[Archives] On Body Counts
Please Stop The Madness
Howdy,
I published a little something at the Bulwark on the pending Rafah offensive. It’s pretty good. I will publish the original piece this weekend. It’s about 4,000 words and provides more context about my thoughts on Israel’s war against Hamas.
There’s a lull in high-intensity operations as the IDF prepares to invade Rafah, which they should’ve done at the beginning of the war, but I digress. I don’t like writing about wars at the operational level while they are occurring. It’s bound to be wrong. The fog of war is a very real thing. It makes fools of us all (see Iraq and Afghanistan).
Nevertheless, the war about the war is centered on the lack of humanitarian assistance for Gazans, which I touch on here, and the “civilian casualties,” aka dead women and children. There are a lot of numbers being bandied about. Hamas says everyone is innocent, even Ahmed over there, who stumbled upon an unclaimed AK-47. The IDF rejoins with a body count of ~13-15K Hamas fighters.
Gun to my head who do I believe? The IDF. They’re a democratic ally who has provided invaluable intelligence during the GWOT. They have an incentive to be truthful. That doesn’t mean they always will be. They’re the state, for goodness sake! Of course, they lie.
But here’s the thing: all these numbers are bullshit.
War isn’t a freakn’ math equation. It can never be immaculate. It’s not a video game. It is an inherently human endeavor filled with all the wonders and horrors of man: greed, vengeance, benevolence, kindness, and wrath.
That doesn’t mean you should throw down at a moment’s notice. (Although I must admit, I like to party. ) However, it does mean that deciding on a war’s effectiveness solely on body counts is a recipe for disaster. You would think that our horrible track record with body counts in Vietnam would ensure that we cast a wary eye toward such talk, but alas, here we are.
I’ve probably responded to a dozen mass casualty events, everything ranging from car bombs to suicide bombers. After the carnage is over (and who knows when that happens), higher headquarters always wanted a body count so they could plug them into their little spreadsheet of justice.
As a young officer, I tried to get the most accurate body count possible. How did I do that? I asked the Iraqis or the Afghans. They usually gave me some number, and I did an instant visual sanity check. If it made sense, that was the number.
There are no magical CSI investigators who come tumbling out of door #2 in war. All of these numbers are guesses—at most. Often, they are political or an attempt to bolster a career. Who doesn’t want to lead the raid that killed 1 million Talibs?
While killing the enemy is the firstborn son of war, it is not a military objective that should support the political objective. The IDF’s military objective is to destroy Hamas’ war machine and dislodge it from power, which nests under its political purpose, removing it from power. It’s a total war.
Anyone who looks you straight in the eye and tells you he knows for certain one way or another how this war will end is either a) an ideologue trying to whisper sweet nothings in your ear or b) knows nothing of war because they’ve never been anywhere near it — or C) all of the above.
Nobody knows if the IDF’s military strategy will work out. There’s no secret blueprint for fighting this type of war. However, what we do know is that solely keeping track of dead bodies is nothing but a talking point.
Be careful. Try not to kill innocent civilians. But war is killing. It will always be killing. You cannot make it something it can never be. Immaculate warfare is a myth invented by the makers of Call of Duty.
Until next time.