I have trouble updating my computer so I can not pretend to understand electronic warfare, but apparently the Israelis are really good at it.

 Assuming that my analysis of the Israeli attack on the Iranian military facility in Isfahan is correct (yesterday's blog post), it may well have some implications beyond Iran, in as much as I assume that the Iranians have access to the very best Russian air defense systems currently available.  I am long out of touch with military technology, but my guess is that the Israeli missile got through the Iranian air defenses because they were jammed and the missile moved fast and accurately.  I have trouble updating my computer so I can not pretend to understand electronic warfare, but apparently the Israelis are really good at it.  The miserable showing of the recent, massive Iranian missile/drone attack on Israel would also seem to indicate that Israel is better at defense technology and organization than is Iran.  Hundreds of targets in the air simultaneously with Arab, Israeli and American assets trying to knock them down without killing each other is an absolutely amazing feat no matter how you look at it.  The fact that they were so successful is absolutely unbelievable, even if you allow for luck.

I once had an opportunity to spend three days with General Moshe Dayan on his visit to Viet Nam during the war there.  I asked him why Israel had been so successful in their various wars with different Arab nations.  His response was that “it helps if your enemy is an Arab.”  I presume that his compatriots in the IDF are saying much the same thing to themselves right now.  While that attitude has obvious advantages during conflict, it is the antithesis of what is required whenever the killing lets up a bit.  Both Jerusalem and Washington are understandably focused on the conflict that is immediately at hand and that is understandable and very necessary, but I try to look beyond the immediate chaos to find a way to end this stupidity that has been going on for millennia.  My conclusion is that conflict can not be eliminated in the Middle East without addressing it throughout the entire world.  It is no longer possible to “win” a war in one part of the world without addressing the issues that lead to conflict elsewhere.

Today, Russia and China are piggy backing on the Iranian argument with Israel to further their own objectives in other parts of the world and Iran is helping them with their various regional arguments in return.  All three of them are meddling with various other arguments in other parts of the world in an effort to gain more support for their own malign activities.  Specific conflicts grow into regional conflicts and regional conflicts threaten to grow into global conflicts.  We try to resolve all of this with inadequate regional solutions.  Congress is currently deciding how much money to parcel out to which friend and the American people are trying to decide whether they want to be led by a megalomaniac or a coward.  Everybody is fascinated with the technology and none of us are thinking about how to resolve the issues that underlie all of the discontent.

What is needed is a leader of the free world.  Such can not be attained through any amount of wishful thinking.  It requires massive numbers of individuals to agree to address the challenge with their minds, pledge their resources to the effort, and think creatively.  Look around yourself and ask if you see any of this.  I quite frankly do not.  What I see is a group of really nice people that are too busy with their own lives to think about any of it.  And that is here, in the best educated, richest, most caring country in the history of the world.  Our solution to every single one of our problems at home and abroad is to explain endlessly that it is the other guys fault and preach our own brand of wishful thinking at the top of our lungs.  Think about the fact that our national legislature sees it as being their responsibility to protect the American people from Tik Tok.  The fear being that the Chinese’s Communist Party is able to mold our minds by putting trash on our phones.  That does not sound to me like a populace that I want leading the world. It sounds more like a group of robots that think that they are human, flowing with the vibe, cherishing the moment, believing in the greater good - as defined by their tribal masters.