Urban / City Warfare (merged thread)

[Strickland]

I could not disagree more with this piece. As for the protection tanks and APCs afford Israeli troops, the PLO demonstrated in the Battle of Jenin that small hunter-killer or RPG teams could negate this. Urban combat is made easier when you (the Israelis) follow the Russian model in Grozny. Everything is made easier when you perceive all persons (civilians, women, children, military aged males, etc.) as enemy combatants.

I assume that the reference to Doug MacGregor is one to the same individual that proposed rushing to Baghdad with a brigade and nothing else in 2002?

[SWJED]

I could not disagree more with this piece. As for the protection tanks and APCs afford Israeli troops, the PLO demonstrated in the Battle of Jenin that small hunter-killer or RPG teams could negate this. Urban combat is made easier when you (the Israelis) follow the Russian model in Grozny. Everything is made easier when you perceive all persons (civilians, women, children, military aged males, etc.) as enemy combatants.

... but the author would not come out and say "exactly" why the claimed edge exists.

If you understand urban operations, the differences in the political and military situations between Gaza and Iraq and between the IDF and Coalition forces you can read / understand what is implied throughout the article. To the casual reader this piece could be implied that we need to be following the IDF lead in tackling the sit in Iraq. That would be a very bad thing indeed.

[SWJED]

I assume that the reference to Doug MacGregor is one to the same individual that proposed rushing to Baghdad with a brigade and nothing else in 2002?

That would be the man... Breaking the Phalanx...

[Jedburgh]

I also strongly disagree with this piece. We've discussed the false analogy of the US in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian issue before on this board.

[Tom Odom]

The real difference is that Israel does not engage in what we call COIN. The IDF operates as a purely punitive/containment force; there is no such thing as CMO, IO as we call it, or fight for a population's loyalties.

They did not do COIN in Lebanon. They did not do COIN in Gaza and they do not do COIN on the West Bank.

Tom