From a most unlikely source, the BBC, comes an excellent defense of Israel’s Gaza incursion. Two points stand out here. One, war is hell. It’s completely unpredictable and impossible to fully choreograph. Two, by way of the first point, civilian deaths and collateral damage are unavoidable, especially when the fight is conducted exclusively on the urban terrain. As the good colonel notes below, civilian casualties benefit Hamas, not Israel — which is precisely why the IDF has taken unprecedented steps (at considerable cost) to shield noncombatants from the fury of their offensive.
HT: Seraphic Secret