” to “Baa1,” which means nothing to us but it has a huge effect on Israel’s ability to sell those bonds which means its government has a harder time paying for the war.
The longer the war goes on, the higher the cost and the greater Israel’s difficulty in paying for it. Israel gets billions in aid from the U.S. every year, but that’s not nearly enough to pay for the war.
And that’s only a part of the cost. The number of Israeli casualties in the current war are not known but are believed to be the worst casualties in fifty years, at least since the 1973 war. That means a lot of families will not have fathers or mothers, sisters or brothers by the end of 2024.
The world is awaiting the Israeli counter-attack to the Iranian missile barrage of October 1. President Biden and VP Kamala Harris have been urging the Israelis to be “proportional” in their counterattack and trying to get them to not attack Iran’s central assets. The Biden-Harris crew wants Israel to attack neither Iran’s nuclear weapons development sites nor — and this is contrary to what Biden said a week ago — Iran’s oil facilities.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last week that, “Our strike will be lethal, precise and above all, surprising. They won’t understand what happened or how.” Which leaves a lot of swinging room for the Israelis to hit back.
Meanwhile, Iran is not sitting idly by. It has been trying to get another head of Hizballah — its primary terrorist proxy — but the Israelis have managed to knock off each one. There is probably a lack of applicants at this point, but Iran will find some fool to follow the others to an early grave.
Moreover, Iran is threatening U.S. and Israeli allies. Any nation that allows Israel to use its skies to fly through to Iran, the Iranians say, will be next on their hit list. That is aimed at Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait — all of which are on the air routes between Israel and Iran — as well as the UAE and Qatar, both of which are home to major U.S. military bases.
And what else is the Biden-Harris crew doing? They’re increasing the already-ineffective U.S. sanctions against Iran. They’re busy sanctioning several of the ships that carry Iranian oil exports, which is the equivalent of doing nothing.
In 2006, I learned from Marine General Peter Pace, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the war terrorists are waging against the West is, at its core, a fight between ideologies. We have yet to engage in that war, which is essential to winning it. The Israeli-Arab war goes even deeper than that.
It is, as I have written many times, a religious war for the Arab states and Iran. As history has proved many times over, religious wars are virtually impossible to settle. Europe, in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, settled its internecine religious wars and became reconciled to the need for independent nations regardless of religion.
Christianity permitted the Peace of Westphalia. There has been no attempt to settle Israel’s forever war on that basis because the Arabs and Iran will not — and cannot because Islam prohibits it — make any such settlement.
Israel can outfight the Arab states and Iran and, possibly, with American help, outlast them. It cannot do either if Iran uses nuclear weapons against it.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly believes that Israel’s troubles will be over if the Iranian regime falls. But that’s not entirely true. No matter the outcome in Iran, the Arabs — propelled by Islam — will never make a lasting peace with Israel.
READ MORE from Jed Babbin:
One Year Since Oct. 7, Iran Is in Israel’s Crosshairs
Iran Stokes Endless War, US Does Nothing
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