Who will trust him in the next war - Haaretz

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Sun., February 03, 2008 Shvat 27, 5768

Israel Time: 11:23 (EST+7)

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Who will trust him in the next war

By Orit Shochat

Tags: Israel, Ehud Olmert, Winograd

It isn't because Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed in managing the war that he has to go; after all, no governmental or military action is guaranteed to succeed. There is also no reason to punish him for his mistakes; leaders may err. The reason the prime minister must be replaced is his incompetence.

This conclusion is written across the hundreds of pages of the Winograd Report, in various forms. The fact that Olmert is quite pleased with the report shows that he has failed to understand it. At the very least, he should have said: "I failed." Instead, Olmert is sending condolences to bereaved families and hugging Israel Defense Forces soldiers. This is the stuff politicians are made from, not leaders. It will be hard to trust Olmert in the next war, and the fact that 60 percent of the public wants him to resign shows that things look different outside the television and radio studios. In light of his conduct throughout the war, it also is doubtful whether Olmert can be trusted to handle peace negotiations. It comes as no surprise that the Winograd Committee hinted that not a lot has been repaired since the interim report was published, and that the State Comptroller's Report on the home front did not really make much of an impression on the government, either.

Olmert has failed to lead. He failed to decide, consider options and choose, to see the complete picture, to follow developments and draw the necessary conclusions. "We approved everything that the military echelon presented us," he said, but this is not what is expected of a government, says the commission.

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The prime minister should have demanded alternatives, decided between a small operation and a large operation, understood that the chief of staff had failed, and replaced him or shortened the war. At least he should have convened the cabinet and discussed these matters seriously, including the looming failure on the horizon and suggestions to make things better. Olmert did not listen or consult, and it is hard to say how he justified his decisions.

Olmert embarked on an operation and found himself at war. The chief of staff did not understand that this was a war, either.

After a whole month, after the home front had been hit by thousands of rockets, when soldiers lacked water and food and bottles of mineral water were being scattered by airplanes all over Lebanon, when the GOC Northern Command wanted to open routes to transport the wounded and food and no one carried out his orders, even though they were issued 13 times, and the entire operation was only a few kilometers from the border - the prime minister decided on a ground operation that the IDF was not ready for, and for which it had not called up reserves in time.

In this operation, the fighters stopped fighting even though no order was given to stop, apparently because they understood that there was no one to trust.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to learn to lead. The army can undergo a long process to correct itself, and motivation can be raised by appointing commanders who are more generals than politicians, but in order for someone to want to fight next time - he has to believe he has serious, responsible and functioning leaders.

If the government echelon does not do its homework and throws soldiers into battles for which they are not trained, if their prime minister is unable to identify failure and error in real time and make corrections over the course of 34 days, if he cannot tell in advance whether the army is ready for war when he decides on it - he is not fashioned from leadership material.

Replacing Olmert could deliver the right wing a victory. This is the main reason many people are prepared to ignore his poor performance during the war. The entire gallery of potential leaders is not thrilling, and it is tiresomely familiar. It appears that most of them excel at conducting radio interviews and engaging primarily in political forecasts about governments falling and rising.

Put another way, if the main conclusion of the Winograd Report is that the prime minister is incompetent, not because he made an immoral decision to launch a ground operation at the end of the war but rather because he took no interest at all in whether such an action could succeed - what point is there in awaiting the next crisis?

The Second Lebanon War, whether it was necessary or not, lacked military and governmental leadership. The enemy was inferior in size and means, the timing was reasonable, the weather was convenient, the public was supportive, the world was supportive, the reason to go to war was justified, and the reserve soldiers reported for duty en masse. In their naivete, they thought they had a leadership that knew how to lead.

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1.	The war in Gaza has the same result,PM must go!	22:35	\|	sam	02/02/08

2.	I`d rate the participants differently	06:08	\|	The Northern Wind	03/02/08

3.	Righteous leadership	06:58	\|	Moshe	03/02/08

4.	correct	08:01	\|	charles solnik	03/02/08

5.	Olmert as he is today...	11:11	\|	Esther	03/02/08

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