Many of us consider Victor Davis Hanson on of the wisest political commenters on the scene today. But why is that so? Could it be because as a military historian he has come to terms far better than even the average historian with what is sometimes called out ‘lizard brain’ which we all reponed to instinctually? I think it is, and his series called ‘Office Hours’ based on the graduate course he is teaching at Pepperdine sheds a lot of light on it. He analyzed the European campaign of George Patton a couple weeks ago, and correctly notes how much it owes to Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’. And it does
. But there is more to the story, Two Englishmen, Brigadier J.F.C Fuller and Captain Sir Basil Liddell-Hart both studied Sherman’s campaigns while rightly noting that a fair amount even in them came from another American general, Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, especially in his Shenandoah Campaign. There were some people who paid a lot of attention to these studies, even thought they weren’t English, in fact they were Feldmarschals Heinz Guderian and Erwin Rommel, who defeated France and England in 1940. A lot of what makes VDH so exceptional is how is able to apply this to things going on presently. Here’s VDH on Patton
There is lots of insight here on why the IDF needs to keep up the skeer, and other issues. One of those is that Trump is something along the same line, although my instant thought was that his lack of military experience shows in his neglect of, in the Duke of Wellington’s phrase, ‘taking pains’ in other words of making sure that his instructions were carried out, and that is not as important in civilian life where it tends to be more obvious.
The root of the argument is made here where the history of The Army of the West is outlined and why it ended the Civil War
And here we see how the Army of the West defeated not only the Confederate armies opposed to it but the Confederacy itself, by ridiculing it, and separating the Blacks and the poor whites from the plantation class. How Sherman did this is a direct example of exactly what the IDF needs to do in Gaza. There’s no harm in killing Hamas but the effectiveness of the campaign lies in demonstrating to the Gazans that Hamas is completely in the power of Israel. Now mind that doesn’t mean that the Gazans will love Israel, to this day the descendants of the poor whites in 1864 Georgia still hate Sherman but the south hasn’t risen again.
It’s interesting how the German (probably Prussian) at the victory parade. viewed those armies. No real comments on the Army of the Potomac, new uniforms, heavily equipped, nearly a perfect European style army. But the next day when the Army of the West paraded, 30,000 freed slaves as sappers, ragged uniforms and the long lanky stride of men than walked long distances, they commented that no army in Europe could stop this army. Maybe it was a foreshadowing of what 3d US Army would do to Germany 90 years later.
In any case, that is the task facing Israel now. I think they know it, and how to do it.