I also remembered the American general in relation to what is happening in Israel, in everything related to the future of the state's relations with its hostile neighbors, the essence of deterrence, readiness for war even in peacetime and the continuous need to plan national security
During the years of my friendship with the late Raphael "Raful" Eitan, whom I knew beyond the public "pose", we sometimes had "security" conversations in which the name of Billy Mitchell came up and the treatment he received from the establishment and especially the Pentagon between the two world wars. In the Billy Mitchell case, we found an example of myopia in which politicians and generals alike often make disastrous mistakes, mistakes that reflect negatively on the moods of the general public and the shaping of public opinion. .
From Billy Mitchell's year, it revolves around a main axis of promoting the concept of an aerial power building based on a correct forecast of scientific and industrial technological development, especially the amazing aviation leap from the Wright brothers' Kitty Hawk flight to the space stations, all of which are achievements of the 20th century. Billy Mitchell's thought excelled in an innovative "forward" vision also in regards to international relations and examining challenging scenarios that were not always favorable for political digestion.
Billy Mitchell's views came to the public's attention immediately after the First World War in which the American Air Force, which was part of the military branch, participated for the first time. Billy Mitchell, then a brigadier (Tal) was appointed the senior staff officer for aviation matters, a standard defined as "head of the air service" which was a branch of the communications corps. When in 1919, Mitchell arrived at the Pentagon, he did not hide his revolutionary views thanks to an independent air force, but was busy spreading them. In the early 38s, an era in which it was believed that the First World War was "the last sour king" Billy was defined as "snoozy" who bothered the senior Pentagon officials and the heads of the military branches. Among other things, Mitchell claimed that air power can overcome naval power. The debate ended temporarily, after the navy "volunteered" a number of German battleships and cruisers for an innovative test. Billy, who only learned to fly when he was XNUMX years old, demonstrated a bomb from the air, which to the astonishment of the navy sank one by one the loot ships. The bombing was carried out in front of observers including members of Congress and the Senate, military attachés and journalists. The achievement strengthened, among other things, a lobby of pro-naval aviation officers, who began to consider the declining importance of battleships and heavy cruisers that were the backbone of the US Navy. The debates that accompanied the ringing of the German vessels eventually led to the construction of the air arm of the navy, which was initially equipped with airships and only later with airplanes and aircraft carriers.
The repeated harassment of Billy Mitchell and his claim to develop and organize an independent air force, which would be separated from the army, brought a small number of senators and members of Congress to support the idea against a large number of elected officials from the supporters of the "traditional" generals and admirals who succeeded in removing Billy the troublemaker from commanding the army's air force, demoting him to the rank of colonel ( Colonel) which was his permanent rank and his placement in the Panama Canal Enclave and then in Texas, where he received a non-aircraft position. All of these were not broken by the officer who continued to distribute memos, studies, translations of articles by foreign officers and strategists, technical specifications and more - all to prove the necessity and urgency of the issue which in his eyes was indisputable, even at the cost of his military career.
Following several aviation disasters that occurred in the XNUMXs in the Navy and the Army, including the crash of the "Shandanoa" which was the main airship of the Navy. Mitchell distributed a memorandum that defined the continued use of equipment and armaments that survived the First World War - as a criminal situation. After publishing an article entitled "Disaster as a result of lawlessness" that was distributed in the army, Billy decided to take his views out of the field of military correspondence and bring them to the public's attention. The officer knew that in his actions he was breaking the rules of the army and yet, true to his perception, Mitchell addressed the press all while using harsh expressions, which painted senior staff officers as unimaginative and afraid of innovations or unconventional opinions. Mitchell told his friends that his actions were aimed at forcing the Pentagon to prosecute him, a move that he believed would allow him to lecture at length and publicly about his ideas and opinions, all within the framework of his defense at the military tribunal.
Billy Mitchell's trial held in 1926 was an international media sensation. The prosecution did everything in its power to prove that the officer was nothing more than a hallucinator predicting impossible situations. Faithful to his decision to use the trial as a stage, Billy returned and described a vision of establishing parachute or parachute units, strategic bombing, long-range intercontinental aircraft, air refueling, flights at extremely high speeds, the establishment of fleets that would be based on nuclear aircraft carriers and not battleships, the establishment of a Air as an independent arm, fortifying the Hawaiian Islands as an air base controlling the Pacific Ocean and more. During the trial, the prosecution presented Mitchell's ideas as "dreams of a fevered mind" only a few estimated that his predictions down to the last detail would come true before the end of the first half of the century.
During the investigation of Billy, who took the witness stand on his own initiative and repeated "unacceptable things" he said over the years about the vision of building an air force, the mocking military prosecutor asked why the Hawaiian Islands should be fortified and who is the expected enemy in the Pacific Ocean area? Billy replied without hesitation that the expected enemy was Japan... . . . The answer made not only generals and admirals jump out of their seats, but State Department personnel, who were required to assure the Japanese ambassador in Washington that Billy Mitchell's views did not represent the administration's approach. The State Department publicly emphasized that the Empire of Japan is a friendly and sympathetic country, a nation that stood in the First World War for the right of the Allies. The praise of Japan, as learned from the State Department, included data on the volume of trade between the United States and the Empire and an unequivocal statement that "Japan would have no interest in threatening the United States" after Mitchell added a scenario according to which Japan would one day attack not only Hawaii but also the important American outpost in the Philippines , invade China and conquer Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaya, the British also jumped out of their seats, but unlike the situation in Washington, there were military thinkers and statesmen operating in Britain who correctly assessed the need to build a large and well-equipped air force, which, fortunately for Britain, was ready for action almost at the last moment that came with the outbreak of World War II .
