I would strongly urge you to watch all of this 23 minute video.

Twenty years ago I loathed Glenn Greenwald. It’s not just that I thought his opposition to the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions was wrong, but it was the manner of his opposition, which seemed at the time to ascribe to America and the West that we were on the same moral and ethical level as the terrorists of 9/11.

But as he points out, we should be able to learn the lessons from those events.

From a purely utilitarian, practical point-of-view, what exactly is Israel going to be able to do in Gaza? We all know in advance how difficult – frankly impossible – it’s going to be to track down and kill the Hamas army when they deliberately hide among civilians. There’s no point in complaining that that itself is a war crime. Unless we’re willing to not only watch but accept the Israeli Army conducting military tribunal trials of Hamas “fighters” who do such things, followed by firing squads at dawn, then it’s going to keep happening and Gazan civilians, lots of them, are going to die as human shields for Hamas.

And even if Israel does wipe out Hamas – including their shitty leaders hiding in 5-star hotels in Qatar – who would replace them? You’re still going to have 2.5 million Gazans, with all their demons, living there. Who are they going to elect and support in the wake of such an operation?

Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be like the aftermath of the obliteration of Germany and Japan? The people crawled out of the holes they’d dug in their cities to escape the bombs and the shells, looked around, and decided they couldn’t have any more leaders like Tojo or Hitler.

Is this racial then? Is it not possible that Arabic Gazans, Semitic Gazans, could follow in the footsteps of peoples like the Germans and Japanese who had seen their fellow citizens crushed and burned by a foreign enemy and chosen a different course into the future that would not lead them back into another cycle of death, even if that meant working with that old enemy?

I guess we are about to find out.

Meanwhile, from the military planning world, Cdr Salamander lays out some options:

If you wanted to know how it shifted, my most dovish COA (Course Of Action) is gone, and my most harsh COA is now the center of my Overton Window.

COA-A: Germany 1945

• The Gaza Strip will be segmented and block by block, field by field, be demilitarized. Person by person will be identified biometrically with the primary goal to “de-Hamas” the entire population. Responsible leaders will be found to administer civil requirements. Zero tolerance for breaking the peace. Peaceful civilians can stay. Violence will result in non-subsidized exile or imprisonment followed by exile. (NB: the voluntary or involuntary exile of Gazans is a problem in all COA. If you look from London, to Sydney, to NYC, the West does not need to import any more of those who want to bring their sectarianism to the West. Any of these highlighted nations will suffice.) After appropriate security environment is achieved, transition to home rule for all but military or diplomatic areas can continue.

COA-B: Danzig 1945

• As with COA-A, the Gaza Strip will be segmented, etc. The exception here is the humane (as opposed to the rather brutal 45-47 depopulation of Danzig (now Gdansk)) depopulation of the Gaza Strip. As German Danzig is now Polish Gdansk – and Danzig will never be the same as it was – so too could Gaza no longer be non-Israeli. As German excesses (understatement) in WWII opened the window for otherwise unacceptable exile of an entire population, Hamas Gaza’s beheading of infants and Einsatzgruppen LARPing through neighboring kibbutzim has opened that window for Gaza. Israel suffered for decades terror from Gaza and in 2005 gave them a chance to be self-governing. Instead, they became a nest of death squads. An Israeli-annexed Gaza would not have that problem. COA-B is the entry level response if you want to make a statement to enemies that will last generations, while still maintaining humanity – especially if exile is subsidized. Per capita income in Gaza is $2,764. Upon exile with no right for return, each will receive $3,000 in three installments over three years; $9,000 total. Cost: ~$6 billion a year for three years, $18 billion total.

COA-C: Carthage

• Segmentation and subsidized exile as per COA-B, but no immediate Israeli settlement for 50-years. Inventory World Heritage Sites, religious sites that existed prior to 1950, and cemeteries. Protect and preserve. Level every other building in the Gaza Strip except for needed infrastructure and national security related locations. Allow the strip to rewild and turned to a nature preserve. Allow for a reevaluation of Gaza’s status in 2073. Want the lesson to be remembered? Want to make sure the threat does not return? Want to make Gaza unlike it was? That will do it, yet allow the nation of Israel to maintain its humanity.