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Originally Posted by PepsiFree
The post-9/11 response is a really easily comparable, in my mind, because it gives some frame of what “success” even looks like and has been highly criticized on its own (which is another point against the idea that Israel is uniquely criticized). And, I think it provides a really sobering look at the damage already done and what can actually be achieved.
In the last two weeks, based on approximate numbers, Israel has killed twice as many civilians as the US did in the first three months of the war on terror, while killing or capturing about 10-20% of the enemy fighters the US had. It took about 8 years to reduce the size of the Taliban by 75% and chase out (most of) Al Queda. But today, both are stronger in number than they were on 2001. The Taliban itself wasn’t that much bigger than Hamas.
Obviously some differences here, but that’s just an idea of what the immediate response looked like and what they achieved overall. I think Israel’s success here is going to be a lot less likely and a lot more costly than people assume.
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Israel has also dropped more bombs in Gaza in that first week than the US did in Afghanistan in any single year of their 20-year long invasion of Afghanistan.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ex...hospital-blast
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Israel has dropped more bombs on Gaza in the first week of this campaign, about 6,000 or so, than the U.S. dropped on Afghanistan in any single year of 20 years of war, as you know.
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I said it earlier when this all first started, but I completely understand the immediate reaction to the brutal murders by Hamas on normal, every day Israelis, but as noted by Biden, immediately exacting devastating revenge on Gaza and everyone in Gaza was going to be a mistake. I thought the better approach would have been to secure Israel, eliminate the terrorists who were in Israel causing chaos and then take a pause, mourn for the victims and grow international support in their favor for showing restraint in a devastating moment in Israel's history and then work on an international solution organized around moving Palestinian citizens out before going in to destroy Hamas.