This article was written by my Rabbi.
I hope you give it close read as it's something that we need to understand know how to explain to others.
B"H
Continuing the theme of last week's e-mail, I want to say a few words about the Torah's approach to war.
War is a serious thing. It's no joke. You can't do it half way.
As a child I took karate, and I remember our instructor taught us, "Don't get into a fight unless you are willing to kill the person. Otherwise, run away, or avoid it somehow. Fights are serious, and should only be used as a last resort of self-defense."
This is the Torah's approach to war:
If no aggression actually started yet, you:
1. Seek a peace treaty, but one that does not compromise your safety or other essential needs.
2. You send a warning, that you are going to wage war, and anyone that does not agree with their leaders, and does not wish to enter war, risking their lives, should leave.
3. Then, you wage war.
When, waging war you:
1. Surround the enemy from three sides (leaving one side open for escape).
2. Use psychological tactics to scare away the enemy, preventing or lessening the battle.
3. You kill all remaining adult men, and take women and children captive, having them work and educating them in the ways of peace.
This is the ONLY way to fight a war if you care about human life (of both you and your enemy), and want the war to be quickly and decisively resolved.
This way, anyone that does not want to take part in the war doesn't. There is much pressure put on the leaders to reconsider the war. And such a war serves as a lesson that prevents others from considering war as an option.
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Terrorism must be fought against with these tactics.
If terrorists come from a certain town or region or country, there is a mixture of good and bad, of supporters and opposers.
It is vital that we uproot the source of the terrorists' power. This comes from their supporters.
The leaders actively train and educate people to be terrorists, because they want to use them for their political or personal gain. We need to uproot this source of support.
The civilians support and celebrate the terrorists as martyrs. This gives many terrorists a reason to die. They are failures, they are insecure. Now, they get to be national heroes. This needs to be uprooted.
The town or region or country must be given an ultimatum in three stages:
1. Turn over, punish, caste out, or prevent all terrorism from your region.
2. If not, we will wage war on this region to uproot the terrorists. Anyone who does not support them and does not wish to die, leave.
3. Surround them on three sides, announce that if they don't surrender everyone in the area will die.
4. They surrender and you never have trouble from them again.
5. You set an example, so that no one else will ever make trouble for you again.
(America and Israel only fail at this because they are afraid to make such an outright ultimatum. They are afraid to even threaten to kill "everyone." And because of that, many many more die. Fighting door to door is INSANE. If that's how you feel, if you're insucure and don't feel justified in waging war, then don't. Then just leave and surrender. But if you want to stand up for your people and their right to live, then you must fight a war. And war means that anyone who does not flee the battleground is dead.)
This is the simple truth of war. It is a very powerful tool when properly used.
And when properly used it SAVES LIVES. It ENDS VIOLENCE.
This is the purpose of war, at least the way it is meant to be.
And in the event that anyone remains to fight, they obviously are so bent on continuing their evil that they will die and kill others in the end, so better let them die now and save many innocent lives from fear and pain and death.
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The Rebbe advised Israel to give just such and ultimatum during the first Lebanon War. And the Rebbe promised that if they give the ultimatum -- that if the town didn't surrender, they would kill everyone left in the town. They would not have to kill anyone, because they would surrender, and they would never have problems from them again, until Moshiach comes.
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Now I know that you are not leaders of countries or armies, so why do you need to know this? At least if people's views change, it will influence the leaders.
As for us, we must fight the terrorists in a different way: By doing the EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY WANT!
When ever terror strikes, we must not fear. We must REDOUBLE whatever we were doing that the terrorists want us to stop.
This way we send a message that their attacks only make us stronger and only hurt their goals.
I believe that this is one of reason's why the Rebbe's response to one terror attack was, "Comfort will come through building."
We must answer terror with building and expansion. Whatever was destroyed must be rebuilt bigger and better. We must only grow and grow.
May we all have true world-wide peace and comfort,
May truth prevail in the war of minds, so that we need not fight wars with guns,
Wishing you all a good Shabbos,
Topic: Battle Tactics From G-d (Read 625 times)