The military trial ended with the punishment of Mitchell who was sentenced to removal from the army for a period of five years. The military court did not dare to impose a prison sentence on the accused, or the cancellation of the officer's rank. Mitchell was one of the heroes of World War I and one of the most decorated soldiers in the history of the United States, an officer whose public status protected him from punishment that meant disgrace. Mitchell decided to resign from the army and dedicate his life to promoting his ideas. Fortunately for the US, the stubborn officer created an "unofficial think tank on military aviation" a circle that spread mainly among mid-ranking officers who within a few years led the United States Army and Navy and who continued to push for the development of an Air Force and Naval Aviation. International developments, as they occurred in the XNUMXs, especially the rise of the Nazis and fascists in Germany and Italy, Japanese militarism, the example of the fascist-German bombings in Spain (by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Air Force), the Italian bombings in Abyssinia, and the activation of the Japanese Air Force in China, etc., eventually pushed Talk about adopting most of the stubborn officer's ideas, which according to his own way he adopted from the school of wanting peace to prepare for war... . . . .
On one of the cold nights of 1980, the late "Raful" chanced upon my home in Metula. He is still waiting for news of a small force that went out to raid a terrorist outpost, we talked about a flight and that's how we got to Billy Mitchell. The conversation developed into the question of the complexity of making a decision for preventive actions against an adversary, or actual enemy, which apparently does not create a dangerous security problem. We talked about what happened in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, about a strategic surprise initiative that must be decided by a political level, and about the dangers expected for Israel as a result of the peace agreement with Egypt. "Raful"'s opinion was that the historic political move that accompanied President Sadat's visit to Jerusalem - left Israel with the vital advantage of a buffer zone between it and the Egyptians. The demilitarization of the Sinai Peninsula does not appear to him to be a safe matter and an irreversible situation, just as happened in 1967 when President Nasser decided to expel the UN force and turned military assessments in the Sinai into an immediate threat to the existence of the State of Israel. My friend had time to visit the Egyptians and, among other things, he admired the speed of the restoration of the Egyptian military power and his manner and belief. He estimated that another and surprising war with the Egyptians is an inevitable matter, which will come when the time comes and will be decided in Cairo and not in Jerusalem... . "Rapol" was suspicious of everything related to the Egyptian trends and their promises and feared that Prime Minister at the time, the late Menachem Begin, was ready to give up the Golan Heights as well in possession of the "Israeli-Syrian peace formula in exchange for withdrawal from the strategic asset."
After "Rapol" Chief of Staff and I am a citizen, it was decided to stop the Iraqi nuclear program at almost any cost. After Osirak's tenant was eliminated, "Rapol" told about the path of the Hathatim that led to the action. From him I learned that at the top level there were "confidants" who opposed the operation, including an absurd argument that the bombing in Iraq would be dangerous one day. . . . . . Israeli Iraqi peace... . . . Some, including the leaders of the opposition at the time, warned that the bombing would isolate Israel in the world and more and more. The biggest surprise, which was intended to "spoil" during the "cooking" of the plan and immediately after the implementation, according to him, was the complete ignorance of many in the government and the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, that what was happening in Iraq was, in their eyes, "far beyond the horizon". . . A few days ago I watched a TV interview with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The interviewer asked about the elimination of the Iraqi nuclear threat compared to the Iranian nuclear threat. Sharon evaded a clear answer to the Iranian issue, but smiled when he pointed out that he was among those who made the decision to attack Osirak. A move that proved to be one of the most important in the history of Israel and the Israeli-Arab conflict.
In the margins of the following, "as a reflection in honor of Billy Mitchell" who died in 1938, I put forward an imaginary scenario of an attempt to analyze "what would have happened in the last three years in MAZ, or in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait if Osirak had not been eliminated?" Here you can let your imagination run wild and evaluate where the tyrant Saddam Hussein was leading the region and what would have happened in Israel if Iraq had combined a rocket/missile capability with a nuclear warhead... . .
It is possible that these days and in the matter of the Iranian reactor, the moment of "closing the gate" is coming and the handling of the dangerous issue will remain in the hands of the powers. The security captains of the State of Israel must, in my humble opinion, consider the possibility that the Ayatollahs will be equipped with nuclear weapons and the powers will not respond in time and force, even when a threat to Israel will be considered an "existential threat". . At the same time, one should not ignore possible dangers that are the result of political changes brewing in unstable neighboring Islamic countries, for example coups of the type of Islamic extremism and even the possibility of canceling peace agreements. Few remember that in the midst of the "Shil'at Shekron XNUMX" an Israeli-Lebanese peace agreement was signed, which in retrospect proved to be a useless piece of paper. The lesson is that in an unstable international political situation, such as characterizes the Middle East, a responsible government must keep a close eye on what the "cold peace countries" Egypt and Jordan are doing in regards to the continuation of the Israeli-Arab conflict in general. The method of innocent wishful thinking, a beautiful worldview of "never war" and the pursuit of a utopian peace may one day be revealed as criminal complacency, a neglect akin to suicide. This is the place to remember Billy Mitchell and his fascinating life story.
Peace, like war, is an initiated or forced political move. When peace is reached between enemies "as a cold peace" that may deteriorate into a "frozen peace" that will be maintained without fire, only by maintaining a deterrent capability, an important part of which requires a realistic, not dreamy, reference to dangers that have not yet passed.
