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David Potter is a veteran paratrooper of the 82nd Airborne Division and served through two enlistments, including the war in Grenada, and is trained in aviation electronics and computer networking. Today, from his home base in Louisiana, he drives trucks and takes prides in the "made in Israel" products he delivers throughout the United States.
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By David Potter
February 10, 2005
I think Sharon is living in the past, thinking of the settlements as fortifications to be abandoned by retreating soldiers who follow blindly his orders.
The reality of course is much different. While they may have begun as a living human barrier against the Arab world, they have grown into something much different.
Yet Sharon continues to treat people living in the communities of Gaza as though each and every one of them were soldiers in his army. The idea that they will not "follow orders" seems to be the most troubling thing about these settlers to him.
The military is not supposed to be a democracy, because if it were, it would be impossible to get anything done. So in Sharon's mind, he has done nothing wrong, because everything he has done could be justified -- IF THESE WERE SOLDIERS -- under the rules of military justice.
But the problem is that these people are NOT soldiers. They are Israeli CIVILIANS being deprived of their basic rights. Sharon doesn't seem to recognize that, however, and still treats them as though they were part of an army.
He appears unable to tell the difference between soldiers and civilians. Nor does he seem able to differentiate between his position as Prime Minister of Israel -- and his former command as a general in the Israeli army.
He is reverting to his old habits, and perhaps reliving his younger days, at the expense of the Israeli people.
And yet other questions remain.
Is he just an old fossil that is unable to adapt to the role of a politician? Or does this denial of current reality, while embracing the role that he played in the past, mark the beginnings of senility?
Only time will tell; but unfortunately it will cost many innocent lives before any of us have a clue as to how that question may be correctly answered.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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