Israel Could Face ‘Strategic Defeat’: Pentagon Chief Unleashes Controversy With Rare Warning

Without doubt, military superiority belongs to Israel, and yet Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has raised eyebrows by saying Israel faces a “strategic defeat” if it doesn’t reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says over 15,200 – mostly women and children – have died since the start of the war.

The White House has questioned the official death count from the Palestinian side; however, even by conservative estimates, civilian deaths are in the multiple thousands. In a recent New York Times article entitled “Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace” (which proved controversial), the Times said more civilians have died in Gaza since Oct. 7 than have died in Ukraine after nearly two years of grinding war with Russia.

Lloyd Austin focused his Saturday comments on the long-term effects of mass civilian slaughter and not only the coming global backlash, but the potential for further radicalizing an entire population:

“The center of gravity is the civilian population and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” Austin said in a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif., on Saturday.

The secretary added that he has personally pushed Israeli leaders to avoid civilian casualties, prevent violence to settlers in the West Bank.

“We will continue to press Israel to protect civilians and to ensure the robust flow of humanitarian aid,” he added. —The Hill

Despite this very rare commentary and warning, Austin still emphasized US will remain Israel’s “closest friend in the world” and American support will never waiver. He said Washington’s backing of Israel remains “crystal clear.”

Watch Austin’s remarks given in California over the weekend:

Already, nations of BRICS and throughout the Global South have voiced their increasing outrage over such a high civilian death toll. China and Russia have led these criticisms of Israel, and the US continues to be isolated in its ‘blank check’ support for Israel at the United Nations. 

The Guardian recently observed of what has long been typical concerning Gaza-related resolutions at the UN: “The US has ended up looking quite badly isolated after only 12 countries joined Washington and Israel at the UN general assembly in opposing a motion calling for a sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”

At the same time, US Congressional hawks continue to add fuel to the controversy with statements like the below, wherein Sen. Lindsey Graham rejects and lashes out Austin’s messaging on ‘strategic defeat’…

Graham flatly rejected the idea, saying “He’s so naïve! I mean, I just lost all confidence in this guy.”

“How about focusing on protecting our soldiers, men and women in Syria and Iraq?” Graham continued. “Strategic defeat would be inflaming the Palestinians? They’re already inflamed! They’re taught from the time they’re born to hate the Jews and to kill them.”

Graham continued calling it “really naive” to say that Israel is fighting against a “tranquil population” that was “only inflamed after Israel goes in to defend itself.”

“I don’t want to kill innocent people,” he said. “but Israel is fighting not just Hamas, but the infrastructure around Hamas… Strategic failure is letting Hamas stand.”

As Israel settles in for a ‘long war’ this will continue to blow back on the White House, which will face mounting pressure both internationally and at home. The near future looks more and more bleak for the Biden administration and its political survival, as Moon of Alabama observes: 

With every new daily report about blocked aid and more death in Gaza more U.S. voters will reject such brutal policies. Few outside of Israel support such plans. Most Biden voters won’t. If Biden does not pressure Netanyahu to end the slaughter he will very likely lose the election.

This is similar to the conclusion of entrepreneur and geopolitical analyst Arnaud Bertrand, who emphasizes, “There’s no overstating how extraordinary such a statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is, warning Israel it’s heading towards ‘strategic defeat’.”

Below are the rest of Bertrand’s observations in response to SecDef’s Austin’s surprisingly blunt and negative assessment [emphasis by ZH below]…

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“In this kind of a fight the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.” Essentially saying what is obvious common sense: you create more Hamas than you destroy by killing civilians.

And as such what Israel has been doing so far is nothing but dig the hole it’s in deeper and deeper… After, obviously, it’s doing all this with Pentagon weapons and support in a myriad of ways, so Austin’s words are pretty disingenuous…

BUT they see Israel as their “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the region so they must feel that were they to stop this active support it’d “sink” pretty quickly, which they aren’t ready to do. Which actually goes to illustrate just how deep the hole Israel – and America – have put themselves in.

The “unsinkable aircraft carrier” is taking water and needs constant US support to avoid sinking but the US is now telling them publicly – in very frank terms – that their actions are actually accelerating the sinking…