"... You know, I learned a thing or two about urban warfare from my time fighting in Iraq and leading the campaign to defeat ISIS.
"Like Hamas, ISIS was deeply embedded in urban areas. And the international coalition against ISIS worked hard to protect civilians and create humanitarian corridors, even during the toughest battles.
"So the lesson is not that you can win in urban warfare by protecting civilians. The lesson is that you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians.
"You see, 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.
"So I have repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative..." -- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, December 2, at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. Austin's speech also covered American defense posture elsewhere, including in the Ukraine- Russian war and with China, and of the need to keep our alliances strong.
