"I don't see how the army is going to get me the victory I need," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sighed at a nighttime discussion on the 11th day of the war in Lebanon. Ten days later, then-defense minister Amir Peretz made a similar complaint to the senior officers. "It's infuriating - we're circling (the village of) Aita al-Shaab for the third time already."
The Winograd Committee's final report is full of quotes like this. The committee shares the politicians' amazement as it describes the many failures it found in the army's functioning before and during the war. It identifies a "harsh and gloomy picture" in the Israel Defense Forces. The army, particularly the ground forces, "for the most part did not succeed in fulfilling their principal missions." The IDF thus contributed to the feeling of "disappointment and missed opportunities among the public."
During the war it was clear the army was not delivering the goods the political leaders expected. But there was no room for Olmert and Peretz to be surprised. During their visit to the General Staff forum on July 11, 2006, on the eve of the kidnapping of the two soldiers, Major General Yishai Bar warned them that "the IDF is a mediocre army. There are still small islands of excellence left, but these islands are surrounded by a large sea of mediocrity." The two did not react directly. (And then-chief of staff Dan Halutz reassured them that "the missions will be carried out extremely well.") The final report gives the politicians exaggerated and unjustified exemption from responsibility - the politicians who decided to embark on the war and made the important decisions during it. But this should not exempt the army from the radical reforms it needs to undertake in the wake of the findings.
Particularly in light of Olmert/Peretz's blatant inexperience on security matters, the IDF should have functioned better during the campaign. "We disappointed him," admitted three General Staff generals this week when asked about the army's relationship with the prime minister during the war. "A large part of the blame is ours."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/950203.html