Don’t die smiling
Soldiers’ job is to fight and win, rather than worry about television cameras
The confusion that overwhelmed our leaders and military commanders in wake of the Turkish flotilla may prove disastrous in the future. The messages conveyed from our top brass to the “field” make it appear that IDF soldiers must “take into account” the fact that the war has shifted from the decks of ships to the television screens, and that cameras are much more important than rifles.
All of a sudden, brave and bold IDF soldiers are being asked to show their pearly whites, smile from ear to ear, and be nice and polite in the face of their enemies.
I have one thing to say about this: Heaven forbid. The first and almost only mission of a soldier on the battlefield is to fight, and win. Woe on us and woe on the IDF if the heads of our military PR establishment will succeed in imparting the rules of etiquette to our troops. Have we gone mad?
It is possible, and in my view it’s also necessary, to debate the use of force against the new kind of warfare we’re facing – yet the moment the decision to use military force has been taken, the first demand of any soldier (not only our Navy commandoes) is to fight. If there is no choice and one needs to kill in order to win, then there is no choice: Shoot and kill. Regrettably, sometimes our soldiers get killed too.
This is why we have an army, and this is its job. If it’s possible to operate politely, pleasantly, and kindly, by all means do so; it won’t hurt. Yet smiling and being kind as a mission statement is out of the question.
The camera is indeed an important weapon in the current wars, and more so in the future. However, precious soldier, our son, do us a favor: Don’t die smiling and righteous. Too many righteous people are buried under tombstones in the “streets of silence,” as Ehud Barak once poetically described our military cemeteries.
No war looks good on camera
I think back to a distant relative, Captain Yossi Kaplan, may he rest in peace. According to the stories, Yossi was pursuing terrorists in the Jordan Rift Valley, saw a Bedouin woman breastfeeding outside a cave, chose to be nice and polite, looked away and decided not to check the cave – he ended up being killed along with other soldiers and officers by terrorists hiding in that cave.
Well, who remembers Yossi today? Who remembers his noble gesture? That Bedouin woman must be a grandmother by now, while Yossi is buried.
And what about our PR, you ask? After all, this is Israel’s real battlefield these days. After all, we can win on the military battlefield, yet lose in the Oval Office at the White House, in London, Paris, and mostly on CNN and BBC.
Well, there are no happy wars, and a war that looks good on camera has not yet been invented. War is usually accompanied by the most difficult images imaginable: Body parts, corpses, and even women and children caught up in the crossfire. Those in charge of PR are aware of this, and their job is to “soften up” these situations and mostly the images. They get a salary for that too. The soldiers’ mission is, as noted, to fight and win.
A whole other matter is whether using military force is the only alternative, and whether there is a point to try other methods. There’s much to say and write about that, and much has been said and written already. Given the situation abroad and the atmosphere here at home and within the government, we will likely have much to complain about, debate on, and be disappointed with.
